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Iulian Boldea (Editor) - Literature, Discourses and the Power of Multicultural Dialogue
Arhipelag XXI Press, Tîrgu Mureș, 2017. eISBN: 978-606-8624-12-9
224
Section: Literature
REALISTIC CAUSALITY AND ARCHETYPAL FATALISM: GREEK MYTHOLOGY AND ITS
INFLUENCE ON EUGENIDES’ WRITINGS
Ana Blanca Ciocoi-Pop Lecturer, PhD, ”Lucian Blaga” University of Sibiu
Abstract: Owing to the authorřs Greek heritage, mythology almost becomes the basis of
Eugenidesř fiction, a means of making sense of the various social and moral mechanisms which lie at the core of the everyday urban tragedies he is interested in. However, he does not merely
employ classical mythological notions and motives, but succeeds in creating a personal mythical
universe. As the basic function of mythology is to try to make sense of the world, in employing it, Eugenides tries to come to grips with the present developments in society and family life and to
reveal the possible causes of depression, dissatisfaction and hopelessness most of us gave to cope
with.
Keywords: Jeffrey Eugenides, mythology, fiction, urban, morality, tragedy
Owing to the authorřs Greek heritage, mythology almost becomes the basis of
Eugenidesř fiction, a means of making sense of the various social and moral mechanisms
which lie at the core of the everyday urban tragedies Eugenides is essentially interested in.
However, he does not merely employ classical mythological notions and motives, but
succeeds in creating a mythical universe of himself. As the basic function of mythology is
to try to make sense of the world, in employing it, Eugenides tries to come to grips with
the present developments in society and family life and to reveal the possible causes of
depression, dissatisfaction and hopelessness most of us have to cope with. Therefore, it is
not a mythology for mythologyřs sake, as the author himself admits in a Salon.com
interview:
Is including Greek myth in your novels a particular preoccupation of yours? "The Virgin
Suicides" had some of the feeling of mythos to it.
It's not something I was conscious of at all with "The Virgin Suicides." I'm more aware of
it with this book because it deals with classical themes. I think this comes less from being
Greek-American than from studying Latin so much. The first books that I really read
closely were "The Aeneid" and "The Metamorphoses." An epic story, and stories where
people can go into the underworld and strange things like that happened, were the first
stories that seized my imagination when I was young, and I'm starting to think of what a
great influence those writers were on me when I look at my novels now. But I'm not
conscious of trying to do that. Actually, I think that because my name is Greek, I got a lot
more people saying "Eugenides has a Greek chorus" than other people would have gotten
using the same narrative voice.
As Ernst Cassirer puts it in Language and Myth, myth is a "miracle of the spirit". It can be
viewed as a mode of communication, developing simultaneously alongside ordinary
language in our prehistoric ancestors, one of its distinctive features being that it does not
necessarily refer back to an objective reality. It may refer to an internal, abstract,
conceptual or emotional (invisible) reality. Therefore, although ancient myths cannot be
reshaped, new ones can be created at any moment in time. The mythical realm of
Iulian Boldea (Editor) - Literature, Discourses and the Power of Multicultural Dialogue
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Section: Literature
Eugenides is an urban one where everyday tragedies mingle with universal human
concerns. Furthermore, we can speak about a certain sociological function of myth: to
support and validate a particular social order. Myth will always make it clear what ethical
code is appropriate. The problem is, as already stated, that these codes are fixed for all
time; they are not subject to change. If times change, as they have in the past several
millenniums, our myths may run the risk of becoming seriously outdated. Changing times
require new myths, and since our times are changing very rapidly, the myth-making
function cannot keep up. As a result, we are practically myth-less. Creating new
mythological realms, as Eugenides does, is therefore a highly rewarding endeavor.
Nevertheless, with Eugenides, one of the essential functions of myth, resolving
contradictions of human existence (according to Claude Levi-Strauss), is annihilated, as
the authorřs aim is not to offer solutions, but to pose issues and force his readers into
thinking and deciding for themselves. His skepticism turns even mythology into a helpless
tool, or, to put it differently, mythology can no longer make sense of the world for us in
Jeffrey Eugenidesř novels. It is confined to the past, to a temporal dimension which does
not seem to have any connection to what we are presently experiencing.
