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Madeline Miller

393 pages, Hardcover

First published April 10, 2018

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When I was born, the name for what I was did not exist.

This is the story of a woman finding her power and, as part of that, finding her voice. She starts out really unable to say what she thinks and by the end of the book, she’s able to live life on her terms and say what she thinks and what she feels. - from the Bookriot interview

Scholars have debated whether Circe’s pet lions are supposed to be transformed men, or merely tamed beasts. In my novel, I chose to make them actual animals, because I wanted to honor Circe’s connection to Eastern and Anatolian goddesses like Cybele. Such goddesses also had power over fierce animals, and are known by the title Potnia Theron, Mistress of the Beasts.

My thoughts about [Circe as caregiver] really start with the gods, who in Greek myth are horrendous creatures. Selfish, totally invested only in their own desires, and unable to really care for anyone but themselves. Circe has this impulse from the beginning to care for other people. She has this initial encounter with Prometheus where she comes across another god who seems to understand that and also who triggers that impulse in her. I wanted to write about what it’s like when you to want to try to be a good person, but you have absolutely no models for that. How do you construct a moral view coming from a completely immoral family? - from Bookriot interview

“I wasn’t trying to write Circe’s story in a modern way… I was just trying to be true to her experience in the ancient world.” “It was a very eerie experience. I would put the book away and check the news. The top story was literally the same issue I had just been writing about — sexual assault, abuse, men refusing to allow women to have any power ... I was drawn to the mystery of her character — why is she turning men into pigs?” – from The Times interview

For Circe, I would say the Odyssey was my primary touch-stone in the sense that that’s where I started building the character. I take character clues directly from Homer’s text, both large and small. I mentioned her mortal-like voice. The lions. The pigs. And then when I get to the Odysseus episode in the book, I follow Homer obviously very closely… - from the BookRiot interview

In terms of sources, I used texts from all over the ancient world and a few from the more modern world as well. For Circe herself, I drew inspiration from Ovid’s Metamorphoses and Apollonius of Rhodes’ Argonautica , Vergil’s Aeneid , the lost epic Telegony (which survives only in summary) and myths of the Anatolian goddess Cybele. For other characters, I was inspired by the Iliad , of course, the tragedies (specifically the Oresteia, Medea and Philoctetes ), Vergil’s Aeneid again, Tennyson’s Ulysses and Shakespeare’s Troilus and Cressida . Alert readers may note a few small pieces of Shakespeare’s Ulysses in my Odysseus! - from Refinery29 interview

“When I was born, the name for what I was did not exist.”

“They do not care if you are good. They barely care if you are wicked. The only thing that makes them listen is power.”

“Odysseus, son of Laertes, the great traveler, prince of wiles and tricks and a thousand ways. He showed me his scars, and in return he let me pretend that I had none.”

“…All my life had been murk and depths, but I was not a part of that dark water. I was a creature within it.”

“It was their favorite bitter joke: those who fight against prophecy only draw it more tightly around their throats.”

“That is one thing gods and mortals share: when we are young, we think ourselves the first to have each feeling in the world.”

It is a common saying that women are delicate creatures—flowers, eggs, anything that may be crushed in a moment’s carelessness. If I had ever believed it, I no longer did.

The thought was this: that all my life had been murk and depths, but I was not a part of that dark water. I was a creature within it.

But of course I could not die. I would live on, through each scalding moment to the next. This is the grief that makes our kind choose to be stones and trees rather than flesh.

But in a solitary life, there are rare moments when another soul dips near yours, as stars once a year brush the earth. Such a constellation was he to me.

“It is not fair,” I said. “I cannot bear it.” “Those are two different things,” my grandmother said.

I would look at him and feel a love so sharp it seemed my flesh lay open. I made a list of all the things I would do for him. Scald off my skin. Tear out my eyes. Walk my feet to bones, if only he would be happy and well.

You threw me to the crows, but it turns out I prefer them to you.

You cannot know how frightened gods are of pain. There is nothing more foreign to them, and so nothing they ache more deeply to see.

“Witches are not so delicate,” I said.

I did not go easy to motherhood. I faced it as soldiers face their enemies, girded and braced, sword up against the coming blows. Yet all my preparations were not enough.

"Next time you're going to defy the gods, do it for a better reason."

*Spoilers* How I wish Miller's Circe was a reimagining as opposed to a retelling and I say this because there's little else about Greek mythology that isn't readily available online or at the library. A reinterpretation, on the other hand, gives an author creative license to weave a uniquely extravagant and fantastical story ( Now I Rise did it perfectly) and perhaps one in which a lowly nymph attains great powers, transforms into a formidable sorceress who then proceeds to defy and defeat gods. But, I digress. If Miller's ultimate goal is to introduce Greek mythology to a new generation of readers, then, I think she succeeded. However, that's ALL she achieved. This story about an inferior but immortal nymph called, Circe, who is a progeny of not one but TWO Titans -Helios and Oceanus- is decidedly underwhelming, trite, and overwrought with both too many characters yet very little story progression. Presumedly, the author had a checklist of events (and characters) that simply had to make an appearance in the story, even if the tangent was superfluous and unrelated: Prometheus, and the banishment. Check Scylla, the six-headed monster. Check Pasiphae, Daedalus, the Bull of Poseidon, and the horror that was Minotaur. Check Let's not forget, Odyssey. And Hermes And Athena And many others who (please listen closely) WERE NOT REQUIRED TO MOVE THIS STORY FORWARD. Think I'm making this up? Well, let's see what the story's about shall we? 1. Circe is so dull and uninteresting that 2. Pretty much everyone ignores her; that is, until... 3. She uses her magic to turn Scylla into the six-headed monster. 4. Consequently, she's exiled to an island 5. Where she at times turned unsavoury sailors into pigs 6. Eventually leaving the island only after having lived there for centuries. 7. The end. All in all, I think if you're new to mythology then this is for you; but even then I'd recommend reading Greek Mythology: A Captivating Guide to the Ancient Gods, Goddesses, Heroes, and Monsters instead.

Painting of Circe by Joseph Herrin

“You have always been the worst of my children,” he said. “Be sure to not dishonor me.” “I have a better idea. I will do as I please, and when you count your children, leave me out.”

I will not be like a bird bred in a cage, I thought, too dull to fly even when the door stands open.

“It is a common saying that women are delicate creatures, flowers, eggs, anything that may be crushed in a moment's carelessness. If I had ever believed it, I no longer did.”

“Humbling women seems to me a chief pastime of poets. As if there can be no story unless we crawl and weep.”

“You cannot know how frightened gods are of pain. There is nothing more foreign to them, and so nothing they ache more deeply to see.”

“But in a solitary life, there are rare moments when another soul dips near yours, as stars once a year brush the earth. Such a constellation was he to me.”

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Review of “Circe”

A Modern Classic?

Greek Mythology wrapped in modern language and agenda anyone? Some are calling this bestseller a modern classic. I’ve always been enthralled by mythology so I eagerly read Circe by Madeline Miller. Miller retells the story of the minor goddess Circe, but so much more. In these pages you learn about Scylla, Odysseus, Helios’ family life, and what happened to Penelope after the Odyssey. A lot of readers I respect loved this retelling. And I see why: it’s reasonably well written and has a unique focus on the Titans as opposed to the usual Olympians. But I have to confess: in the end I disliked this book.

The Telegony

We all know The Iliad and The Odyssey . There’s another epic, NOT by Homer, that purports to continue the story of Odysseus. The origins of this epic, called the Telegonia ( Telegony ) are controversial. The best guess seems to be that it was written at least 2 centuries after The Odyssey . The text of the Telegony is lost, but a synopsis remains. And I, among others, consider it to sound like mediocre fan fiction based on The Odyssey .

Have you ever tried a sequel to a classic, written after the authors’ death? Aren’t they always and universally disappointing? That’s how I imagine the Greeks must have viewed the Telegony : a disappointing sequel centuries after the death of Homer.

Unfortunately, Miller draws heavily on the plot of the Telegony to inform the storyline of Circe . Why does this matter? Well, did you like Telemachus and admire Penelope in The Odyssey ? You may not after Circe . Adding onto the plot in the Telegony that Odysseus had an illegitimate son by the nymph Circe , Miller imagines the fallout. Penelope ends up a manipulative witch. Telemachus falls in love with his father’s mistress who gave birth to his half brother already. Weird, right?

