Good Reads / Community Library Notes
Circe
Madeline Miller
Review by Priscilla Comen
Circe
Madeline Miller
Review by Priscilla Comen
Circe, by Madeline Miller, is the story of the Gods, and the Mortals. Prometheus has aided the Mortals and is punished by Furey’s whip. Circe watches, then brings him nectar, and asks him what mortals are like. When Circe spies a boat, she wades out to it and meets Glaucos who kneels to her. She’s overwhelmed with joy. His nets are full and he credits her power though she says she has none. When he says he must catch more fish or his family will starve, she goes to her grandmother for help, She must swear she will not lie with him. They picnic together, her father, the Sun, always watching over her. Glaucos is changed into a Sea God when Circe pours sap over him as he sleeps. All the beauties at court fall for him, but he chooses Scylla. Circe is furious with jealousy. She makes Scylla ugly with protrusions over her body.
And so begins this fantasy of a wonderful story of Gods and their powers. Circe’s father banishes her to an isolated island where she can do no harm. She tries many simple spells and succeeds, transforming a strawberry from an acorn. Her greatest gift is transformation. When she is urged to go to her sister who is about to have a baby, she transforms herself into her brother, Perses. They will have to pass by Scylla’s lair where she swallows sailors whole. Scylla will feast on mortals for eternity. Circe’s sister gives birth to a monster, as she had mated with a bull. The monster is named Minotaur, and Circe feeds it a lotion to calm it. Dadelaus, a master furniture builder, builds a cage for it until it is older and can be killed. Dadelaus and Circe lay together. He makes wings from sea bird’s feathers. Icarus, his son, and he fly around the sky, but Icarus goes too close to the sun and the wings’ wax melts. He falls to his death. Author Miller gives this story many of the legends we have come to recognize, such as this one. She helps us believe in them.
Nymphs arrive to be Circe’s servants, though she doesn’t want them. Her father has sent them. When her precious pet lioness dies, she feels truly alone. Twenty men arrive in a boat, and she entertains them royally, but when the captain learns she is alone, he rapes her. She disfigures him with one word, burns their boat, and turns all the men into pigs, then cages them in pens. When handsome Odysseus comes, he charms her and she grants his wish to free those men. She turns them back into men and feasts with them. Her nymphs are great cooks.
When Circe has a baby boy, she loves him completely. Although he screams constantly, the sea calms him. He loves the waves and the horizon. She tells him tales about his father, and one day he leaves to search for him at Ithaca where his father resides with his original family. But the poisoned tip of a sword Circe has been given from the underworld God Trygon, is accidentally touched by his father and Odysseeus dies. Her son, Telegonus, is distraught.
What will happen to Circe’s son and to Circe? What happens to the other Gods in her family, to her father? Find this wonderful fantasy by author Miller on the new fiction shelf of your Mendocino Community Library.
And so begins this fantasy of a wonderful story of Gods and their powers. Circe’s father banishes her to an isolated island where she can do no harm. She tries many simple spells and succeeds, transforming a strawberry from an acorn. Her greatest gift is transformation. When she is urged to go to her sister who is about to have a baby, she transforms herself into her brother, Perses. They will have to pass by Scylla’s lair where she swallows sailors whole. Scylla will feast on mortals for eternity. Circe’s sister gives birth to a monster, as she had mated with a bull. The monster is named Minotaur, and Circe feeds it a lotion to calm it. Dadelaus, a master furniture builder, builds a cage for it until it is older and can be killed. Dadelaus and Circe lay together. He makes wings from sea bird’s feathers. Icarus, his son, and he fly around the sky, but Icarus goes too close to the sun and the wings’ wax melts. He falls to his death. Author Miller gives this story many of the legends we have come to recognize, such as this one. She helps us believe in them.
Nymphs arrive to be Circe’s servants, though she doesn’t want them. Her father has sent them. When her precious pet lioness dies, she feels truly alone. Twenty men arrive in a boat, and she entertains them royally, but when the captain learns she is alone, he rapes her. She disfigures him with one word, burns their boat, and turns all the men into pigs, then cages them in pens. When handsome Odysseus comes, he charms her and she grants his wish to free those men. She turns them back into men and feasts with them. Her nymphs are great cooks.
When Circe has a baby boy, she loves him completely. Although he screams constantly, the sea calms him. He loves the waves and the horizon. She tells him tales about his father, and one day he leaves to search for him at Ithaca where his father resides with his original family. But the poisoned tip of a sword Circe has been given from the underworld God Trygon, is accidentally touched by his father and Odysseeus dies. Her son, Telegonus, is distraught.
What will happen to Circe’s son and to Circe? What happens to the other Gods in her family, to her father? Find this wonderful fantasy by author Miller on the new fiction shelf of your Mendocino Community Library.