Eugenides is not the only one to have been decisively influenced by mythology. It
is needless to say that myths have always had an impressive influence on human
consciousness culture and thought. Through their astonishing ability to synthesize
essential aspects of life and the world, they become equivalent to history and even
religion. Even if they cannot offer any solution to practical problems, they undoubtedly
are a source of spiritual comfort for their readership, as the possibility of identification
with mythological figures is always present at some level. Consequently, it is more than
obvious that myths have enjoyed a wide area of influence in what human culture and
thought are concerned. Furthermore, mythology has always provided a huge amount of
material for the writer, its symbolism giving way to various and surprising literary
interpretations. Mythological figures gradually became embodiments of ideas, ideals,
percepts, norms, dreams, nightmares, vices, etc. In this respect, the characters employed
in the Homeric epics (Zeus, Hera, Athena, Aphrodite, Apollo and Ares) gradually became
the common property of antique poetry. Moreover, Greek writers of tragedy made use of
traditional myths to create characters such as Agamemnon and Clytemnestra (in the
Oresteya of Eschylus), Antigone (in the play of the same name by Sophocles) and Electra
(in plays by Sophocles and Euripides). Gods have also been a constant source of
inspiration: as an ideal of masculine beauty, Apollo figures in works of art belonging to
all historical periods. Literature and music are equally indebted to mythological themes.
Antigone became famous in Sophocleřs play, which is based on the conflict between
obedience to state laws and to the higher laws imposed by the gods. She was later on
employed as a character by the French playwrights Jean Cocteau (1922) and Jean Anouilh
(1942), and by the German Bertolt Brecht. Another example could be Electra, subject of
plays by French playwright Jean-Paul Sartre (The Flies, 1943) and American playwright
Eugene OřNeill (Mourning Becomes Electra, 1931), and of a celebrated opera by German
composer Richard Strauss (1909).
What actually makes a tale a myth is its vital importance to the culture that produced it Ŕ
one could easily state that a cultural community could be characterized by means of its
mythology, of the universal, human and social aspects which are of most interest to that
particular group of people. Without pushing things too far, we could assert that the same
thing holds true for a writer: the myths he is interested in could offer insight into
fascinating aspects of his personality and keys to deciphering his work. Some of the best-
known types of myths are the ones concerned with world-order, trying to explain the
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Section: Literature
origin of the world, universal catastrophes such as fire or food, and the afterlife. Nearly all
mythologies, although apparently unrelated to each other, share a common type of
cosmogony. Eugenidesř mythological dimension, however, is primarily centered on the
destruction and annihilation of a certain universe and on the impossibility to return to a
harmonious and balanced world-order. He is rather concerned with the origin of death and
suffering than with the one of life as we know it.
A large number of myths do not focus directly on human beings, but rather on gods.
These usually form divine family or pantheon. Greek mythology furthermore presents a
story of struggle between generations: the earliest gods were Gaea and Uranus, and their
offspring, the Titans. The eldest Titan, Cronos, overthrew his father and was in his turn
overthrown by his son, Zeus, who finally took control of the entire universe. This is a
point where Eugenides moves close to his Greek heritage, as both The Virgin Suicides
and Middlesex deal with the destruction of an old and the rise of a new (but not
necessarily benefic) world-order, the process usually involving suffering and struggle.
