The mysterious female

Been doing a bit of thinking lately about Tiresius, and his knowledge of the secret pleasure of women Hera cursed him for revealing to Zeus. Seems to be a theme in many cultures, the desire of men to know what goes on in the minds of women. The Chinese pictogram for "mysterious, unknowable" is composed of two other symbols: symbol for "young" and symbol for "woman." Arthurian legend also postulates that Merlin had turned himself into a woman to heighten his powers. In the musical "Camelot," this early myth is reflected when Arthur sings of Merlin, "You should have had the whirl; To change me to a girl; To learn the way the creatures think." My favorite example of this phenomenon is the Irish poet Mairtin O'Direain's poem:

"The Serpent's Whisper"

If every woman died but you
And you yourself embodied them all,
Not a soul would wonder at Adam's sin;
Stout locks would be placed on each full orchard
Lest the Apple of Knowledge be stolen.

I see in your face that is tense with longing,
In the curving grace of your limewhite body,
A challenge to each slave sworn to the yoke;
Your pitiless glance shows you despise him;
Who goes with you is thrall, not free.

You lift a man's mind to his sleeping memory
Of elbow on knee and fireside whisper,
The knowing chuckle from a night-dark corner:
Small random hints of all women's secret
Obtained by Eve from the serpent in a treacherous whisper.

Every man desires to copy Zeus's feat and ingest Metis; the wisdom of women, the female force before, and the driving force behind the male action. But only one of the divine could survive that. Tiresius was blinded by just one bit of women's secret knowledge. Digesting the entirity gave Zeus such powerful pain that a blow from the axe of Hepheastus was his only respite. So to all men, content yourselves with notknowing. In the words of Jack Nicholson, "You can't handle the truth."