Review | Madeline Miller’s ‘Circe’

Demigoddess Circe is famous for tricking Odysseus into being her lover and staying on an island with her during his journey home after the Trojan War, but Circe, as Madeline Miller writes her, is a feminist heroine. With poetic prose that parallels that of The Odyssey, Miller tells this ancient tale by refocusing on the women who so often languish on the edges of myths.

With an origin story spanning thousands of years, Circe, Greek goddess of witchcraft, evolves from the unwanted and bullied daughter of Helios, Titan god of the sun, to a powerful and driven sorceress with good reasons for turning men into swine. She’s a fierce force and her story is brimming with romance and tragedy even before Odysseus steps onto the shores of her island of exile, Aeaea.

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