Circe

Circe
by Madeline Miller
★★★★★

Circe is a witch on a remote island when Odysseus meets her on his journey home in Homer's Odyssey. In Miller’s reimagining she’s a complicated woman with heartaches and hopes of her own. She’s no longer a footnote in someone else’s story.

We meet Circe as a child in the halls of her Titan father. She never fits into his world of petty jealousy and swift anger. It's not until she's exiled to an island that she begins to figure out who she is. I loved the descriptions of the world where she lives. Whether she's digging in her garden or riding in her father's chariot above the earth, the descriptions bring each scene to life so vividly.

It’s a story of loneliness and longing. The beautiful language draws you in immediately. If you know any Greek mythology the characters will be familiar, but Miller gives them new depth. Just as she did in The Song of Achilles, she brings that ancient world alive and I couldn’t put it down.

BOTTOM LINE: Circe is such a wonderfully complex character. She is full of flaws and selfishness along side guilt and empathy. In this book there are no clear villains and heroes, just characters full of life and contradictions. I can’t wait to return to her world again one day.

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

“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.”

“Within him was an ocean’s worth of grief, which could only be stoppered a moment, never emptied.”

“It is youth’s gift not to feel its debts.”

“Those who fight against prophecy only draw it more tightly around their throats.”

The Odyssey

The Odyssey

by Homer

★★★★☆

After the ten-year Trojan War ends the warriors return to their home lands. Odysseus’ journey is longer than most because he has angered Poseidon. He runs into one obstacle after another as he fights to return to his wife and son. He fights a Cyclops, travels to the land of the dead, narrowly misses the call of the sirens and spends years trapped on Calypso's island. When he finally returns to Ithaca his home is filled with suitors attempting to woo his wife.  

I first read The Odyssey in high school, rereading it a decade later was a very different experience. This time I paid much more attention to Penelope’s story. She is such an incredible character. Her loyalty and patience is remarkable. Even though her husband has been gone for 20 years she still holds out that he is alive and will return to her. It made me wonder how long someone would wait nowadays. Obviously there were fewer communication options back then, but still a couple decades is a long time to hang on to hope.

Penelope is surrounded by suitors and keeps them at bay by telling them she’ll consider them once she finishes what she’s weaving. She weaves all day and then at night she undoes everything she’s woven. Margaret Atwood wrote an interesting novella about her story, The Penelopiad: The Myth of Penelope and Odysseus.

I enjoyed his son Telemachus’ journey. When his father leaves he is only a baby, but he’s grown to become a man in Odysseus’ absence and he longs to find his father. He isn’t sure if he should search for his father or stay and protect his mother, it’s a difficult decision.

For me, it’s important that Odysseus is not a god. He is just a mortal man. So many of the stories in Greek literature are about the gods or demigods. Odysseus is neither, he occasionally has help from the gods, like Athena, at other times he is persecuted by the gods, especially Poseidon, but he has none of their powers. He must rely on his intelligence and cunning to outsmart his captors.

BOTTOM LINE: An absolute must for classic lovers. It’s also one of the most accessible pieces of Greek literature and a gateway drug into that world.

p.s. This time around I listened to the Robert Fagles translation on audio and it was read by the magnificent Ian McKellen. I would highly recommend it!

I reread this as part of the readalong hosted by Allie at A Literary Odyssey

Also, in the book they climb Mount Parnassus. I’m even more excited to visit the Parnassus bookstore in Nashville next month!

Nikki at Book Pairings posted on this book today too!

Greek Week: Mythology

Mythology

by Edith Hamilton

★★★★★

I’ve always loved mythology and even took a Classical Mythology class in college, but it’s been years since I really studied it. Despite that many of the Greek gods’ names are ingrained in our collective minds: Zeus, Athena, Poseidon, Hades, but it’s easy to loose track of how they are connected. This 1942 publication is a simple but complete overview of mythology. 

The book is broken down into the following seven sections:

1: The Gods, the Creation, and the Earliest Heroes (Both Greek and Roman names)

2: Stories of Love and Adventure (Cupid & Psyche and the Quest for the Golden Fleece)

3: The Great Heroes before the Trojan War (Perseus, Theseus, Hercules, and Atalanta)

4: The Heroes of the Trojan War (Achilles, Odysseus and Aeneas)

5: The Great Families of Mythology (Atreus, Thebes, and Athens)

6: The Less Important Myths (Midas, etc)

7: The Mythology of the Norsemen (Odin, Thor, Loki, etc) 

One reason mythology can be confusing is because all of the gods have at least two names: the Greek name and the Roman name. For example, Zeus is the Greek name for the ruler of Olympus and the same god is called Jupiter in Roman culture. There are also multiple versions of all of the myths. Different authors told their own interpretation and over the years the story begins to contradict itself. Hamilton removes this confusion, making the stories more accessible and breaking everything down by family tree and relationships. She also sights her sources at the beginning of each section. So if she compiled one version of the story from four different authors’ versions she explains what she did and what the differences are. 

That’s the reason this book is so excellent. Hamilton collected dozens of authors’ works into one edition. She took pieces from plays, epic poems, etc. to create on cohesive narrative. She includes an important element from one author in the story written by another author so that everyone’s actions make sense. Then she put them in chronological order within the narrative of the story. For example, she includes the Judgment of Paris, which is assumed to be the real reason for the Trojan War, before Virgil and Homer’s story of the Trojan War itself.

There are many themes that remain the same throughout the mythology. A major one is the attempt to beat fate and failing miserably. Heroes and rulers frequently heard prophesies about their lives. Then they would try to outsmart those predictions, like Oedipus’ father trying to kill his son when he was a baby or Cronus eating his children. They were trying to prevent their own deaths, but their actions inevitably led to the fulfillment of the prophesy.

“To attempt to act in such a way that the prophesy would be made void was as futile as to set oneself against the decrees of fate.” 

Another common theme is the power and cruelty of the gods. There is example after example of their quick tempers and over reactions. They often cause madness in a person to extract their revenge. Then that person (Hercules, Agave, etc.) kills their own families. Other times a god would fall in love with a mortal and regardless of whether or not that love was returned, it usually meant death and destruction for that person. 

The tale of Cupid and Psyche was won of my favorites. It’s all about true love and trust as opposed the stories of brute force where the gods just take what they want. They are a couple that truly love each other and work even harder to find each other once they are separated because they know real love is worth the pain.

The final section covers Norse mythology. There are many similarities with Greek mythology. Asgard is their equivalent to Greece’s Olympus, Thor is similar to Zeus, etc. The writing and proverbs is less poetic, but it’s still interesting. 

"Brave men can live well anywhere. A coward dreads all things."

The book wraps up with a section of family trees. I flagged this break down early on and added notes as I went. It seems like every major family line is connected to the others and the trees helped me keep it all straight. 

BOTTOM LINE: This book covers so much ground, compiling hundreds of years of Greek literature into one volume. The work is priceless and my copy is flagged and highlighted for future reference. I’d highly recommended it to anyone who loves Greek mythology. It might be a little dry for those who aren’t already interested. It would also be a valuable resource for anyone reading modern Greek literature, like The Song of Achilles or the Percy Jackson series. 

"According to the most modern idea, a real myth has nothing to do with religion. It is an explanation of something in nature."

“They had learned that every sin causes fresh sin; every wrong brings another in its train.”

Image from here.