Here’s everything you need to know to understand ‘Circe’ like a pro.
A comprehensive guide to how Madeline Miller’s ‘Circe’ fits into Greek Mythology.
WARNING: this guide contains some spoilers. I recommend you read this after you read Circe.
Who was Circe?
Daughter of Helios
Miller doesn’t change much about Circe’s family. Circe is the daughter of Helios, Titan of the Sun, and Perse, an Oceanid (Oceanids are daughters of Oceanus and Tethys). Her siblings are Aeetes, Pasiphae and Perses.
There are some accounts that say that Circe is actually the daughter of Hecate who is the goddess of witchcraft — hence, Circe’s sorcery.
In Circe, Miller says Circe is banished to Aiaia because she transforms Scylla into a monster and Glaucos into a god. This is different to most accounts. Helios does banish Circe to Aiaia, but it is because she kills her husband, the Prince of Colchis.
Circe & Odysseus
Circe is a pretty minor character in The Odyssey. Actually, she seems less like a character and more like an obstacle that Odysseus just needs to deal with on his heroic journey.
In The Odyssey, Circe tricks and transforms Odysseus’s men into pigs when they land on Aiaia. When Odysseus confronts her with his sword, she is quick to take Odysseus to bed and promises to stop ‘playing tricks’. Like Calypso, the nymph who imprisons Odysseus on her island and tries to become his wife, Circe is presented as nothing but a feminine enchantress smitten for the hero. In Miller’s book, Circe ‘corrects’ this interpretation.
Humbling women seems to me a chief pastime of poets. As if there can be no story unless we crawl and weep.
In Circe, Circe doesn’t turn Odysseus’s men into pigs without reason. The first time Circe is visited by travelling men, she tells them that she is alone and that there is no man of the house. Because of this, she is raped. She sees the same intention in the eyes of all subsequent men she hosts so she protects herself by transforming them. Personally, I really liked the reimagined reason for why Circe turns men into pigs. It seems more believable, especially given the context of Ancient Greece.
Also interesting:
- Homer says Circe is first seen at her loom: the same loom that Daedalus gives Circe in the book!
Who was Scylla?
Scylla is most famous for being the giant sea monster that heroes, famously Odysseus, must pass in their travels. ‘Between Scylla and Charybdis’ means having to choose between two really bad options. If you’ve read Percy Jackson, you might also remember that Scylla lives in the Sea of Monsters, what mortals call the Bermuda Triangle.
The origins of Scylla is less known and disputed. Miller sticks to the version told in Ovid’s Metamorphoses. In this version, Scylla is the daughter of King Nisus, who cuts a lock of his purple hair when she falls in love in Minos (remember, in Circe, Minos is Pasiphae’s husband). Later, a love triangle between her, Glaucos and Circe results in Circe turning her into a monster out of jealousy and hatred.
In other versions, Scylla is born a monster to Typhon, another Greek monster with one hundred snake heads, and Echidna, who is half-serpent and half-beautiful woman.
Who was Pasiphae?
When it comes to the origins of Pasiphae, there is one thing I really wanted to know. Did the Ancient Greeks give a reason for Pasiphae’s… meeting with the white bull?
Yes, they did! It is said that Poseidon cursed Pasiphae to lust for the white bull when he was offended by Minos, her husband.
Besides the Minotaur, the most famous of her children is Ariadne. You might remember that Circe develops a bond with her when she goes to Crete. Ariadne falls in love with Theseus, the slayer of the Minotaur. She helps him to escape Daedalus’s labyrinth with a thread that he uses to retrace his steps back to the exit of the labyrinth.
When she is abandoned by Theseus on Naxos, Dionysus, the God of Wine, Theatre and Ecstasy, falls in love with her. In some accounts, the constellation Corona Borealis is the crown that Ariadne wears when she is wedded to Dionysus which he later sets in the heavens to celebrate their union.
Also interesting:
- The part in Circe where Pasiphae says she cursed Minos’s ejaculate is true! When she found out Minos was cheating on her, she used her magic to make his ejaculate poisonous so his mistresses would die.
Who was Telegonus?
Telegonus is a relatively common name in Greek mythology. Telegonus, the son of Circe and Odysseus, is a real character in Greek mythology and yes, he does kill his father. Not for the reason Miller gives though.
In the traditional narrative, Circe sends Telegonus to Ithaca to bring his father, Odysseus, back to Aiaia. When Telegonus arrives at Ithaca though, he mistakenly believes he is on a different island and kills his father without knowing his true identity. When he realises what he has done, he brings Odysseus’s body back to Aiaia and buries him there.
Miller stays true to the prophesy about Odysseus’s death however. Odysseus is fated die ‘from the sea’. Telegonus kills Odysseus with his spear possessing the poison of a stingray, fulfilling the prophesy.
Who were Penelope and Telemachus?
So, Telegonus kills Odysseus and takes his body to Aiaia, right? Well, Penelope and Telemachus, Odysseus’s wife and son, goes with him. So now, Circe, Telegonus, Penelope and Telemachus are on Aiaia. A truly weird little family. To make it weirder and more complicated, Circe marries Telemachus and Penelope marries Telegonus. All of this can be found in Telegony, a kind of sequel to The Odyssey.
In Circe, Miller does write that Circe ends up with Telemachus, but she omits Penelope and Telegonus’s relationship (thankfully). In Fabularum Liber, Penelope and Telegonus have a son called Italus. Italus later becomes the king in the land now known as Italy.
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I hope this helped you to understand Circe. It’s a truly awesome book that borrows from and builds on so many Greek legends.
Check out my book review of Circe here.
