One of my favorite Greek Myths is that of Circe. In this text, I will talk about her as she is interpreted in Madeline Miller's book: Circe.
Circe is the daughter of Helios, the Greek god of the Sun, and Perse, a nymph. Her birth was a disappointment to her mother; she wanted a son or an attractive daughter who could marry one of Zeus' eternal sons. However, she wasn't gorgeous or glowing, as a proper daughter of Helios. Instead, her voice was screechy, her hair far from fine, and her eyes a disturbing shade of yellow. She spent her days admiring her father's beauty, always at his feet, blinded by his divinity. She spent centuries in loneliness, having an empty life of sitting and staring in the halls of Helios's palace.
Her first noticeable event is her encounter with Prometheus. In the scene, he is punished for defying Zeus and bringing mortals fire. After his prolonged and agonizing whipping, while everyone else goes to the feast, she fetches the great god nectar in an attempt to relieve his pain. Circe's first inspiring act is knowingly risking her life to bring even an ounce of peace to someone. This encounter is significant because it demonstrates how she differed from every other greedy god who cared for nothing but pleasure.
One day, Circe finds Glaucos, a fisherman, and she goes from being fascinated by his mortality to sinking in love with him. Because being a daughter of Helios meant higher expectations, and even she was seen as worthy of more than a mortal husband, she finds a way to make him into a god using the sap of a divine plant. This is her first experience with witchcraft. However, Glaucos becomes arrogant in his godly form and rejects Circe for another nymph, Scylla. Using the plant again, she turns Scylla into a six-headed demonic terror that plagued and tormented sailors, killing them for centuries to come.
Her actions aren't honorable in this sense, but these were her first experiences with witchcraft and the art of pharmaka. Nobody suspects that she is the one that turned both Glacuos into a god and Scylla into a monster. But Circe grows tired of being ignored and overlooked, and she chooses to admit and proclaim what she did what she did. I didn't understand her actions when I first read it; why would she choose to bring the punishment on herself? That question is what makes Circe stand apart from virtually every other god in Greek Mythology. "Not all gods need be the same....I was not like them...Then you must think, Circe. What would they not do?" (Circe 61)
After having admitted her doings, she gets sent to exile on an island called Aiaia, where she blooms her witchcraft, spirit, art, and character. "The worst of my cowardice had been sweated out. In its place was a giddy spark. I will not be like a bird bred in a cage, I thought, too dull to fly even when the door stands open. I stepped into those woods and my life began." (Circe 81) Her stay on the island proves to be a journey of discovery, discovering droughts, poisons, love, and herself. What comes after is the story of Circe, a long journey which I questioned and pondered on why she chose to do what she did. Why was she ready to throw herself into an eternity of torment and terrorizing anguish for her son? Why does she constantly give up her comfort and choose pain?
That's where Circe will always differ; she chooses her fate, makes her own paths, lives her own life. She sees discomfort, and she doesn't run away from it. Instead, she embraces what she doesn't know and paints her own image, turning herself from the irrelevant and patronized nymph to a powerful witch with a burning character. She's known through Odysseus's stories; the witch that he charmed into sparing his men from being turned into pigs, just another one of his countless achievements and obstacles that he endured. Madeline Miller, however, shifts the light to who she truly is, not just another woman that Odysseus tamed, but a vigorous character with complex life and story, and a dynamic character who learns and grows and is one like no other.
Circe, by Madeline Miller, will always be one of my favorite literary characters. I love the fresh interpretation of a less revered character with a heart-stirring journey and personality that has you questioning and empathizing through the pages.