This is a list of characters from Middlesex, a Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Jeffrey Eugenides published in 2002.
Characters
Calliope "Callie" Helen Stephanides is the omniscient narrator of the novel. In 1960, he is born with 5-alpha-reductase deficiency, a mutation that causes him to physically look like a girl, when in fact, he possesses the hormones of a boy. He attends an all-girls school, where he joins the fieldhockey team. At the school, Calliope falls in love with the Obscure Object. Calliope experiences the "bulb", which he calls a "crocus", between his legs erect when he thinks about the Obscure Object.
Obscure Object is the girl with whom Calliope falls in love. The term originated from Eugenides' college days at Brown University with Rick Moody. When the two found the same girl alluring, they would refer to her as the "Obscure Object". She is now an art historian and lives in Toronto, Canada.
Jerome is the Obscure Object's brother. He is the first boy with whom Calliope has sex.
Eleutherios "Lefty" Stephanides is Calliope's grandfather and Desdemona's husband. He is also Desdemona's brother, and is one year her junior. Desdemona and Lefty grew up in a village called Bithynios in Greece. The two become orphaned, live by themselves and manage the silk farm. Lefty is a bachelor who is unmoved by the seductive techniques employed by the only two marriageable women in the village. In 1922, when the Turks bombard their village, brother and sister move to Smyrna. Upon their arrival at the city, Smyrna is burned and sacked.
Desdemona Stephanides is Calliope's grandmother. She is the sister and wife of Lefty. On the eve of their departure for America, she and Lefty professed their love to each other and married on the boat. During her pregnancy with Milton, she learned that children of incest are often born with diseases. She tried to distant herself from Lefty sexually, but after giving birth to Zoe, she completely withheld sex from him. Throughout her life, Desdemona is plagued with the incest which she and her brother have committed. After moving to America, she works for a brief time counseling the young women workers of the Nation of Islam the ideal way to generate silk.
Sourmelina "Lina" Zizmo is the cousin of Lefty and Desdemona. She is married to Jimmy Zizmo. Sourmalina and her husband sponsor Lefty and Desdemona to reach America. A former inhabitant of Bithynios, she was married off to Zizmo after she was noticed in an inappropriate relationship with a married woman. She sponsors Desdemona and Lefty, keeping their incestuous relationship a secret due to her own secret, her former lesbian intrigue in Bithynios.
Jimmy Zizmo is Lina's husband. He abandons her, faking his own death after she gives birth to their first and only child, Theodora, Cal's mother, due to his erroneous suspicions that the baby is not his. He reinvents himself as Wallace Fard Muhammad, leader of the Nation of Islam.
Miltiades "Milton" Stephanides is Calliope's father. He is the son of Lefty and Desdemona. Milton is Tessie's husband and second cousin. Milton courts Tessie with a clarinet and marries her after fighting in World War II. Milton loses his first business to a fire in the 1967 Detroit riot. The payments he receives from several insurance companies enables him to finance a hot dog chain called Hercules Hot Dogs not only becomes a profitable household name but also turns him into a millionaire.
Theodora "Tessie" Stephanides is Calliope's mother. She is Milton's wife and second cousin. After having a son, Chapter Eleven, Tessie longs for a daughter. She and Milton plan the lovemaking to be at the appropriate time to exact the desired result.
Zoë "Aunt Zoe" Stephanides is Calliope's aunt and Father Mike's wife. She is the daughter of Lefty and Desdemona.
Michael "Father Mike" Antoniou is an Orthodox priest who is Tessie's former fiancé. He is Aunt Zoe's husband, although he is still in love with Tessie.
Nishan Philobosian is an Armenian doctor who is evacuated from Smyrna with Lefty and Desdemona after his family is killed by Turkish soldiers, then becomes the Stephanides family's trusted physician in America.
Marius Wyxzewixard Challouehliczilczese Grimes is an African American who befriends Callie. Marius calls Callie "Little Queen of the Nile". He is named after an Ethiopian nationalist. By day, Marius supports himself through working at a record store, and by night, he studies at the University of Detroit Law School. Upon graduation, he intends to file a lawsuit against the city of Dearborn for housing discrimination against African Americans.
Peter "Uncle Pete" Tatakis is a bachelor who attends the Sunday debating sessions at Milton's house.
Peter Luce is a sexologist in New York who is considered a foremost expert on hermaphroditism. Dr. Luce is modeled after the 1970s sexologist, John Money. Both Luce and Money believe that nurture determined a person's gender identity and that gender reassignment after two-and-a-half years of age would be disastrous. Luce plans to castrate Calliope and give her progesterone to let her remain female.
Zora Khyber is a coworker of Cal's at San Francisco's Sixty-Niners, Bob Presto's burlesque club. Appearing fully female despite being genetically male, Zora is affected by complete androgen insensitivity syndrome. She is passionate about intersex visibility despite her ability to pass as female.
Julie Kikuchi is a Japanese-American photographer with whom Cal has a relationship in his adult life.
