The word ‘blind’ can be defined in several ways, and in the medical context, it usually means ‘unable to see because of injury, disease or a congenital condition’. When used as a verb, it can mean ‘to cause someone to be unable to see’ or ‘to deprive someone of understanding, judgement or perception’.1

Tears in the right amount are essential for normal vision, but tears in excess can provide both eyes physical obstacles to vision, rendering someone blind in the literal sense, or can be an external manifestation of a deep emotion, which itself can blind or affect a person's insight.

Blindness, in its varying forms, is one of the focal themes underlying the Greek myth of Oedipus, the King of Thebes, whose life is detailed …