Catholic opinions diverge dramatically when it comes to comfort level with reading books about “good” witches and wizards. I believe you have to take books on a case by case basis. Listen to what each individual author is trying to tell or show. In Circe , Circe and her 3 siblings discover a predilection for witchcraft, which in this book means using herbs and spells to do things like raise the dead, make transformations, and so forth.

Early in the book, Circe explains her love of witchcraft as a love of power. She says learning witchcraft was hard work, but she desired the power it gave her. “I learned that I could bend the world to my will, as a bow is bent for an arrow. I would have done that toil a thousand times to keep such power in my hands.” Circe’s siblings, and even Circe herself, often use their witchcraft for evil ends. But I consider Circe to take an ambiguous stance on witchcraft. Miller takes the position that there’s nothing inherently good or evil about spells and potions; the will, end, and intentions of the witch determine the morality of the action. This, of course, is in direct contradiction to the Biblically-derived zero tolerance for witchcraft policy that we must abide to as Christians.

Intentional Feminist Agenda

At the end of my copy of Circe , there’s an interview with Madeline Miller in which she states that she intentionally wrote the book to push a feminist agenda. Ouch. We can all grant that the ancient world often undervalued and marginalized women. But twisting ancient myths to suit your 21st century agenda is not going to win my approval, ever.

Miller thinks that as a culture we distrust “powerful women.” In Circe , she seeks to destigmatize them. I’ll admit I didn’t think this book actually helped that case. The female goddesses are terrible. Penelope is portrayed as incredibly manipulative. Circe herself misuses her power fairly often, though she later tries to fix some of the damage she does. There’s that typical root misunderstanding of what true feminism means.

Of gods and men

A big theme over the course of the book is the difference between the gods and mankind. The pagan gods are cruel, selfish, merciless, and proud. Most of the humans in the book don’t seem particularly virtuous either: the lustful sailors, manipulate Odysseus, unfaithful Glaucos, and so on. But Circe envies them for their ability to change and die. In the last few lines of the story, she says “I thought once that gods are the opposite of death, but I see now they are more dead than anything, for they are unchanging, and can hold nothing in their hands.” She then chooses to become a mortal.

On the one hand, this was a superbly plotted ending if you grant her point. Throughout the book, Circe has gradually changed, moving towards unselfishness and forgiveness. She’s changed so much she is no longer a god, but a mortal who can die.

But on the other hand, I didn’t agree with the equation she writes for us: divinity = unchanging = unmerciful/unloving/bad. It doesn’t follow or flow, at least to my Catholic mind. I have no idea if Miller is pushing an atheist agenda in addition to a feminist one, or simply trying to justify her ending.

Better Greek Mythology

This section contains affiliate links, which means I receive a small fee if you make a purchase at no additional cost to you.

What do I like better if you do want to familiarize yourself with Greek Mythology? For adults who don’t mind a little British humor, Stephen Fry’s Mythos and Heroes are superbly done. If you have teens, try Padraic Colum’s retellings: The Children’s Homer and The Golden Fleece . For kids, I like D’Aulaires’ Book of Greek Myths and Hawthorne’s A Wonder Book for Girls and Boys .

THE NIGHTINGALE

by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 3, 2015

Still, a respectful and absorbing page-turner.

Hannah’s new novel is an homage to the extraordinary courage and endurance of Frenchwomen during World War II.

In 1995, an elderly unnamed widow is moving into an Oregon nursing home on the urging of her controlling son, Julien, a surgeon. This trajectory is interrupted when she receives an invitation to return to France to attend a ceremony honoring passeurs : people who aided the escape of others during the war. Cut to spring, 1940: Viann has said goodbye to husband Antoine, who's off to hold the Maginot line against invading Germans. She returns to tending her small farm, Le Jardin, in the Loire Valley, teaching at the local school and coping with daughter Sophie’s adolescent rebellion. Soon, that world is upended: The Germans march into Paris and refugees flee south, overrunning Viann’s land. Her long-estranged younger sister, Isabelle, who has been kicked out of multiple convent schools, is sent to Le Jardin by Julien, their father in Paris, a drunken, decidedly unpaternal Great War veteran. As the depredations increase in the occupied zone—food rationing, systematic looting, and the billeting of a German officer, Capt. Beck, at Le Jardin—Isabelle’s outspokenness is a liability. She joins the Resistance, volunteering for dangerous duty: shepherding downed Allied airmen across the Pyrenees to Spain. Code-named the Nightingale, Isabelle will rescue many before she's captured. Meanwhile, Viann’s journey from passive to active resistance is less dramatic but no less wrenching. Hannah vividly demonstrates how the Nazis, through starvation, intimidation and barbarity both casual and calculated, demoralized the French, engineering a community collapse that enabled the deportations and deaths of more than 70,000 Jews. Hannah’s proven storytelling skills are ideally suited to depicting such cataclysmic events, but her tendency to sentimentalize undermines the gravitas of this tale.

Pub Date: Feb. 3, 2015

ISBN: 978-0-312-57722-3

Page Count: 448

Publisher: St. Martin's

Review Posted Online: Nov. 19, 2014

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2014

HISTORICAL FICTION | FAMILY LIFE & FRIENDSHIP

More by Kristin Hannah

BOOK REVIEW

by Kristin Hannah

BOOK TO SCREEN

‘The Nightingale’ Is Reese’s Book Club Pick

HOUSE OF LEAVES

by Mark Z. Danielewski ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 6, 2000

The story's very ambiguity steadily feeds its mysteriousness and power, and Danielewski's mastery of postmodernist and...

An amazingly intricate and ambitious first novel - ten years in the making - that puts an engrossing new spin on the traditional haunted-house tale.

Texts within texts, preceded by intriguing introductory material and followed by 150 pages of appendices and related "documents" and photographs, tell the story of a mysterious old house in a Virginia suburb inhabited by esteemed photographer-filmmaker Will Navidson, his companion Karen Green (an ex-fashion model), and their young children Daisy and Chad. The record of their experiences therein is preserved in Will's film The Davidson Record - which is the subject of an unpublished manuscript left behind by a (possibly insane) old man, Frank Zampano - which falls into the possession of Johnny Truant, a drifter who has survived an abusive childhood and the perverse possessiveness of his mad mother (who is institutionalized). As Johnny reads Zampano's manuscript, he adds his own (autobiographical) annotations to the scholarly ones that already adorn and clutter the text (a trick perhaps influenced by David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest ) - and begins experiencing panic attacks and episodes of disorientation that echo with ominous precision the content of Davidson's film (their house's interior proves, "impossibly," to be larger than its exterior; previously unnoticed doors and corridors extend inward inexplicably, and swallow up or traumatize all who dare to "explore" their recesses). Danielewski skillfully manipulates the reader's expectations and fears, employing ingeniously skewed typography, and throwing out hints that the house's apparent malevolence may be related to the history of the Jamestown colony, or to Davidson's Pulitzer Prize-winning photograph of a dying Vietnamese child stalked by a waiting vulture. Or, as "some critics [have suggested,] the house's mutations reflect the psychology of anyone who enters it."

Pub Date: March 6, 2000

ISBN: 0-375-70376-4

Page Count: 704

Publisher: Pantheon

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2000

LITERARY FICTION

More by Mark Z. Danielewski

by Mark Z. Danielewski

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clock This article was published more than 6 years ago

The original nasty woman is a goddess for our times

The archaeological evidence is sketchy, but the first pussy hat was probably knitted by Circe. Among nasty women, the witch of Aeaea has held a place of prominence since Homer first sang of her wiles. For most of us, that was a long time ago — 700 B.C. or freshman English — but popular interest in “The Odyssey” picked up last fall when Emily Wilson published the first English translation by a woman. Wilson, a classicist at the University of Pennsylvania, described Circe as “the goddess who speaks in human tongues” and reminded us that what makes this enchantress particularly dangerous is that she is as beautiful as she is powerful.

That combination of qualities has excited male desire and dread at least since Athena sprang from the head of Zeus. On papyrus or Twitter , from Olympus to Hollywood , we have a roster of handy slurs and strategies to keep women caught between Scylla and Charybdis: either frigid or slutty, unnaturally masculine or preternaturally sexless, Lady Macbeth or Mother Mary.

