Who is the blind prophet Odysseus consults in the underworld?

The blind prophet Odysseus consults in the underworld is Tiresias.

In Book 11 of Homer’s Odyssey, Circe instructs Odysseus to travel to the land of the dead and seek Tiresias’s counsel. Odysseus performs a blood sacrifice so the shades can speak, and Tiresias approaches with his prophetic powers intact. He warns Odysseus that Poseidon’s anger will make the journey home difficult.

Tiresias also explains the condition for reaching Ithaca: Odysseus and his crew must not harm the sacred cattle of Helios on Thrinacia. The crew later ignores that warning, and Zeus destroys their ship, leaving Odysseus as the sole survivor. The prophet’s appearance in Hades is therefore essential to the plot, not merely a legendary cameo.

Readers sometimes confuse Tiresias with Cassandra, another famous prophet whose predictions were not believed. Cassandra belongs chiefly to the Trojan War tradition; Tiresias is the Theban seer who appears in several myths, including Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex and Antigone. Greek traditions differ about the cause of his blindness, but his identity in the Odyssey is consistent.