Dictee - Interesting Greek gods

DICTEE

Interesting Greek gods

            There are some main parts that stood out to me in Theresa Hak Kyung Cha, “Dictee”. I have always found the Greek gods and goddesses so interesting since I first took my mythology class in high school. So when they popped up in this work, it surprised and intrigued me. To see this mix with all Christian beliefs was odd and all the other combinations like of language and story of different women. However, the Greek gods are forgotten these days so to see this in the text it is as though they are living briefly in this work.

The one of the main quotes that was talking about Greek gods was on page 133, “Restore memory. Let the one who is diseuse, one who is daughter restore spring with her each appearance from beneath the earth.” This is Persephone, daughter of Zeus and Demeter and was captured by Hades and became his wife. She spends the half of the year in the underworld and the other half with her mother, and that is why the Greek believed the reason for change in winter and spring. This can also be found on page 123 Cha says, “Let her break open the spell cast upon time upon time again and again. With her voice, penetrate earth’s floor, the walls of Tartaurus to circle and scratch with the bowl’s surface.” This passage shows that the time is important and it is a never ending cycle, the seasons, and her appearances.

What I realized while researching this was how important it is tied to the book and even to the title. When I look up the word ‘diseuse’ it means a woman who is a skilled and usually professional recite (.merriam-webster). She put that in for a reason for there is nothing like that in the myth of Persephone.  So I divulge that the title was relevant too, I looked up what Dictee was in French, meaning Dictation. Dictation (also found on Merriam-webster) the act of speaking words that someone writes down or that a machine records: the act of dictating words. So to summarize this, I Believe this book is her dictating the words penetrating time and views. She being the writing and Persephone is half who she was meant to be. Korea was split and now the writer is not living there now, she is missing half of who she is. By writing this she restore what is lost and restore the memory of it.