Now, into that ancient battle — reinvigorated in our own era by the #MeToo movement — comes an absorbing new novel by Madeline Miller called “ Circe .” In his 1726 translation of “The Odyssey,” Alexander Pope claimed that Circe possessed an “adamantine heart,” but Miller finds the goddess’s affections wounded, complicated and capable of extraordinary sympathy. And to anyone who thinks that women can be shamed into silence, this witch has just one thing to say: “That’ll do, pig.”

Miller is something of a literary sorceress herself. As a 39-year-old Latin teacher, she created an international sensation in 2011 with her debut novel, a stirring reimagining of “The Iliad” called “The Song of Achilles.” It’s a pleasure to see that same transformative power directed at Circe, the woman who waylaid Odysseus and his men as they sailed home to Ithaca.

The first English translation of ‘The Odyssey’ by a woman was worth the wait

“When I was born, the name for what I was did not exist,” Circe begins at the start of a story that will carry us across millennia. Although she writes in prose, Miller hews to the poetic timber of the epic, with a rich, imaginative style commensurate to the realm of immortal beings sparked with mortal sass. Circe’s father, Helios, lives in a palace of “polished obsidian . . . the stone floors smoothed by centuries of divine feet.” She describes a royal court just beyond the edge of physical possibility: “The whole world was made of gold. The light came from everywhere at once, his yellow skin, his lambent eyes, the bronze flashing of his hair. His flesh was hot as a brazier, and I pressed as close as he would let me, like a lizard to noonday rocks.”

In this fully re-created childhood, Miller finds the roots of Circe’s later personality and isolation. Mocked by her far more majestic family, Circe is a kind of Titanic Jane Eyre, sensitive and miserable, but nursing an iron will. (She also develops an acerbic sense of humor: Her father, she tells us, is “a harp with only one string, and the note it played was himself.”) Although her relatives disparage her, Circe cultivates the occult arts that will one day shock them. “I had begun to know what fear was,” she tells us. “What could make a god afraid? I knew that answer too. A power greater than their own.”

‘The Song of Achilles,’ by Madeline Miller

While working within the constraints of the “The Odyssey” and other ancient myths, Miller finds plenty of room to weave her own surprising story of a passionate young woman banished to lavish solitude. “To be utterly alone,” Circe scoffs. “What worse punishment could there be, my family thought, than to be deprived of their divine presence?” But her bravado is short-lived. “The still air crawled across my skin and shadows reached out their hands. I stared into the darkness, straining to hear past the beat of my own blood.” In that extremity, Circe discovers the labor and, eventually, the power of witchcraft.

A protagonist, even a fascinating one, stuck alone in the middle of nowhere poses special narrative challenges, but Miller keeps her novel filled with perils and romance. She’s just as successful recounting far-off adventures — such as the horror of the Minotaur — as she is reenacting adventures on the island. In the novel’s most unnerving encounter, young Medea stops by mid-honeymoon fresh from chopping up her brother. Chastened by bitter experience, Circe offers her niece wise counsel, but you know how well that turns out.

Which is one of the most amazing qualities of this novel: We know how everything here turns out — we’ve known it for thousands of years — and yet in Miller’s lush reimagining, the story feels harrowing and unexpected. The feminist light she shines on these events never distorts their original shape; it only illuminates details we hadn’t noticed before.

That theme develops long before Odysseus and his men arrive, as the novel explores the prevalence and presumption of rape. Again and again, sailors land upon Circe’s shore and violate her hospitality so grotesquely that she’s forced to develop her infamous potions and spells. “The truth is,” she says ruefully, “men make terrible pigs.” Considering the treatment she has received, we can’t blame her for concluding, “There were no pious men anymore, there had not been for a long time.”

Of course, her grim appraisal is a perfect introduction for Odysseus. He doesn’t arrive on Aeaea until more than halfway through the novel, but then Miller plays their verbal sparring with a delightful mix of wit and lust. The affection that eventually develops between them is intriguingly complex and mature — such a smart revision of the misogynist fantasy passed down from antiquity:

“Later, years later, I would hear a song made of our meeting,” Circe tells us. “I was not surprised by the portrait of myself: the proud witch undone before the hero’s sword, kneeling and begging for mercy. Humbling women seems to me a chief pastime of poets. As if there can be no story unless we crawl and weep.”

There will be plenty of weeping later in this novel, although it’s likely to be your own. In the story that dawns from Miller’s rosy fingers, the fate that awaits Circe is at once divine and mortal, impossibly strange and yet entirely human.

Ron Charles is the editor of Book World and host of TotallyHipVideoBookReview.com .

On April 18 at 7 p.m., Madeline Miller will be at Politics and Prose, 5015 Connecticut Ave. NW. politics-prose.com .

Why the literature of antiquity still matters, by Michael Dirda

By Madeline Miller

Little, Brown. 393 pp. $27

We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.

Review: Circe by Madeline Miller

Some of my favorite classes in both high school and college centered on Greek mythology. The ancient Greek myths are full of legendary storytelling with a huge influence on Western storytelling. But it’s been a while since I’ve re-read any of the stories, until Circe by Madeline Miller came along.

Circe is best known as as turning Odysseus’ men into pigs in Homer’s The Odyssey. In that story after he challenges her, she takes him as a lover, allowing him and his men to stay with her and aiding them when they depart. Her story reportedly inspired writers such as Ovid, James Joyce, Eudora Welty and Margaret Atwood.

Miller says in an interview with The New York Times that since epics have traditionally been male, she wanted a female perspective. Circe had previously been seen as the “embodiment of male anxiety about female power.” Miller reimagines Circe’s story and gives her a full arc that changes the perspective. And you might have a new favorite goddess after reading this retelling of a classic story.

The novel starts out with the birth of Circe, she is the daughter of Helios the god of sun and the mightiest of Titans. But since Circe is not powerful like her father or as ‘beautiful’ as her nymph mother, she’s cast aside and the subject of ridicule by her relatives. I felt for her at the beginning as she was bullied at every turn. When she eventually finds her own power — witchcraft — instead of being welcomed by her family, she is instead feared. Zeus eventually banishes her to the deserted island of Aiaia. This is where the story really takes off.

Mythical island of Aiaia

Circe fine-turns her powers while on Aiaia and even though it seems like she’s destined for a lonely life that is not the case. There are appearance by Hermes, the messenger of the Gods, Minotaur, Daedalus and his doomed son Icarus and Circe’s niece, the murderous Medea. Circe gets stronger with both her powers and mentally with every encounter.

Of course, it’s all leading up to Odysseus. Miller takes a different approach with Odysseus and he’s much more complicated in this novel and not as heroic. Still, Circe does fall for him. But not in the way that is portrayed in The Odyssey , the helpless goddess witch falling in love with the ‘strong’ man. I enjoy the scene where Circe paints her perspective:

[blockquote align=”none” author=””]”I was not surprised by the portrait of myself,” Circe says. “The proud witch undone before the hero’s sword, kneeling and begging for mercy. Humbling women seems to me a chief pastime for poets. As if there can be no story unless we crawl and weep.” [/blockquote]

After Odysseus and his men eventually leave, there’s still quite a bit of the novel left. I definitely was surprised at some new developments in the book, however, I’m going to keep this review spoiler free. But I will say, it’s such a satisfying conclusion.

The character of Circe

I really like Miller’s depiction of Circe. She’s a powerful goddess witch but she’s also kind, intelligent, clever and not without empathy. Some of the best parts of the book is when Circe finds her inner strength and bypasses any notion that women must be delicate. Let’s not forget that women aren’t viewed as equals to men in many of the Greek mythology stories and in some stories are blamed for the downfall of men (Helen of Troy, Pandora). But not with this version of Circe. She completely comes into her own.

A big theme of the book is a woman trying to find her place in a man’s world. There’s also a focus on the abuse of power as she learns how dangerous it can be. There’s also regret and facing one’s choices in life and the road it takes one on. I think too that human compassion, which is interesting since this story is about a goddess, is also a defining theme.

Circe is a beautifully written, epic story that is perfect for book clubs.

Circe by Madeline Miller

Circe, a powerful enchantress from Greek mythology, practicing witchcraft in her sanctuary on the island of Aiaia

17 Dec Circe by Madeline Miller

Buy Circe Now!

