33 addition, some of characteristics of the main character has similarities with some
figures in Greek myhtology.
1. Tiresias
a. As the Source of Inspiration in Writing Middlesex
Tiresias is one of the key figures in Middlesex. From Eugenides’ standpoints,
Tiresias is the figure which inspired him to write Middlesex. Eugenides confesses his amusement to Tiresias when he was still in Latin. He also finds interesting
information about Tiresias who ever experience as both male and female. In addition, Eugenides also states that “I also remember being struck by the marvelous utility of
this figure, Tiresias. Here was a guy who knew what it was like to be a woman. How amazing And how use
ful, from a literary standpoint” A Conversation With Jeffery Eugenides.
Furthermore, Eugenides is also amazed with the story of Tiresias who successfully explains the debatable issue between Zeus and Hera. Based on Greek
mythology, Zeus argues that women always enjoy sex more than men while Hera denies it. She argues that man is the one who enjoys more while having sex. In order
to finish the debate, they call Tiresias, a seer who has ever been a man and a woman. Surprisingly, Tiresias states that a woman enjoys sex more than a man does. Jeffrey
Eugenides also explains briefly about it in his conversation with Oprah: We were reading Ovids
Metamorphoses
and we came to the part where Zeus and his wife, Hera, have an argument as to which sex has a better time in bed.
34 Zeus, somewhat surprisingly, says that women enjoy themselves more. Hera
claims men do. To adjudicate this matter, they ask Tiresias, who replies: If the pleasures of love be as ten, then three times three belongs to woman. The
rest belongs to man. A Conversation With Jeffery Eugenides
b. As the Mirror Figure of the Main Character
The main character, Calliope, and Tiresias share some similar characteristics. Furthermore, Tiresias can be called as the mirror figure of the main character. Those
similarities are:
1 As Hermaphroditic Figures
Both Calliope as the main character of Eugenides’ Middlesex and Tiresias are hermaphroditic figures. Furthermore, Middlesex itself can be classified as a story of a
hermaphrodite or as the author calls it as “a short, fictional autobiography of a hermaphrodite” A Conversation with Jeffery Eugenides. Tiresias can be classified
as a hermaphroditic figure, although Tiresias is fully male who then changes into fully female. The main character also calls herself
hermaphrodite, “when the story goes out into world, I may become the most famous hermaphrodite in the story”
Eugenides 19.
2 The Experience of Gender Transformation
Both Tiresias and the main character, Calliope, have experienced gender transformation. Calliope in her introduction in the early page of this novel states
“Like Tiresias, I was first one thing and then the other” Eugenides 3. The transformation of Calliope from a woman to a man is the most important point since
35 it became one of the ideas of the story of Middlesex. Tiresias is a Greek mythology
figure who shares the same experience with Calliope. Tiresias is a man who experienced to be a woman. In relevant with Tiresias,
Calliope says that “Tiresias had also been a woman, of course. But I didn’t know that then” Eugenides 331.
3 The Same Experience of Love and Sexual Desire Towards Male and Female
The other similarity between Tiresias and Calliope is when they are a man or a woman they have a lover. Calliope confesses her love story in the early page of the
novel “A redheaded girl from Grosse Pointe fell in love with me, not knowing what I was.
Her brother liked me, too.” Eugenides 3. Furthermore, she has the experience of being in love with both man and woman. Similar to Tireisas, Calliope also
experiences the sexual attraction to both man and woman. Calliope experiences her first kiss from Clementine Stark, her neighbor.
In the novel, Calliope confesses “all silent, as Clementine’s highly educated, eight-year-old lips met mine” Eugenides
264. Beside Clementine Stark, Calliope also has sexual affairs with two others in her childhood; they are Jerome who is a boy and Obscure Object who is a girl.
c. As Foreshadowing of the Main Character
