Humbling women seems to me a chief pastime of poets.
I have come to this book with a great deal of skepticism; I am not much of a fan of historical fiction-although I am not sure Circe fits in this category-but surprisingly, I liked it. This is not a review, the book has been reviewed more than 5,000 times only on Goodreads, so I am confident you will find one or two that satisfies you.
It is an epic story, a retelling of the story of Circe, the daughter of the Titan, god of Sun, Helios. In Madeline Miller's clever, funny and feminist view, Circe, does not fit among her kind and often turns towards the world of mortals. She appears weaker than the other gods, but sometime, after hundreds of years leaving in their shadow, lonely and often despised by the others, she discovers the power of witchcraft and, one thing brings the other, she is banished to exile by Zeus and her father at the beautiful, lush, but remote island of Aeaea.
"It was my first lesson. Beneath the smooth, familiar face of things is another that waits to tear the world in two."
Much of the delight of reading Circe is this fascinated overturning from the far too common masculine held interpretation of history and legend, where women are the obstacles and the temptations that heroes, like Odysseus, must overcome to prove themselves as 'real' men. Circe is complex smart, powerful, independent with little patient for fools and bullies. She's had enough of them.
Life for lesser goddesses or nymphs like Circe in ancient Greek mythology was not great. Basically, they had no power at all, they were either pawns or preys. If, by any sad circumstance, you happened to be a mortal woman, both in mythology and in real life in ancient Greece, then you were really in trouble. You either lived your life secluded with a man always in charge of you, if your family is part of the aristocracy class, or you could be a kind of courtesan, you'd had a bit more freedom, you could go to all those intellectual meetings, the symposia, where men discuss philosophy, politics, etc, but you were a sex worker.
Circe makes her choices, she makes horrendous mistakes and pays the consequences. Gods in ancient Greek mythology are horrendous and cruel, they have so much power that they have no empathy at all. Miller's perspective on Circe is different, she is capable of cruelty, she turns men into pigs after all, but she is also compassionate, and thoughtful and ready to forgive and love unselfishly. In a way, Circe invites us to consider how different - and how similar- were then the morals and the gender and power relationships from our own.
Featured image: Franz Stuck, The actress Tilla Durieux in the role of Circe, c. 1913