“Circe” - Madeline Miller

🏺This is a fantastic, subversive retelling of an ancient Greek epic. I always enjoy a good mythological retelling, but this one was impossible-to-put-down.

Miller notes that the ancient epics as we know them today feature exclusively male characters, yet of course we know that none of the tales would be possible without prominent female characters as well. It only stands to reason. Therefore, Miller makes it a point to tell us the tale of Circe and includes elements of the traditionally female sphere such as childbirth and parenting. 

🏺Miller tells the tale of a Circe who is a bit player in “The Odyssey” but expands and fills in her history while remaining within the framework of the original. Odysseus, Jason, Daedalus and Icarus, the Minotaur … all are connected with Circe in an interesting way, and I think this is what I enjoyed the most. Miller provides a helpful character guide at the end of the novel.

 🏺Miller notes that very little is known about Circe - she’s reduced to a one-dimensional, man-hating sorceress who presents Odysseus with one of his many obstacles in “The Odyssey”. Though she’s played as a villain in that epic, Miller writes that Homer suggests she has a benevolent nature as well, but he never provides further detail.

The questions that motivated Miller to write “Circe” were:

• how did she become a witch?
• why did she turn men to pigs?
• how did she end up living alone on an island?
• when female divinities and mortals were chattel, how did Circe claw out a measure of independence for herself (nymphs like Circe and mortals are supposed to have no agency at all)?

🏺In an unsteady act of unity, the Titans and Olympians jointly exile Circe to Alaia when her unexpectedly powerful magical capabilities are discovered. She encounters Odysseus, and later Penelope and Telemachus. 

Odysseus tells Circe the tale of the Trojan War. Of note, he speaks of Achilles’ love for Patroclus. Of the impact of Patroclus’ death on Achilles, Miller writes: “Then the best part of him died, and he was even more difficult after that.” I have “The Song of Achilles” on my Libby holds - hoping to read it shortly!

We learn that as with Circe herself, there are more sides to Penelope’s tale (i.e. beyond the loyal, long-suffering wife of Odysseus). In “Circe” we learn that Odysseus underwent a drastic, negative change upon his return to Ithaca. Beset by paranoia, he murders the suitors and the twelve maidens [check out Margaret Atwood’s “Penelopiad” for more on this].

Per Odysseus’ son, Telemachus, his life was nothing short of a misery to all others in Ithaca. We learn that he had the opportunity to return home after the Trojan War, but he kept finding reasons to adventure onwards. His inability to be content, summarized the tragedy of his fabled voyage in the form of his ego and pride.

🏺 Miller’s retelling has several modern elements such Circe’s journey to becoming her own true self. The fractious relationship Circe has with her toxic family and her competing desire to belong are also distinctly modern flavors. Circe tells Telemachus that he is not defined but his blood. “Circe” is at its core a story of a woman who doesn’t fit the life she was born to, and how she sets about finding her own way. 

🏺In a notable departure from the classical epics, Miller devotes considerable space to “women’s spheres”. Circe’s post-partum life is vividly painted. The toil, frustration, all-consuming love, and the fatigue. Oh, the fatigue!

Then, as she is raising her son, we see the common parenting dilemmas of trying to raise good people. It’s the tale as old as time: a mother pours her life into her child. When the child grows and seeks independence, it is a bitter pill to swallow.

I love that Miller goes beyond centering a female character in her story. She incorporates elements that heavily affect women, but are never seen in the classical stories. Miller’s Circe muses: 

“I had not told him of his infancy, how angry and difficult it was. I had not told him the stories of the gods’ cruelty, of his own father’s cruelty. I should have, I thought. For sixteen years, I had been holding up the sky, and he had not noticed.”

“But perhaps no parent can truly see their child. When we look we see only the mirror of our own faults.”

🏺If you enjoyed “Circe,” I’d recommend:

• Margaret Atwood’s “The Penelopiad”
• Claire Heywood’s “The Daughters of Sparta”
• Jennifer Saint’s “Ariadne”