Circe by Madeline Miller
Published by Bloomsbury
GREEK mythology has long captivated the minds of different sorts of people, from scholars with a passion for classics to children picking up their first adaptations.
With all the ways these stories have been told one would expect there could be no new angle, particularly not one that is overwhelmingly dazzling and emotionally impactful. This assumption would be wrong, and there is no author better to prove it than Madeline Miller.
With the success of her debut Song Of Achilles, or her take on the Odyssey should come as no real surprise. One notable difference in this book to all those previous that have depicted a similar story is the central character and perspective from which it is told.
It is to be expected, but nonetheless disappointing, that almost every hero we hear from in great myths is a man, defeating some monster or braving a treacherous journey and saving a helpless woman along the way. The refusal to adhere to this is what makes Miller’s concept so refreshing and exciting. With all the heroes and gods around her, Circe stands out and becomes the furthest thing from helpless.
Born to a nymph by the name of Perse and the feared titan and sun god Helios, Circe has much to live up to. Unfortunately she is born different to her incredibly powerful and beautiful siblings, while she is also immortal it seems they are her better in every way and make no effort to conceal this over the years. Circe lives in a state of idle misery, taking the cruelty as normal until she find something unusual within herself that gods do not tend to posess, kindness.
When the titan Prometheus is whipped in front of a vast audience for taking pity on the humans and bringing them fire, she feels an understanding for his actions, brings him nectar to drink and speaks with him briefly before he is sent away for his eternal punishment.
She carries this secret with her as she grows a friendship with her youngest brother and a romance with a mortal fisherman named Glaucos. It is with the sheer intensity of this first love and the hope of not all in her life being terrible that she discovers she is not quite so powerless as she once thought.
In the sap from flowers she discovers the practice for which she was born that does not yet have a name ut would become known as witchcraft. Out of naivety and desperation she uses this to transform Glaucos to a god. Circe is exiled to the island of Aiaia and from there begins to hone her craft, taking care to learn and finding a love for true and hard work.
The novel goes on to explore her interactions with the heroes of the Odyssey and her often forgotten contributions to these famous stories. This is, of course, a story about gods, monsters, heroes and magic but at its core it’s a coming of age story, one that every young woman will be able to relate to.
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