October 2019: Circe (Miller)

Post date: Nov 09, 2019 2:4:5 AM

Our October meeting was quite exciting, as we had to relocate to avoid PG&E’s

planned power outages. Fortunately, we found an island of electricity at

Sherrill’s house, and several members used the opportunity to recharge their

cell phones before returning to their own darkened domiciles. Fortunately,

our book selection prompted a lively discussion, so there was plenty of time

to get batteries back to full strength.

Our book for the month was Madeline Miller’s novel Circe, an epic tale

spanning thousands of years in the life of a Greek immortal: Circe, goddess

of magic. The child of the Titan Helios and the naiad Perse, Circe spends

a lonely childhood in the halls of her grandfather, the Titan Oceanus.

Circe is largely rejected and ignored by her parents and siblings, since she

is less lovely than her mother and the other nymphs and she seems to have

little power compared to her Titan forebearers. To break her isolation,

she befriends a mortal fisherman. In an attempt to win his affections,

Circe experiments with magic and discovers that she has a talent for it.

However, the tragic results of her sorcery bring down the wrath of the

Olympian Gods, who consider her use of potions a threat to their dominance.

In response, Helios exiles his daughter to the island of Aiaia, where she

hones her magical abilities and develops her psychological resilience and

independence. Though she spends most of her days in solitude, fate and

interfering immortals bring others her way, most significantly the wandering

warrior Odysseus, who is slowly making his way back from the siege of Troy.

Madeline Miller is a scholar of antiquities and Circe has small, though

significant, roles in a number of ancient Greek myths and epics. Her

origins, characteristics and personality vary from telling to telling;

however, she chiefly functions as a source of danger and temptation to male

heroes. She is often depicted luring visitors in with food and drink, only

to use her magic to rob them of their humanity (turning them into swine or

other animals). Some see her as a cautionary tale against the dangers of

drunkenness or, even, prostitution. Oddly, one could say that Miller’s

decision to place Circe at the center of her own story is equally as

transformative, turning the goddess from something quiet monstrous into

something much more fully human. The novel is as much a tale of mental and

emotional development as it is an epic adventure. In fact, many of our

members appreciated the book primarily as a story of a woman’s life, a

journey of self-discovery that wasn’t just about negotiating fraught

relationships with family, friends and romantic partners (though there’s

certainly a fair share of that). At heart, Circe is an exploration of

self-empowerment, self-mastery and, ultimately (and quite dramatically at

the end), self-definition.

Everyone at the meeting said they enjoyed the book, and a few went as far

as to say they loved it. For some, Miller’s poetic language and mastery of

the Greek mythical landscape was almost irresistibly enticing. For others,

it was almost too much. Setting the novel in the world of gods and goddess

tended to exaggerate everything. Emotions like vengeance, envy and lust

were taken to the extreme, and the consequences of these emotions were

dramatic and lasted for generations. Sometimes the resulting chaos,

especially as it affected the lives of Circe’s colorful siblings, seemed a

like a soap opera or, perhaps, like the “Real Housewives” of the Aegean.

However, one could argue, these parts of the novel match the exaggerated

feel of many of its classical sources, and at times they provided a welcome

break from the nuanced and sensitive character study that made up the core

of the book.

We definitely found plenty to talk about concerning the motivations of the

characters and the wisdom of their decisions. We argued over how

sympathetic various characters were, and whether or not the tone of the book

was pessimistic or optimistic. Judging from the discussion, I would

suspect that the novel will most appeal to readers who are already in love

with, or at least intrigued by, the classical myths and literature of

ancient Greece. Two plays about Circe written in ancient Athens have been

lost, and Madeline Miller’s modern take on this fascinating character does a

lot to help keep her in the literary landscape and to reassess the role she

may play within it.