Another common type of myth is the one concerning the life and deeds of heroes. Some
of these mythological figures, such as the Greek Achilles, have one mortal and one divine
parent, while others are fully human but at the same time blessed with godlike strength or
beauty. (Actually, heroes were the ones ancient story-tellers and their audience were
probably eager to identify with because despite of their being mortals, they managed to
challenge and sometimes even to defeat the arrogant and vindictive gods). Many of these
myths deal with significant episodes in the herořs life (the circumstances of his birth, a
journey or quest, and the return home). Often, the birth and childhood of a mythological
hero is exceptional or even miraculous: for example, the Hebrew prophet Moses, the
Greek hero Oedipus, and the Roman heroes Romulus and Remus were all exposed to the
elements at birth and left to die, but miraculously survived. A close look at Eugenidesř
major novels shows that both the Lisbon sisters and Cal can be viewed as heroes in the
mythological sense of the term: the girls are blessed with exceptional beauty and a certain
magnetism which haunts the chorus of schoolboys for their entire existence, Calřs
spiritual journey can be equaled to an odyssey etc. As we will see later on, the Lisbon
girlsř seclusion can also be compared to the one of the Gods on Mount Olympus, which
even accounts for an interpretative parallel between them and the ancient deities.
We have previously mentioned that with Eugenides myth loses its validity and capacity of
making sense of a chaotic universe. There were, nevertheless, others apart Eugenides who
throughout history questioned mythologyřs validity. Among the first were the Greek
thinkers of the 6th century B.C. In the following centuries the rationalism introduced by
them and the monotheism of Judaism, Christianity and Islam gradually replaced myth-
making throughout much of the world. Therefore, Eugenidesř partial skepticism towards
mythology can also be explained by means of this larger skeptical trend.
As any other aspect of human culture, myth also underwent several more or less obvious
changes. While in the beginning myths were rather identified with their narrative
substance modernity tends to see them as the embodiment of a particular idea or symbol.
Being not so much interested in the narrative itself, but rather in its symbolic structure,
most analysts of myths in the 18th and 19th centuries showed a tendency to reduce these
ancient stories to some essential core, to an all-encompassing idea or principle. In their
opinion, that essential core remained once the ornamental elements of the narratives had
been removed. Beginning with the 20th century, however, investigators began to pay
closer attention to the content of the narratives themselves. Sigmund Freud, for instance,
believed that myths (like dreams) synthesize the material of experience by representing it
in symbols. Therefore every element must be closely analyzed and decoded, for it could
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Section: Literature
lead to the understanding of the whole. His pupil Carl Jung gave a different turn to this
psychological approach by viewing myths as a general human tendency to draw on a
collective body of archetypes. Still another approach belongs to French anthropologist
Claude Levi-Strauss, who argued that the main function of myths is to resolve basic
contradictions of human existence, such as life and death, nature and culture, identity and
otherness. As we have already seen, for Eugenides, mythřs main function is to point to a
past dimension of balance and tranquility which has gone lost never to be reconstructed,
and therefore overshadows both present and future, making happiness and fulfillment
impossible. His aim is to demonstrate that in a dehumanized postmodern context
supposedly ruled by the rigors of science nothing is able to explain everyday domestic
tragedies like the one in The Virgin Suicides or personal tragedies like the one pictured in
Middlesex. As G.S. Kirk stated:
Myths concern us not only for the part they play in all primitive, illiterate, tribal, or non-
urban cultures . . .; not only for the grip that versions of ancient Greek myths have gained
through the centuries on the literary culture of the Western nations; but also because of
man's endearing insistence on carrying quasi-mythical modes of thought, expression, and
communication into a supposedly scientific age.
He is neither interested in archetypes, nor in symbols, although both of them abound in
his writings, but in a subtle moral message derivable from the events he narrates and the
characters he pictures. Greek civilization is essentially based on storytelling, no matter if
the narration process makes use of the written or spoken word or of any other form of art.
Narrative is equivalent to culture here. Identity is conceived as a narrative process, meant
to build up a linear movement from ancient (mythical) to modern times. (Cal, the narrator
and protagonist of Middlesex, hints at this in the beginning of the novel, when he
ironically explains his call for the Muse as genetic inheritance.) Mythology provides, in
the case of the Greek people, not only the necessary link to the past, but also the
explanation and justification of both present and future. In ancient times, myths were at
the same time passed on orally (by the groups of men gathering to exchange tales in cafes
and conversation places), and by means of elaborate literary and artistic works. The
ancient Greek culture not only tolerated but also encouraged diversity to a wide extent,
the Greeks worshipping an impressive number of deities, each one being the embodiment
of an idealized, common or even terrifying aspect of human existence.