Bookshop.org

“Circe” spans several centuries, offering a deep dive into the life of its eponymous character. It begins with Circe’s childhood in the halls of Helios, her father, where she struggles to find her place among gods and nymphs. She discovers her penchant for witchcraft, a talent that leads to her exile on the island of Aiaia. This isolation becomes both a punishment and a sanctuary, allowing Circe to hone her magical skills and interact with various figures from Greek mythology, including Odysseus, the Minotaur, and Athena. The novel is not just a series of events but a profound exploration of Circe’s evolution from a naive nymph to a powerful sorceress, grappling with her immortality and her desire to understand the mortal world.

Main Characters

Circe : Initially a timid and overlooked nymph, Circe grows into a formidable witch. Her journey is marked by moments of vulnerability, strength, and deep introspection.
Odysseus : A clever and complex character, Odysseus’ interaction with Circe adds layers to both their stories.
Telemachus : Odysseus’ son, who visits Circe and develops a unique bond with her.
Athena : The goddess who often stands as Circe’s antagonist, representing the capricious and often cruel nature of the gods.

In-Depth Analysis

Miller’s writing is a standout feature, with its lyrical quality and deep emotional resonance. The novel excels in its portrayal of Circe as a multifaceted character, exploring themes of power, isolation, and identity. It also delves into the pettiness and politics of the gods, contrasting it with Circe’s growing affinity for humanity.

Character Development : Circe’s evolution is the heart of the story. Miller skillfully depicts her transformation, making her a relatable and compelling protagonist.
Lyrical Prose : The writing style is evocative and poetic, enhancing the mythological setting and the emotional depth of the narrative.
Pacing : Some readers might find the middle part of the book a bit slow, as it delves deeply into character exploration.

Literary Devices

Symbolism : Circe’s witchcraft symbolizes her independence and self-discovery.
Foreshadowing : The novel uses subtle hints to foretell key events, particularly in the interactions between gods and mortals.

Relation to Broader Issues

“Circe” speaks to the universal themes of identity, power dynamics, and the nature of humanity. It also touches on gender roles and the struggle for autonomy, particularly resonant in the #MeToo era.

“Circe” will appeal to fans of Greek mythology, character-driven narratives, and feminist literature. It stands out for its fresh take on a mythological figure often relegated to the margins of these stories. Readers who enjoyed “The Song of Achilles,” also by Miller, or “The Silence of the Girls” by Pat Barker, will likely find this novel captivating.

Potential Audiences

Fans of Greek mythology and retellings.
Readers interested in feminist narratives.
Those who appreciate character-driven stories and lyrical prose.

Thematic Analysis

The novel deeply explores themes like female empowerment, the nature of divinity versus humanity, and the search for identity. Circe’s journey is a powerful representation of breaking free from societal constraints and finding one’s voice.

Stylistic Elements

Miller’s prose is rich and poetic, bringing a modern sensibility to ancient myths. Her use of vivid imagery and careful pacing adds depth to the narrative and characters.

Comparison with Other Works

“Circe” can be compared to “The Song of Achilles” in its retelling of Greek myths with a humanistic perspective. It also shares thematic similarities with works like “The Penelopiad” by Margaret Atwood, offering a feminist perspective on classical stories.

Potential Test Questions with Answers

It represents her transformation from an ignored nymph to a powerful witch, allowing her to explore her abilities and independence.
She portrays him as complex and flawed, focusing on his cunning and moral ambiguities.

Awards and Recognitions

“Circe” was shortlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction in 2019 and received critical acclaim for its innovative approach to myth retelling.

Bibliographic Information

Title : Circe
Author : Madeline Miller
Publication Date : 2018
Publisher : Little, Brown and Company
ISBN : 978-0316556347

BISAC Categories:

Historical – Ancient
Fairy Tales, Folk Tales, Legends & Mythology
War & Military

Summaries of Awards and Other Reviews

Mythopoeic Fantasy Award Nominee for Adult Literature (2019)
ALA Alex Award (2019) ,
Tähtifantasia Award Nominee (2022)
Women’s Prize for Fiction Nominee (2019)
The Kitschies for Red Tentacle (Best Novel) (2019) ,
Goodreads Choice Award for Fantasy (2018)
Book of the Month Book of the Year Award (2018) ,
RUSA CODES Reading List Nominee for Historical Fiction (2019)

#1 New York Times Bestseller — named one of the Best Books of the Year by NPR, the Washington Post , People , Time , Amazon, Entertainment Weekly , Bustle, Newsweek, the A.V. Club, Christian Science Monitor, Refinery 29, Buzzfeed, Paste, Audible, Kirkus, Publishers Weekly, Thrillist, NYPL, Self, Real Simple, Goodreads, Boston Globe, Electric Literature, BookPage, the Guardian, Book Riot, Seattle Times, and Business Insider.

Purchasing Links

Is this book a series.

“Circe” is a standalone novel. However, Madeline Miller’s other work, “The Song of Achilles,” explores similar themes in a different mythological context.

About Madeline Miller

Madeline Miller is an American novelist and classics scholar. Her debut novel, “The Song of Achilles,” also received critical acclaim and awards. Miller is known for her ability to reimagine ancient myths with contemporary relevance and emotional depth.

December’s Book Club Pick: Turning Circe Into a Good Witch

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By Claire Messud

May 28, 2018

CIRCE By Madeline Miller 400 pp. Little, Brown & Company. $27.

I recall with intense pleasure my discovery in childhood of the Greek myths and Homer’s “Iliad,” in various editions, from an early acquaintance with d’Aulaire’s to Roger Lancelyn Green’s versions and, at the French school I attended for several years, a collection memorably entitled “Mythes et Légendes du Monde Grecque et Barbare.” Homer proper came later, in high school, affording both similar and distinct pleasures. In all versions, the concision and openness of the accounts were essential: Somehow authoritative rather than vague, they allowed an exhilarating freedom of imagination.

As familiar as those from the Bible, these stories saturate our literary history, in renditions and translations, allusions and transformations. Mary Renault stands as the 20th-century exemplar of the fully imagined retelling, most famously with “The King Must Die,” in which she granted Theseus his voice and conjured for readers the minute and vivid details of his upbringing and heroic deeds. More recently, Madeline Miller, a classicist and teacher, published “The Song of Achilles”: Widely acclaimed and translated, it received the Orange Prize for fiction in 2012. In that novel, Miller took on the story of Achilles from the perspective of Patroclus, his intimate and, in Miller’s version, his lover. Her fresh and contemporary understanding of this ancient story from the “Iliad” thrilled many and unnerved others. In this newspaper, Daniel Mendelsohn described the book as having “the head of a young adult novel, the body of the ‘Iliad’ and the hindquarters of Barbara Cartland” — ironically a fitting contemporary monster for the task of bringing the “Iliad” to a new readership.

Like its predecessor, Miller’s new book, “Circe,” illuminates known stories from a new perspective. Those familiar with the “Odyssey” will of course recall the wanderer’s visit to her island Aiaia — she’s perhaps best known as the witch who turns the sailors into pigs, and yet who ultimately invites Odysseus to be her lover and to abide with her, along with his men, for a year. Others will recall that Circe — Medea’s aunt, the sister of her father, Aeetes — cleansed Medea and Jason of their crimes, as they fled Colchis with the Golden Fleece and murdered Medea’s brother. She features, too, in the story of the Minotaur: Pasiphae, wife of King Minos and mother of Phaedra, Ariadne and the Minotaur (fathered, of course, by a sacred bull), is Circe’s sister. In all of these stories, Circe is at once important and liminal, just as she is a figure of uncertain powers, a minor immortal, the daughter of Helios, god of the sun and a Titan, and Perse, a lowly naiad.

Miller, writing once again in the first person (“The Song of Achilles” was narrated by Patroclus), gives voice to Circe as a multifaceted and evolving character. Her unhappy youth is explained, as the eldest and least cherished of Perse’s children by Helios, mocked for her unlovely voice (she will learn later, from Hermes, that “you sound like a mortal”). Secretly kind to Prometheus after he is condemned for giving fire to the humans, she is exiled to Aiaia not for this transgression but for her use of witchcraft to turn the mortal Glaucos, with whom she is in love, into a god; and, when Glaucos spurns her for the beautiful but feckless nymph Scylla, for transforming her into the sea monster who will plague sailors for generations.

