Autobiography Of Red

"They are the latches of being." 

Anne Carson writes this in reference to adjectives, which, especially in the world of classical literature, were usually fixed. For example, in Homer's epic poems, women are always 'neat-ankled' or 'glancing.' In his work, Stesichoros decoupled adjectives from their traditional subjects. In Autobiography of Red, Geryon has one quality with which he's born: being red. He spends the novel trying to discover a mode of being that is self-determined, rather than proscribed. 

"Are there many little boys who think they are a Monster?"

Carson's translation of Stesichoros's fragment presents a question which Carson's version of Geryon seems to be asking without articulating. Geryon seems to be the only literal supernatural being in his world, but he seems to feel as though he is also, apart from his physicality, an abhorrent being. Before Ancash tells him about the legend of the red people who survive being thrown into the volcano, Geryon never encounters another monster like himself. 

"Either Stesichoros was a blind man or he was not." 

Carson's inclusion of this section demonstrates the resistance of truth to fixity. Because it's based on a supernatural legend, Stesichoros' blindness can be neither proven nor disproven. However, the truth of the legend doesn't seem to matter in thematic terms for Carson's book.