Great Beginnings Book Club discussion

Welcome to 2020, everyone. I hope that you all had peaceful, joyful, and exciting holidays (in the proper mixture for your preferences). I have high hopes for the Great Beginnings Book Club in 2020, and I look forward to sharing some amazing books and engaging discussions with you.

I think that we are starting the new year strong with Madeline Miller's Circe . The witch of Aiaia is a relatively minor antagonist (and then ambivalent protagonist) in The Odyssey . Best known for transforming men into animals, Circe has attracted a lot of artistic and literary attention over the years. Below is Frederick Church's painting of Circe with her lions.



Greek mythology can get very dense. Everyone has their place in multiple family trees. They have their epitaphs and deeds, their symbols and kingdoms. And their names can get a little unwieldy. Fortunately, Miller has included a cast of characters in the back. This can be very helpful to anyone who is not familiar with Greek mythology.

But this is not just Greek mythology; it is Miller's retelling. Her prose and priorities are standout qualities of the novel, not simply afterthoughts. This is Circe's story, full of yearning and fury and power and cleverness. She feels out of step with the world, contemptuous of the gods and their vanities, and angry with mortals and their foolish impulses. At least, until she makes a fateful choice at the end of the novel...

Let's talk about it.

1. Prometheus's role in the novel is very small. For part of his punishment for betraying Zeus and giving fire to mortals, he is brought to Helios's palace and scourged by a Fury in front of the Titans. While everyone else turns their back on him, Circe briefly talks to him before he is carried away for a more permanent punishment. Every day a great eagle tears his liver from his body. And every night it regrows.

Prometheus's impact in the novel is very large. His words and actions have a lasting influence on Circe and her interactions with mortals throughout her life. He accepts the consequences of his actions, rather than having them forced upon him. And he demonstrates the truth of his words when he says "Not every god need be the same." (Chapter Two, page 22.)

How has Prometheus managed to have such an over sized impact despite his near total absence from the story? Is his influence over Circe similar to his influence over mortals? Is there an individual or institution in modern life that plays a similar role to Prometheus? Alternatively, is it obstinacy and foolish pride to not only think that one can unilaterally change the world and then refuse to ask for pardon when facing the consequences?

"Daughter, you begin to make a spectacle." The words cut across the air. "If the world contained the power you allege, do you think it would to such as you to discover it?" (Chapter Six, page 63.)

2. This is ultimately Circe's story. What are we to make of her? Is this a story of learning to let go of an abusive family and start healing? A story of a woman discovering a source of power outside the imagination of the dismissive men in the world? A clever sorceress managing to eke out some beauty in the world? A cold and cruel witch who, through both malice and carelessness, ruins the lives of those she encounters? Whatever her faults, she is certainly less distasteful than the Olympians and their petty tyrannies.

Circe is often called a feminist novel. Do you agree? What kind of feminism does Circe embody?

I looked at her, as vivid in my doorway as the moon in the autumn sky. Her eyes held mine, gray and steady. It is a common saying that women are delicate creatures, flowers, eggs, anything that may be crushed in a moment's carelessness. If I had ever believed it, I no longer did. (Chapter Twenty-One, page 315.)

3. In The Odyssey, Odysseus tricks the cyclops Polyphemus by calling himself "No One." After he and his crew wound the cyclops and escape, however, Odysseus cannot resist taunting Polyphemus by telling him his real name. This causes Polyphemus to pray to his father Poseidon to curse Odysseus. And ten more years of storms, suffering, and shipwreck prevented Odysseus from reaching home.

In the novel, Circe explicitly calls out Odysseus's arrogance and need for others to recognize his cleverness. Even as he disdained the foolish preoccupations of other Greek heroes, he also felt a need to be known as one himself.

Yet when Athena offers her patronage to Odysseus's son Telemachus and he refuses, she is enraged that he would choose obscurity. That he would choose to be "no one." Is there a trade off between recognition and happiness? Between greatness and humility? What does it mean to be "no one"?

"There will be no songs made of you. No stories. Do you understand? You will have a life of obscurity. You will be without a name in history. You will be no one." Each word was like the blow of a hammer in a forge. He would give in, I thought. Of course he would. The fame she had described was what all mortals yearn for. It is their only hope of immortality. "I choose that fate," he said. (Chapter Twenty-Four, page 352).

4. Which god was your favorite? Even if their actions were hostile toward Circe or toward mortals, I believe that Miller has achieved one of the finest depictions of a particular kind of divinity. The descriptions of their grace, beauty, and power are artistic in their own right. What are we to make of the fact that something so appealing could also be so dangerous?

As always, feel free to answer any, all, or bring up your own questions.