According to Miller’s version, Circe is initially chiefly unhappy and immature, given to thoughtless lashing out that she lives to regret. When she cleanses Jason and Medea of their crimes, it is not because she is herself amoral but because she doesn’t know what those crimes are: When the pair ask her for “ katharsis,” “It was forbidden for me to question them.” Later, when she transforms sailors into pigs, her apparent malice is revealed in fact to be self-defense born of her isolation and mistreatment at the hands of sexual predators. When she deals with good men, like Daedalus, for whom she feels compassion (“he, too, knew what it was to make monsters”), she is filled with benevolent emotion; and even when her arguably evil brother Aeetes comes to Aiaia in search of Medea, she records feeling “a pleasure in me so old and sharp it felt like pain,” and recalls innocently that “as a child, he had liked to lean his head upon my shoulder and watch the sea gulls dip to catch their fish. His laugh had been bright as morning sun.”

Eventually, Circe will bear a child by Odysseus, a boy named Telegonus (although some versions of the myth have her bearing several boys); and Miller grants her, at this juncture, a profoundly human complex of emotions, from despair at the infant’s constant screaming to a profound and unconditional maternal ardor: “When he finally slept … a love so sharp it seemed my flesh lay open. I made a list of all the things I would do for him. Scald off my skin. Tear out my eyes. Walk my feet to bones, if only he would be happy and well.” Motherhood, then, is what renders Circe fully recognizable, postpartum depression and all.

As this passage makes clear, Miller has determined, in her characterization of this most powerful witch, to bring her as close as possible to the human — from the timbre of her voice to her intense maternal instincts. The brutal insouciance of her fellow immortals — whether her sharp-tongued mother, Perse; or chilly Hermes; or righteous Athena enraged — proves increasingly alien to this thoughtful and compassionate woman who learns to love unselfishly. It is an unexpected and jolly, if bittersweet, development, and one rather closer to Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Little Mermaid” than to traditional Greek myth.

“Circe” is very pleasurable to read, combining lively versions of familiar tales (like the birth of the Minotaur or the arrival of Odysseus and his men on Circe’s island) and snippets of other, related standards (a glance at Daedalus and Icarus; a nod to the ultimate fate of Medea after she and Jason leave Aiaia) with a highly psychologized, redemptive and ultimately exculpatory account of the protagonist herself. That said, Daniel Mendelsohn’s assessment of Miller’s earlier book pertains, perhaps even more so in this instance: It’s a hybrid entity, inserting strains of popular romance and specifically human emotion into the lives of the gods. Idiosyncrasies in the prose reflect this uneasy mixture: Circe sometimes speaks with syntactic inversions that recall Victorian translations from Greek (“frail she was, but crafty, with a mind like a spike-toothed eel”; “a year of peaceful days he had stayed with me”; “young he was, but not a fool”), and at other moments, in a surprising contemporary vernacular (“Meanwhile every petty and useless god would go on sucking down the bright air until the stars went dark”) occasionally punctuated by overly familiar phrases (that laugh, above, “bright as morning sun”; or this odd deployment of cliché: “My blood ran cold to see his greenness”).

In spite of these occasional infelicities and awkwardnesses, “Circe” will surely delight readers new to the witch’s stories as it will many who remember her role in the Greek myths of their childhood: Like a good children’s book, it engrosses and races along at a clip, eliciting excitement and emotion along the way. The novel’s feminist slant also appeals, offering — like revisions of Medea including Rachel Cusk’s 2015 adaptation of the play or David Vann’s 2017 novel “Bright Air Black” — a reclamation of one of myth’s reviled women. Purists may be less enchanted, bemused by Miller’s sentimental leanings and her determination to make Circe into an ultimately likable, or at least forgivable, character. This narrative choice seems a taming, and hence a diminishment, of the character’s transgressive divine excess.

Claire Messud is the author, most recently, of “The Burning Girl.”

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Franz von Stuck’s Tilla Durieux Depicting Circe (1913). Photograph: Alamy

Circe by Madeline Miller review – myth, magic and single motherhood

A nymph faces the joys and lonelinesses of independence in this feminist reworking of Greek myth from an Orange winner

I n her first novel, The Song of Achilles , Madeline Miller retold the siege of Troy from the point of view of Patroclus, whose death Achilles avenged by unleashing outsize destruction on Troy and especially on Hector, whose body he tied to his chariot and dragged around the city walls. Homer did not spell out the exact nature of a relationship that might trigger such a reaction; Miller made it a love story, tender and loyal, and by clearly showing what Achilles’ hubris would cost him gave it not only intimacy but the arc of true tragedy. The Song of Achilles now exists in 23 languages and despite disapproving mutterings in some quarters – it had “the head of a young adult novel, the body of The Iliad and the hindquarters of Barbara Cartland”, according to the New York Times – won what was then still called the Orange prize.

A striking aspect of The Song of Achilles was the degree to which Miller was alive to gendered inequalities of power, describing how fighting men gathered when a well-born woman (Helen) came to puberty, and how Greek wars were fought: arrive, kill the men, take the women, parcel them out, tumble them on marsh-reed beds then require them to serve and feed the now entrenched army. This could be seen especially in her characterisation of Thetis, a young nymph given by the gods to the mortal Peleus. A kind man who would become a well-loved king, Peleus was nevertheless required, by those same gods, to overpower her; the rape resulted in Achilles, “best of the Greeks” – and made the nymph as chilly and harsh toward humans as the depths of the sea in which she lived.

Circe, the subject of her second book, is also a nymph. “Brides, nymphs were called, but that is not really how the world saw us. We were an endless feast laid out upon a table, beautiful and renewing. And so very bad at getting away.” Daughter of a naiad and Helios the sun god, Circe is immortal, and this first-person account is a kind of greatest hits of the ancient Greek world: Prometheus and his endless punishment, Scylla and Charybdis, Hermes, Apollo, Athena, Daedalus and his son Icarus, Ariadne and the Minotaur (who is Circe’s nephew), Jason and the Golden Fleece – and Odysseus, of course, who in Book 10 of The Odyssey encounters Circe when he lands on her island and she changes some of his sailors into pigs. As so often, the gods are portrayed as vain and retribution-minded; born bursting with “excellences”, as Miller’s Circe puts it, “they find their fame by proving what they can mar: destroying cities, starting wars, breeding plagues and monsters”. If this was all there was (and at the beginning of the novel, it is all it feels there is going to be), Miller would be dealing with a problem familiar from magic realism: if literally anything can happen, if there is always some new monster or god with new powers then why care about any of it? But Miller also knows that, as with the best magical realism, the real power doesn’t lie in the ostensible facts of the narrative, but in its psychology.

And that is where Miller anchors her story – in the emotional life of a woman. She is not the first to see the potential in Circe, who over the centuries has been interpreted as everything from a parable against drunkenness to an embodiment of emasculation. From the moment Circe realises, as a young girl, that she is scorned for her ungainliness, to her rebellion against her family with a good-looking ne’er-do–well; from her self-harming rages to the joys and lonelinesses of independence; from finding a vocation to the challenges of single motherhood (even goddesses, in this telling, can run out of nappies), Miller’s is a feminist version in which everything is at stake. In this context, turning ravening sailors into pigs is not just another hurdle for all-conquering Odysseus to overcome, but necessary self-defence.

What is gained by Circe’s immortality is, in the main, what is gained in any long life if you are willing to look past yourself. Circe learns the importance of balancing trust and self-protection. We learn that Jason may be beautiful and strong, but he is also “lost in the details of his own legend”; that Hermes is all very well as a lover, as long as one doesn’t ever commit the sin of being dull; that Odysseus is “lawyer and bard and crossroads charlatan at once” – who nevertheless is also capable of real grownup care. “He showed me his scars and in return let me pretend that I had none.” We discover that even gods would improve by experiencing “guilt and shame, remorse, ambivalence” – which are other ways of saying self-knowledge – but most never do. That magic is greater than deity, because magic is made of humble materials, and work and will; no amount of godhead will make up for practice, and no amount of power replace a steady love.

It is out of these insights, sprung as surprises that often contain within them a retrospective inevitability, that Miller achieves real narrative propulsion. Some will consider her prose too purple, her plotting too neat, but others will find it supple, pitched in a register that bridges man and myth. At one point, Odysseus’s mind is described as being like “the spiral shell. Always another curve out of sight”. Miller has taken the familiar materials of character, and wrought some satisfying turns of her own.

