You know how girls get lumped into groups based on their interests as a child? Like, you had horse girls, or gymnastics girls, or gemstone girls. I was a Greek mythology girl. I inherited my copy of D’aulaire’s Book of Greek Myths from my older sisters and read it so many times it fell apart. When we were assigned The Odyssey in high school, I read all of it. Willingly. And then did it again in college. The Firebrand was one of my favorite books before I learned the truth about MZB. I’m just saying, Greek mythology? It is my jam. And yet it took me until the year of our lord 2024 to read Madeline Miller’s Circe, and I feel like a fool for having waited so long.
Ok, so. Circe, for those who don’t know, was one of two enchantresses that Odysseus encountered on his long way home to Ithaca. Circe was the first witch, who turned his men into pigs and then took Odysseus as a lover. Her section of the book is fairly short, though in some stories she turns up again later having born Odysseus a son. But that’s all we really hear about her.
Circe takes this scant material and builds a whole world with it. We learn about her upbringing, a nymph raised among hundreds of her cousins and scorned for being too like humans. We learn about her first love, and how lust for power overcame any desire her had for her. We see her vengeful streak, and quail at the monster she unleashes into the world. We’re there for her banishment, and for her first encounter with human sailors. And we are there for her revenge upon them.
Circe doesn’t minimize Odysseus, but it also doesn’t make him the focus. Circe was a daughter of the gods, how could you reduce her life to one encounter with a human? And so Madeline Miller carefully and thoroughly builds an entire life for Circe, and takes us along for the triumphs and heartbreaks, the loneliness and love. This book made my heart feel full.