Ann Carson's Autobiography of Red features the names Stesichorus; Geryon; Geryon's red dog, Geryoneis; and Herakles. Carson did not invent these figures; they have a reality outside her fiction.
Stesichorus, for example, was a 6th-century poet whose name means "chorus master" ("Stesichorus"). Inspired by Homer, he specialized in long narrative poems having mythological themes and wrote similar stories, such as "The Wooden Horse" and "The Capture of Troy" ("Stesichorus"). Stesichorus is said to have been struck blind for writing a slanderous poem about Helen and to have recovered his sight after recanting the poem ("Stesichorus"). All that remain of his poems are approximately 30 fragments no longer than six lines each ("Stesichorus").
Geryon was a mythological figure having three bodies and four wings, a giant that lived on the red island of Erytheia in the midst of the River Ocean (Atsma). According to the myth, Geryon owned a herd of cattle that appeared red because they were colored by the reddish light of the sunset (Atsma). To reach the island, Geryon sailed the ocean in a golden "cup-boat" lent to him by Helios, the sun god (Atsma). Interestingly, the one sent by Eurystheus to fetch the cattle was Herakles (Atsma).
Geryoneis was a poem written by the 6th-century poet Stesichorus, and its alternate name was "Song of Geryon" ("Geryon"). Although only fragments of the poem remain today, they indicate that the poem consisted of 26 line triads of "strophe, antistrophe and epode, repeated in columns along the original scroll" ("Geryon").
Herakles is the most compelling of Ann Carson's borrowed characters. As the son of the mythological character Zeus and the mortal Alkmene, as well as being the half-brother of Iphikles, who shared the same mother but whose father was Amphitryon, Herakles had a foot in both the mortal and the immortal worlds (Stewart). Herakles possesse
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