Circe by Madeline Miller (Bloomsbury Publishing, £16.99). To order a copy for £12.99, go to guardianbookshop.com or call 0330 333 6846. Free UK p&p over £10, online orders only. Phone orders min. p&p of £1.99.
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Circe by Madeline Miller review: a fresh take on ancient mythical tale

A complex, compelling portrait of one of the most intriguing women in western literature.

The daughter of a sea nymph and the Titan sun god Helios, Circe is doomed to immortality

Circe doesn't take up much space in Homer's Odyssey – the visit to her island takes up just 15 pages in Emily Wilson's 2017 translation – but the sorceress who turns men into pigs makes an indelible impact. Since her story was first told several thousand years ago, she's inspired countless artists and writers from Ovid to John William Waterhouse. In her new novel Circe , Madeline Miller, who won the Orange Prize for The Song of Achilles in 2012, offers a refreshingly complex and utterly compelling portrait of one of the most intriguing women in western literature.

Miller, who has an MA in classics from Brown University, draws on a wide range of ancient Greek and Latin sources to tell Circe’s story. Like its classical source material, the novel is episodic, but this structure perfectly conveys one of the novel’s central themes. Circe is immortal, which means that any relationships she may form with humans, from Daedalus to Odysseus, can only be temporary. They will always age and die, and she will have to move on without them, beautiful, powerful and alone.

The daughter of a sea nymph and the Titan sun god Helios, Circe begins her life in the halls of her father. When she was born, she tells us, “the name for what I was did not exist”. Is she a nymph? A goddess? The truth, as it turns out, is something entirely new. Despised by her divine family, Circe discovers her powers of sorcery when she turns a human fisherman into a god. When he spurns her for another nymph, Scylla, Circe transforms her rival into a horrific sea monster who becomes the sourge of all sailors – an act that will haunt Circe for the rest of her life. Circe is exiled to a lonely island, where she spends centuries honing her craft.

But she’s not totally isolated. She visits Crete, where her cruel sister Pasiphae gives birth to a monster that will become legend, and where Circe bonds with the inventor Daedalus. They work together to contain the Minotaur, combining Daedalus’s human skill and her sorcery. Miller’s depiction of what it feels like to work magic is extraordinarily vivid and convincing – after Daedalus gives Circe a beautiful loom, she is struck by the similarities between working with textiles and with spells: “the simplicity and skill at once…your hands must be busy, and your mind sharp and free”.

Unflinching horror

Circe must return to her island, where she is visited by her intense niece Medea and her husband Jason, an encounter which reminds her of her own loneliness. Not long afterwards we discover what turned her into the seemingly capricious sorceress of Book 10 of the Odyssey , who turns visiting sailors into swine. This is dark magic born of cruelty, described in scenes of unflinching horror, and for a while Circe's pain threatens to consume her. Then along comes wily Odysseus, and everything changes yet again. But where can your story end, when you're going to live forever?

This is, of course, a ripping yarn, and in other hands Circe could have been an ancient Greek equivalent of Marion Zimmer Bradley's sprawling 1983 bestseller The Mists of Avalon , which tells the story of Arthur through the eyes of Morgan le Fey. Which wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing. But what elevates Circe is Miller's luminous prose, which is both enormously readable and evocative, and the way in which she depicts the gulf between gods and mortals.

The Titans and Olympians in the novel feel both disturbingly alien and utterly convincing. Miller writes of divinity as a quality that can be felt, expressed and, in the case of Circe, sometimes resented. Crucially, Circe never feels like a modern woman. She is the product of an ancient and immortal world, who begins by feeling repulsed by humans and gradually comes to realise that mortals can grow and change while her fellow immortals are doomed to find variety only in manipulation and destruction. Circe can be part of that cycle of cruel and pointless conflict, or she can choose to break it. In this unforgettable novel, Miller makes us care about that magical, mythical choice.

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Book Review of CIRCE

Well, I’ve done it. I’ve finally read the Goodreads Readers’ Choice Best Fantasy book of 2018: Circe , by Madeline Miller. And, it only took me until halfway through 2019 to post my book review of it.

I usually don’t read fantasy, which is a bit ironic considering that the novel I’ve written is a blend of historical fiction and fantasy. But, I love stories based on religion and mythology, particularly ones that create backstories for peripheral characters in classic tales or from well-known parts of history. Think along the lines of The Red Tent or Girl with a Pearl Earring . Circe falls easily into this category, since it draws upon parts of Homer’s epic poem The Odyssey , but also builds a completely new mythology for the character of Circe, who is largely known only as a sorceress and paramour of The Odyssey ‘s hero, Odyssesus.

Despite obsessively reading Greek myths from childhood through college, I admit that my knowledge of the goddess Circe is primarily from how Homer depicts her in The Odyssey — more specifically, from the 1990s NBC movie adaptation of The Odyssey starring Armand Assante and Bernadette Peters. (I think I still have it on VHS cassette somewhere, complete with where I accidentally hit the pause button while recording and therefore lost about 30 seconds of crucial Cyclops scene time. #ThoseWereTheDays).

Circe starts off very strong, drawing the reader into the mesmerizing world that the goddess is born into. Miller’s writing is exquisite; her tale reads like an epic poem, filled with beautiful metaphors, similes, and descriptive imagery. She’s clearly paying homage to Homer, which helps invokes the majesty of an classic, epic myth. I was fascinated by Circe’s intimidating and surprisingly lonely childhood amidst fearsome and magnificent gods. I was also immediately captivated by Circe herself, who seems to be the black sheep of her celestial family.

Eventually, Miller gets to the Circe we’re all familiar with: the cruel temptress who offers feasts to starving sailors before turning them into swine, and who convinces the hero Odysseus to dally with her on her exotically beautiful island. I appreciated this retelling, and was excited to see the story move beyond her time with Odysseus, since his departure signals where my knowledge of Circe’s traditional fable ends.

Unfortunately, this is also where I started to become a little disappointed with Circe . I felt that the story stalled out in several places while I was reading, particularly after Telegonus enters the scene. I was still intrigued by the premise of the novel, but I would periodically grow weary of events taking place, or with the interactions between certain characters. Compared to the action of the first half of the novel, the second half was just a little “ho-hum.” It wasn’t enough to make me stop reading, but I did have to nudge myself a few times to find out where Circe’s story would ultimately lead her.

I’m glad I kept reading, though, because it definitely led her somewhere I did not suspect. I have no idea how much of Circe is based on “actual” events (i.e., popular mythology), but Circe’s life in Miller’s novel certainly takes a few unexpected twists.

Overall, I like Circe for what it’s done for its titular character: create a fantastic, wondrous, and emotional backstory for a mysterious figure we’ve all heard of, but have really only seen through men’s eyes. We know Circe as a woman who lives on an island, surrounded by men whom she’s preyed upon with seduction and magic. But, we don’t really know how she got to the island, or how she became this “wicked witch” in the first place. Everyone deserves to have their own story told, and I loved that Miller finally gave Circe hers, told in her own voice.

And, Circe’s not the only one who gets a revamp in this novel; Miller brings a sharp, intriguing sense of dichotomy to many classic Greek heroes and monsters found in The Odyssey . Too often, legends paint certain characters as either diametrically good or bad. Just as we are shown a different side of Circe, Miller creates similar, sympathetic backstories for several other mythological “monsters,” such as Scylla (of Scylla and Charybdis) and the Minotaur. In turn, she builds up the crueler nature of the heroes we’re used to glorifying, like Odysseus. As a result, the black-and-white world of “good guys vs bad guys” is wonderfully muddled. Through Circe’s eyes, the reader is able to see that the propensity for both good and evil lurks within all creatures, even heroes and monsters.

As one of my first forays into fantasy, I think Circe was pretty good. Although I didn’t love the entire story that Miller gave her heroine, I loved that fact that Circe was given a story in the first place, and that it was one that made her a powerful, intriguing, and empathetic figure. If nothing else, Circe proved why retellings are one of my favorite genres of literature.

What are some retellings of classic stories you love? Feel free to send some recommendations my way in the comments below!

And, stay tuned for my book-inspired recipe: Greek Chicken Orzo Salad!

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Novel Notions

Book review: circe by madeline miller, may 19, 2020 petrik leo comments 0 comment.