Unlike other belief systems, the Greek one was not based on the concept of a single truth
or code and did not lead to the elaboration of any sacred written texts (compare to the
previous section on Judaism). This might also be a proof for the inherent skepticism of
ancient Greece. Moreover, narrative accounts about the origins and actions of Greek
divinities were far from homogenous, depending on whether the tale was part of a
comedy, tragedy or epic poem. Mythology was the complex and rich medium by means
of which the Greek were able to symbolically express their outlook on the world, on life
and on themselves. Therefore, the fact that quite often Eugenides employs comical
descriptions alongside mythological allusions may come as no surprise considering that
the ancient Greeks themselves made fun of, feared and worshipped their gods at the same
time. In a Powells.com interview, Eugenides openly admits blending comic and tragic
elements:
Dave: For such a smart, serious novel ŕ and by "serious" I mean to be taken seriously ŕ
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it's fairly lighthearted. If you just threw a plot summary at someone, they wouldn't expect
it to be as much fun as it is.
Eugenides: In general, that's the way it is with my work. When people hear what The
Virgin Suicides is about, they think that it won't be funny at all, and then they read it and
they find out that it is. But Middlesex is more broadly comic.
I have a tragic-comic sensibility, I guess. I can't imagine writing something devoid of
humor, yet I don't like slapstick that doesn't admit tragedy. I blend them. It's just central to
the way I see things.
Mythology was a more than active part of everyday life in ancient Greece, this aspect
being mirrored not only by literature, but also by architecture: it is a matter of common
knowledge that any Greek city-state devoted itself to a particular god or group of gods in
whose honor it built temples. A statue of the god or gods was generally housed there. The
cityřs gods were often honored in festivals and offered various sacrifices usually a
domestic animal such as a goat (ritual sacrifice is symbolically alluded to in The Virgin
Suicides, however, in this case, it does not fulfill any worship function and is utterly
futile). Veronica Ions even points out that: ŖThe Myth, in a primitive society, that is in its
original living form, is not just a tale. It is a reality. These stories are of an original,
greater, more important reality through which the present life, fate, and mankind are
governed. This knowledge provides man with motives for rituals and moral acts."
Greek myths served several purposes as regards societal structure and collective
consciousness: firstly, they explained the world, secondly they acted as a means of
exploration and thirdly, they provided authority and legitimacy. According to Robert
Graves,
Mythology is the study of whatever religious or heroic legends are so foreign to a
student's experience that he cannot believe them to be true. . . . Myth has two main
functions. The first is to answer the sort of awkward questions that children ask, such as:
'Who made the world? How will it end? Who was the first man? Where do souls go
after death?'. . . . The second function of myth is to justify an existing social system and
account for traditional rites and customs.
Last but not least, they also provided entertainment. As already shown, Eugenidesř
mythology is no longer able to make sense of anything, and it certainly is not a source of
authority, as it is no longer able to bring order into the world by pointing out ancient
norms of conduct. Therefore, in Eugenidesř case we could probably talk about a function
of exploration with mythological structures; that is, in his case, myth works as a means of
getting at the core of most present-day conflicts. It is a means of moral and spiritual
exploration.
Furthermore, as Harry Schlochower notes,
Recent psychoanalytic discussions of myth have as one of their theses that myth
constitutes a form of adaptation bolstering social conformity by the individual to his
group. This thesis was set forth by Jacob Arlow in a penetrating and frequently cited
article on "Ego Psychology and the Study of Myth" (1961). The myth, Arlow writes, "can
be studied from the point of view … how it constitutes a form of adaptation to reality and
to the group in which the individual lives, and how it influences the crystallization of the
individual identity and the formation of the superego" (p. 375). Mythology as well as art
and religion are seen as "subsidiary, institutionalized instrumentalities which bolster the
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social adaptation ordinarily made possible by the nightly abrogation of instinctual
renunciation in dreams" (379).
