Circe: the Myths and the Novel

Much has been said of the goddess and witch from Greek mythology, Circe, and as it is with ancient stories that have been passed down for generations, much of her actual history is not very clear. From her parentage to her lovers to her children, a lot of it is messy rumors. While in her novel Circe, Madeline Miller chooses Helios (Titan god of the sun) and Perse (a Oceanid) as Circe’s mother and father, some have also named Aeetes, Hecate, and Aesterope to be possible parents (Parada). In fact, in Miller’s novel, Aeetes is Circe’s brother. This goes to show just how much of all the relationships between Greek Gods is fuzzy, especially since so many siblings and cousins seemed to have children with each other. Circe was banned to live in isolation on her island, Aiaia, and is most famous for her relationship with Odysseus, one of the most important mortal figures of Greek mythology. She is also known for her interactions with Jason and the Argonauts, as well as being a “vengeful lover” (Parada), since she was the one who turned Scylla into a monster out of revenge. Most often, the witch is painted in a very negative light, used to strike fear into whoever hears tales about her. Much of what Miller tries to achieve in her novel is reversing this view of Circe; she changes how her readers see the witch, making them empathize with her and honestly see her as one of the most moral, level-headed gods in Greek mythology. This is a challenge, since so many of Circe’s stories are brutal ones; the witch was known best for turning the sailors that stumbled upon her island into pigs and slaughtering them. Yet, Miller is very successful, because not only do readers understand Circe’s reasoning, but the reasoning is also very believable in comparison to what we definitely know to be true about the witch. Perhaps the most important difference between the novel and the Greek mythology was the fact that unlike what’s suggested in the book, Circe and Odysseus had more than one child together (Parada). In the book, much of Circe’s identity as a mother rides on the fact that Odysseus did not know that she gave birth to his child, Telegonus. When Telegonus ventures to meet his father (and accidently kills him), he returns with Odysseus’ wife and her son, Telemachus. Though the book is honest to the romantic relationship that blooms between Circe and Telemachus, it leaves out completely the alleged marriage between Odysseus’ wife Penelope and Circe’s son Telegonus (Parada). While these facts would have been fascinating to see play out with Miller’s vision of Circe, it is understandable that she’d leave them out, as it would have added much more length and complexity to the already loquacious novel. Miller does a great job at including practically all of the myths Circe is involved in and tying them together well in the novel. One she does not mention, though, is the story of Picus, a demigod Circe fell in love with but eventually turned into a woodpecker, since he was in love with another and refused Circe (Parada). Again, it makes sense that Miller leaves this out, since it is a minor tale and fairly irrelevant to Circe’s identity in comparison to the other remarkable myths she is involved in.

Works Cited

Miller, Madeline. Circe. New York City, Little, Brown and Company, 2018.

Parada, Carlos. “Circe.” Greek Mythology Link, 1997, www.maicar.com/GML/Circe.html. Accessed 20 Aug 2019.