Circe by Madeline Miller

My rating: 4.5 of 5 stars

Series: Standalone

Genre: Historical fiction, Mythology, Retelling

Pages : 433 pages (US Kindle edition)

Published: 19th April 2018 by Bloomsbury (UK) & 10th April 2018 by Little, Brown and Company (US)

Madeline Miller is now on my must-read author list. I can’t wait for her next work already.

I guess I can officially say with no reservation that I’m a fan of Madeline Miller’s books now. Many readers have raved about her books for almost a decade now, compared to them, I definitely can be considered a new fan of Madeline Miller. I finished reading The Song of Achilles almost two months ago, and despite my previous hesitancy—I talked about why in my review of the book—to read that book, it blew me away how good it was. Right upon finishing it, I knew I had to give Circe a read as well, and although I slightly loved The Song of Achilles more, I cannot deny that Circe is another incredible book by Madeline Miller.

“It is a common saying that women are delicate creatures, flowers, eggs, anything that may be crushed in a moment’s carelessness. If I had ever believed it, I no longer did.”

When I was starting The Song of Achilles , I was afraid that my knowledge of Achilles and the Trojan War would diminish my experience on Miller’s take on the story. As it turns out, knowing about Achilles and how his story ended actually deepened my enjoyment of reading that book. When I was going to start Circe , it was the other way around; I knew about Odysseus and his journey, but I admittedly remembered very little about Circe’s tale. In fact, what I remembered about Circe was only that Odysseus met her, and she also turned Odysseus’ men into pigs, that’s it. I was afraid that my lack of knowledge about Circe would actually decrease my enjoyment; there was no need for any worry, after all. Circe is beautiful, empowering, and well-written.

“Humbling women seems to me a chief pastime of poets. As if there can be no story unless we crawl and weep.”

Circe’s characterization is simply wonderful. It was easy for me to find myself invested in her story, and the more I read about Miller’s take on her character, the more I grew to care about her. She’s a kind-hearted and innocent individual who has to learn things the hard way but never let the difficulties, betrayals, and loneliness she faced throughout her life changed her core virtues. Her character’s development was gradually developed. This is also what made Circe such a compelling character to read; she’s powerful, and I’m speaking this not just in terms of her literal power as a witch, but it’s her perseverance, defiance, and strong mentality that I found to be inspiring. The cruel events that have happened to Circe could’ve easily led her to think that all male is evil, but this didn’t happen to her; Circe judged people, regardless of their genders and affiliations, equally through their actions. Good people receive kindness, bad people deserve retribution.

“You have always been the worst of my children,” he said. “Be sure to not dishonor me.” “I have a better idea. I will do as I please, and when you count your children, leave me out.”

Greek mythology—along with Norse and Japanese mythologies—are some of my favorite myths to read about. I loved reading Miller’s Greek retellings. After reading The Song of Achilles , it somehow felt comfortable to me to be reading another standalone story by Miller within these eras. It was great to witness Scylla and its origin; Prometheus and his torture; Daedalus and Icarus; Odysseus’ and his family; the Greek gods behaving as childish as possible, and many more. These, and heroic actions, are all the kinds of things that made Greek mythologies fascinating to read, and Miller continues to nail the executions. The part with the Trygon’s Tail was something that I haven’t heard of; this could be Miller’s own rendition on this story section, and it fits the narrative she tells.

“You cannot know how frightened gods are of pain. There is nothing more foreign to them, and so nothing they ache more deeply to see.”

Both The Song Achilles and Circe has proved that Madeline Miller is a blessing for literature and Greek mythologies. Feel free to consider me a fan of her books now, I heard that her next novel will be about Pandora, and I’m super excited for it. Honestly speaking, though, I loved reading Miller’s beautiful prose so much that I don’t think I’d mind if she decides to retell everything in Greek mythologies with her creativity and writing.

“But in a solitary life, there are rare moments when another soul dips near yours, as stars once a year brush the earth. Such a constellation was he to me.”

You can order the book from: Book Depository (Free shipping)

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Circe Book Review, Novel Retelling by Madeline Miller

Circe book review: synopsis.

In this modern feminist retelling of Greek mythology, Madeline Miller shares the epic yet intimate story of Circe, a minor goddess and daughter of Helios, god of the sun. Born lacking divine qualities, Circe discovers she possesses the forbidden power of witchcraft. When Circe transforms her mortal lover using her occult craft, wrathful Zeus banishes her to the remote island of Aiaia. There, Circe continues developing her sorceress abilities, until she is discovered by wily Odysseus and his crew of adventurers returning home from the Trojan War.

Table of Contents

Seeking to take advantage of the solitary woman, Odysseus’s men threaten Circe, who defends herself by turning them into swine with her dark spells. Through trickery and negotiation, cunning Odysseus manages to free his men from Circe’s enchantment. In defiance of expectations for goddesses in Greek myths, independent Circe chooses to take Odysseus as her lover. When he eventually continues his epic voyage back to his wife Penelope, Circe gives birth to their son Telegonus.

Over her long life spanning centuries, Circe encounters many famous figures from legends, including the messenger god Hermes, the murderous sorceress Medea, and Daedalus the craftsman. Madeline Miller, a professor of classics, brings Circe’s story to life with vivid writing and imaginative worldbuilding. Though initially scorned, the daughter of Helios perseveres to become the notorious witch of Aeaea. More than merely a bit player in the epics of legendary men, Circe steps into the light as the powerful heroine of her own extraordinary story.

Circe Main Characters

Daughter of the Titan sun god Helios; born lacking the voice and appearance of a goddess; discovers the forbidden power of witchcraft; exiled to the island of Aiaia after transforming her mortal lover Glaucos; develops her occult craft and encounters many famous mythological figures, including wily Odysseus

Circe’s father; god of the sun who lives in a fiery palace of obsidian; harbors contempt for his disappointing daughter Circe

A mortal fisherman; Circe’s first love; she uses her newfound powers of pharmaka (sorcery) to transform him into a god to be with her; he later spurns Circe for the sea nymph Scylla

Legendary Greek king of Ithaca and hero of the Trojan War; stops at Circe’s island and she turns his men into swine before falling in love with him; cunning and wily, he manages to outwit Circe

Circe and Odysseus’s son conceived on her island; she raises him alone after Odysseus resumes his voyage back to Ithaca and his wife Penelope

Circe’s ambitious brother who rules Colchis, guarding the Golden Fleece

Circe’s sister who gives birth to the Minotaur after her unnatural love for a bull

A skilled craftsman who comes to Circe for help evading King Minos; she provides herbs for his wax wings

Circe’s murderous, wrathful niece who begs for magical herbs and kills her own brother

Circe Book Review: Themes

In this mythological retelling, Madeline Miller explores themes of female empowerment, independence and defiance of patriarchal norms through the characterization of the sorceress Circe. Born a disappointment to her sun god father Helios and the other Olympian gods, Circe discovers her own power of witchcraft and occult craft. In a world dominated by divine and mortal males like Zeus and Odysseus, Circe forges her own life and rules her solitary island of Aiaia. Cast out to the island and expected to live in perpetual exile, Circe flourishes by exercising her will to master her magical abilities through experimentation and persistent work.

The theme of female independence can also be seen in Circe’s subversion of the archetype of a witch who must be defeated or subjugated by a “hero” like wily Odysseus. However, Circe ultimately chooses to love Odysseus on her own terms rather than face suppression. Through Circe, Miller highlights the frequent lack of agency afforded to women in Greek epics. Her life encompasses misogyny, scorn, abuse and disregard by gods and mortals alike. Yet Circe emerges with self-determination, defining her own story over centuries of immortal life. Motherhood later becomes another vital experience shaping Circe’s transformation.

Miller also explores the theme of uncertainty about one’s place in the world, as Circe grapples with loneliness, isolation and not belonging throughout her long existence. As a child of Helios, yet lacking key divine traits, Circe straddles the realms of gods and mortals. Her exile only exacerbates her solitude until she ultimately embraces purpose by helping mythical figures like Daedalus and challenging the will of oppressive deities through witchcraft. This coming-of-age story traces Circe’s evolution from timid girl to confident witch.

Circe Book Review: Writing Style

Madeline Miller’s writing style in “Circe” evokes the lyrical and metaphorical language of the ancient Greek epics. Yet her prose remains fluid and poetic without feeling antiquated. Miller unfurls evocative descriptions of divine realms, conjuring the fiery golden palace of sun god Helios: “The light came from everywhere at once, his yellow skin, his lambent eyes, the bronze flashing of his hair.” Similes empower comparisons, such as Glaucos transforming into “a sea-surge” in his new godly might. Alliteration gives certain phrases melodic impact.

