Dec 28, 2009

Middlesex | Style

Mythological Allusions

The several mythological allusions in the novel reinforce Cal's sense of her Greek heritage and become important symbolically. Calliope, the goddess of epic poetry, is an appropriate name for the narrator as she tells her and her family's own epic story. In the opening pages, Cal plays Tiresias in her school's production of Antigone. She notes the similarities between the two, insisting that like him, she "was first one thing and then the other." The blind prophet Tiresias, who had lived as both a woman and a man, also becomes symbolic of Cal as a...