Therefore, myth also seems to fulfill a socializing function, enabling people to become
part of their community by making its common ideals and creeds more accessible to the
individual. As a matter of fact, ancient Greek mythology also tried to explain world order
and structure, pointing to the causes which finally led to the current state of things. A
relevant example in this sense would be Hesiodřs Theogony, a fictional work narrating
the origins of the world by relating it to the concept of initial Chaos. Another one of
Hesiodřs poems, entitled Works and Days, explained the origin of human evil: according
to Hesiod, the first woman, Pandora, opened a box whose top she had been forbidden to
lift. Her disobedience (similar to the one of the biblical Eve) caused all the diseases and
miseries previously confined in the box to escape into the world. Apart from its fictional
nature, this myth also points to important issues of gender-relationships of the time.
Scholars assume that the poem was composed by a male author for a largely male
audience that was receptive to a tale placing women at the root of all evil.
Greek myths most often dealt with highly intricate matters, analyzing the complex
relationships which form the base of contradictions or the obscure factors that lead to
ambiguity. The same sort of moral and ethical dilemma is present with Jeffrey Eugenides:
in The Virgin Suicides it is the unexplainable suicide of the Lisbon sisters, while in
Middlesex it is Callieřs final decision to become Cal. Homerřs Iliad provides another
vivid example, exploring the consequences of the Greek leader Agamemnonřs decision to
deprive the warrior Achilles of his allotted prize, a female slave, while at the same time
raising the central issue of honor. Achilles feels hurt in his pride as a warrior, but at the
same time wonders how it would be appropriate to react: does he have the right to refuse
to fight, if that would lead to the destruction of the Greek army? Is his rejection of
Agamemnonřs offer of compensation justified? Similarly, in Eugenidesř case the reader
might find himself wondering: was there a morally justifiable or at least comprehensible
aspect about the girlsř suicide? Is Callieřs decision to stay true to herself right, or should
she have followed the doctorřs advice and consider the surgical procedure turning her into
a woman trapped in a manřs body?
Legitimacy was still another scope of myths. Any claim action or relationship
automatically acquired extra authority if it had a precedent in myth. Following the same
pattern, aristocratic Greek families liked to trace their ancestry back to the mythological
heroes or gods. This is pictured by the Greek poet Pindar (early 5th century B.C.): in his
songs, Pindar praised the victories of some participants in the Olympic Games by linking
them with the deeds of their mythical ancestors. Finally, myths were a primary source of
enjoyment and entertainment. We have to consider that in a world in which practically no
media (at least in the modern sense of the term) existed, the only way to spend spare time,
to provide information or to analyze life and the world was by means of narratives.
Mythology offered people a chance to learn about other destinies, conflicts or tragedies
than their own, and consequently to compare, to draw parallels, to sympathize, to
disapprove, to shape their actions and thoughts differently. The Homeric epics, for
example, contain vivid descriptions of audiences held spellbound by the songs of bards.
Public performances of tragic drama were also hugely popular, regularly drawing some
15,000 spectators.
To conclude, we might state that the mythical realm created by Eugenides is no longer
capable of offering ancient or established norms of conduct. It is an individual mythology
much alike T.S. Eliots Wasteland. Karen Amstrong notes that:
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In 1922, T. S. Eliot depicted the spiritual disintegration of Western culture in The Waste
Land. In the legend of the Holy Grail, inhabitants of the wasteland live inauthentic lives,
blindly following social norms without the conviction that comes of deeper
understanding.
How could people put down creative roots in the Ŗstony rubbishŗ of modernity, when they
are familiar only with Ŗa heap of broken imagesŗ ŕ isolated and unassimilated shards of
the mythical wisdom of the past? As he confronted the sterility of his civilisation, Eliotřs
narrator concluded: ŖThese fragments I have shored against my ruins.ŗ Only if we piece
together these broken insights and recognise their common core can we reclaim the
wasteland in which we live.
In our rational society, we have lost touch with the mythical underpinning of our
culture…
Nevertheless this does not mean that Eugenidesř employment of myth is utterly futile.
Even if it fails in providing answers, it points to important social and moral issues which
have to eventually be resolved by means of new, individualized myths.
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Section: Literature
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