As both classicist and novelist, Miller’s great skill lies in making myths feel vibrant, real and close. She masterfully recreates Circe’s voice through vivid narration – we experience Circe’s exile, experiments with pharmaka and encounters with famous personages like cunning Odysseus with intimacy and immediacy. Miller translates age-old tales of gods and Titans into accessible modern language, while retaining awe-inspiring power.

While crafting her own gorgeous sentences, Miller also weaves in the original text of The Odyssey, layering her expansion of Circe’s tale. References to poetic fragments and recurring themes from the Greek classics enhance Miller’s homage to these enduring stories. For today’s readers, her book’s uniquely feminine point of view offers a welcome perspective to balance the male-dominated narratives of Homer while remaining utterly faithful to the spirit of mythic tradition. The result, as goddess Circe herself declares, feels akin to “a voice of divinity, singing out of time.”

Circe Book Review: Final Verdict

In “Circe”, Madeline Miller succeeds wonderfully in breathing new life into ancient tales. This bold reimagining of a scorned Greek goddess elevates a once-sidelined woman into a complex, flawed and captivating epic heroine in her own right. Miller conjures the realm of Olympians and Titans with equal parts fantasy, feminist spirit, and scholarly faithfulness. Real emotion resonates through elevated language that still feels fresh and contemporary. The pacing moves at a stately yet stirring pace, like a dissolving scroll unveiling secrets and wonders.

Readers fascinated by Greek mythology will find Miller’s work an utterly transportive delight. Her mastery at immersing audiences in legends allows even newcomers to dive right in. Fans of fantasy and historical fiction alike will relish Miller’s rich worldbuilding. The themes of independence, power dynamics between men and women, fate versus self-determination, and humanity’s relationship with the divine all lend themselves to discussion. Modeling a classic hero’s journey toward identity, Circe will resonate strongly with young adults. But ultimately most satisfying is Circe herself – an underdog who grows into courage and conviction.

Unfolding over lifetimes, Circe’s chronicle makes for an odyssey that adventurous, patient readers can bury themselves in, until the hypnotic song of Miller’s words causes one to lose all track of time. “Circe” earns its place among the literary canon as a tale for the ages.

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Thoughts on Circe by Madeline Miller : r/Fantasy
26. samskuantch. • 2 yr. ago. I adored Circe, though certain parts were a bit of a gut punch since some of Circe's struggles hit too close to home for me. Circe is probably one of my favorite books I've read this year. A Song of Achilles is also great, though less fantastical and a lot grittier. 25. Robowarrior.
Circe by Madeline Miller
Circe chronicles the life of a lesser god. She is the daughter of the mighty God Helios, the living embodiment of the sun. She is born without any particular talents or powers. She exists in the shadows of her more developed brothers and sisters. She does not shine in such spectacular company.
Review of "Circe"
A big theme over the course of the book is the difference between the gods and mankind. The pagan gods are cruel, selfish, merciless, and proud. Most of the humans in the book don't seem particularly virtuous either: the lustful sailors, manipulate Odysseus, unfaithful Glaucos, and so on. But Circe envies them for their ability to change and die.
CIRCE
Circe's fascination with mortals becomes the book's marrow and delivers its thrilling ending. All the while, the supernatural sits intriguingly alongside "the tonic of ordinary things.". A few passages coil toward melodrama, and one inelegant line after a rape seems jarringly modern, but the spell holds fast.
Book review: Circe, by Madeline Miller
Mocked by her far more majestic family, Circe is a kind of Titanic Jane Eyre, sensitive and miserable, but nursing an iron will. (She also develops an acerbic sense of humor: Her father, she tells ...
Review: Circe by Madeline Miller
Miller reimagines Circe's story and gives her a full arc that changes the perspective. And you might have a new favorite goddess after reading this retelling of a classic story. The novel starts out with the birth of Circe, she is the daughter of Helios the god of sun and the mightiest of Titans. But since Circe is not powerful like her ...
Circe by Madeline Miller Review: Mythological Reimagining & Analysis
17 Dec. Circe by Madeline Miller. "Circe" by Madeline Miller is a fascinating and beautifully written novel that reimagines the life of Circe, a minor goddess and enchantress in Greek mythology. Published in 2018, this book has captivated readers with its unique blend of mythological retelling and character-driven narrative.
December's Book Club Pick: Turning Circe Into a Good Witch
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Circe by Madeline Miller review
At one point, Odysseus's mind is described as being like "the spiral shell. Always another curve out of sight". Miller has taken the familiar materials of character, and wrought some ...
Circe by Madeline Miller review: a fresh take on ancient mythical tale
Circe. Author: Madeline Miller. ISBN-13: 978-1408890080. Publisher: Bloomsbury. Guideline Price: £16.99. Circe doesn't take up much space in Homer's Odyssey - the visit to her island takes up ...
Book Review of CIRCE
Well, I've done it. I've finally read the Goodreads Readers' Choice Best Fantasy book of 2018: Circe, by Madeline Miller.And, it only took me until halfway through 2019 to post my book review of it. I usually don't read fantasy, which is a bit ironic considering that the novel I've written is a blend of historical fiction and fantasy. But, I love stories based on religion and ...
Circe by Madeline Miller book review
Book Review: Circe by Madeline Miller. May 19, 2020 Petrik Leo 0 Comment. Circe by Madeline Miller. My rating: 4.5 of 5 stars. Series: Standalone. Genre: Historical fiction, Mythology, Retelling. Pages: 433 pages (US Kindle edition) Published: 19th April 2018 by Bloomsbury (UK) & 10th April 2018 by Little, Brown and Company (US) Madeline Miller ...
Book Review: Circe
Time to circle back on a book I first reading during the Great Hiatus and recently re-read in the past few months: Circe by Madeline Miller, a retelling of Greek myth focused on that mysterious witch from The Odyssey, who turns men into pigs. ... May 2 Book Review: Circe. Danielle Maurer. ... Facebook 0 Twitter LinkedIn 0 Reddit Tumblr ...
Circe Book Review, Novel Retelling by Madeline Miller
Circe Book Review: Final Verdict. In "Circe", Madeline Miller succeeds wonderfully in breathing new life into ancient tales. This bold reimagining of a scorned Greek goddess elevates a once-sidelined woman into a complex, flawed and captivating epic heroine in her own right. Miller conjures the realm of Olympians and Titans with equal parts ...
Circe
Circe by Madeline Miller book review. Circe is a captivating fantasy novel with a wonderful mix of gods, heroes, magic and mythology. It is a refreshing and unique take on Greek Mythology while maintaining the nostalgia of the classics. Circe by Madeline Miller book review. Circe is a captivating fantasy novel with a wonderful mix of gods ...
Book Review : Circe
Book Review : Circe. "A bold and subversive retelling of the goddess's story," this #1 New York Times bestseller is "both epic and intimate in its scope, recasting the most infamous female figure from the Odyssey as a hero in her own right" (Alexandra Alter, The New York Times). In the house of Helios, god of the sun and mightiest of the Titans ...
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The original nasty woman is a goddess for our times

Review: Circe by Madeline Miller

Mythical island of Aiaia

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Circe is a beautifully written, epic story that is perfect for book clubs.

Circe by Madeline Miller

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Book Review of HAPPY JOBS: Doing What You Love for a Living

Book Review of DECODING THE STARS: A Modern Astrology Guide to Discover Your Life’s Purpose

Book Review of HOME FOR CHRISTMAS

Book Review of HAMNET

Book Review of THE HACIENDA

Book Review of A TRUE ACCOUNT: HANNAH MASURY’S SOJOURN AMONGST THE PYRATES, WRITTEN BY HERSELF

Book Review of GREENWICH PARK

Book Review of GAD’S HALL and THE HAUNTING OF GAD’S HALL

Book Review of OLD COUNTRY

Book Review of A STORM OF INFINITE BEAUTY

Book Review of THE SPARROW SISTERS

Book Review of BEST SERVED HOT

Book Review of MY MAGNOLIA SUMMER (DNF review)

Book Review of A NOVEL OBSESSION

Book Review of THE RESERVOIR

Book Review of LOCKDOWN ON LONDON LANE