“He does not mean that it does not hurt. He does not mean that we are not frightened. Only that: we are here. This is what it means to swim in the tide, to walk the earth and feel it touch your feet. This is what it means to be alive.”

Circe, by Madeline Miller

Summary

In the house of Helios, god of the sun and mightiest of the Titans, a daughter is born. But Circe is a strange child — not powerful, like her father, nor viciously alluring like her mother. Turning to the world of mortals for companionship, she discovers that she does possess power — the power of witchcraft, which can transform rivals into monsters and menace the gods themselves.

Threatened, Zeus banishes her to a deserted island, where she hones her occult craft, tames wild beasts and crosses paths with many of the most famous figures in all of mythology, including the Minotaur, Daedalus and his doomed son Icarus, the murderous Medea, and, of course, wily Odysseus.

But there is danger, too, for a woman who stands alone, and Circe unwittingly draws the wrath of both men and gods, ultimately finding herself pitted against one of the most terrifying and vengeful of the Olympians. To protect what she loves most, Circe must summon all her strength and choose, once and for all, whether she belongs with the gods she is born from, or the mortals she has come to love.

My Thoughts

I’m a huge fan of Greek mythology. I’m one of those people who read Percy Jackson and the Olympians as a kid, became obsessed with Greek mythology, and over time just gained a hobby and obsession with mythology in general. I own copies of books like Ovid’s Metamorphoses and Sophocles’ Oedipus tragedy, which I’ve read for fun. I’ve put multiple essays on my blog that I’ve written about different aspects of Greek mythology, my favorite being from a writing class where we were told we could write anything and I wrote ten pages on feminine monstrosity in Greek mythology. So the fact that I hadn’t read Circe until literally my first year of college, and the fact that I read it before the Song of Achilles shocks me. (I did pick up Song of Achilles a while back but its start is so much slower and I found it easier to get used to Madeline Miller’s prose writing style with Circe, and then once I had a grasp on it, read Song of Achilles).

My thoughts? I really loved it. Circe is a beautiful, enchanting tale about a sorceress we know so little about and her understanding of what it means to be human. The quote above? It’s her musings at the end of the book about what it means to be human, what it means to be alive to an immortal goddess. I think that moreso than a think-piece on being a woman in a man’s world—or in Madeline Miller’s case, a nymph/mortal in the God’s world, which is kind of used as a metaphor for the same thing—it’s about the power we are born with, and the lives we live with it. 

A lot of mythology focused pieces portray the God’s in a positive light; Miller does not hold back with her negative opinion of the Gods, and she is right to do so. In ancient mythology, the Gods do horrible things and are not held accountable for it. When women like Arachne try to hold them accountable by weaving a tapestry depicting the crimes of the gods, they are punished. Miller writes about that. She writes about the consequences of getting the attention of the Gods, their fickle natures, the impact of being immortal and powerful. She writes about how nymphs gain power, find husbands, how the society they are in pits them against one another. She writes about it all from Circe’s perspective, and we see her go from a naive nymph who is too kind to those around her to a still kind person, but a more powerful and defensive witch who isn’t naive any longer. Circe proves that kindness and power can go hand in hand.

Miller’s research shines through as well; off the top of my head, she not only cites Circe’s most famous myth in the Odyssey, but also does a lot of research into her family tree as described by various Hesiod works, and into the myths she is featured in with Scylla and Glaucos in Ovid’s Metamorphoses. It was so much fun for me to read the book and see ancient myths I knew come to life in an entirely different way that made Circe a lot more real and formed as a human being, and not just a 1-dimensional caricature of a witch ancient society could use to demonize women. (I literally used this book in my Greek mythology essay which I will link here).

I’m well versed in mythology, but you don’t have to be to love the book. It can be your first introduction to some of these myths, and it will still be just as beautiful and poignant and heartbreaking. Miller is a master at her prose and the way she describes mythology and women’s issues. Circe is our protagonist, but she isn’t perfect either; she is flawed and learning, but we root for her throughout the book as she grows as a person. That’s the best type of character: one who is dynamic, and changing with the audience as they learn and grow with her. Overall, highly recommend. You won’t regret this read.

Review: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

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