Swine Flu

There's a lot to like in Madeline Miller's Circe, but there's also one scene in there that made me very angry.

Let's start at the beginning. Circe, witch of The Odyssey, who kept Odysseus and his crew on her island of Aiaia,. is born on the halls of Oceanus to Helios, Titan of the Sun, and a nymph. She has 3 siblings; one births the Minotaur, one goes to Persia, and one sires Medea. All four children have the powers of witchcraft, which worries the gods, since it's outside of their powers.

Circe, who confesses to using her power to turn Scylla into a 6 headed monster after Scylla steals one whom Circe loves and turns into a god after a fashion, gets exiled to Aiaia. She also meets Prometheus in Tartarus before he becomes all like Same vulture, New liver. (That scene is really interesting.)

Circe get released from exile temporarily to help Pasiphae birth the minotaur, which does introduce her to Daedalus and Icarus. Later, her brother Aeetes's child, Medea shows up on her island with Jason and the golden fleece. While Circe does warn Medea that her story will not have a happy ending, Medea doesn't listen.

Circe does get to entertain Hermes on occasions, as he likes to drop by and gossip and share her bed.

Anyway, occasionally sailors wash up on Aiaia. And here's where the problem I had with the book shows up. One round of sailors shows up, and rape her. She then turns them into swine and makes pork chops and bacon. I have two major issues with this. Among other things, I really hate it when female characters, particularly powerful ones, have their agency removed for no real reason. Frankly, Circe could have turned the lot of them into sausage any time prior to the event. (I know, in real life, folks who should be able to fight off an attacker can't. Well aware.) Second, she had the right and duty to punish them earlier on in the scene as they violated the rules of hospitality long before the attack.

Anyway, this does lead to Circe swining anyone visiting, until Odysseus shows up. He spends a year sharing her bed, and leaves, and has his own story. Circe, in the meantime, has little Telegonus, whom someone wants gone because of his destiny. When that someone shows up, Circe manages to fight off her second Olympian.

And this leads into sources I was unaware of, as we explore fragments and summaries of the Telegony (attributed to Eugammon of Cyrene) and Odysseus Acanthoplex by Sophocles. In which Telegonus finds his father, and like so much of Greek mythology, kills him. Telegonus winds up bringing Odysseus's wife and son (Penelope and Telemachus) back to Aiaia. Circe is concerned, since she thinks Telemachus will kill Telegonus to avenge his father. (There's a scene prior to this where Circe delves the deeps to challenge one of the monsters and winds up with a tail that will kill mortals and make gods feel pain. It's well written and a testament to the love a mother has for a son.)

Without going deeper into the plot, let's just say everyone's relationships are strained, the Olympians show up again, and Circe does in the end confront her father to get what she wants.

While I really enjoyed this, I feel a bit like some of the story is a bit of Glinda telling Dorothy she had the power to go home all along. Because Circe is seeking her own agency, not knowing she's had it the entire time.

And you thought your mother-in-law was bad

That title is a bit off, since she redeems herself in the end, but given that Thetis storms through the pages of Madeline Miller's The Song of Achilles as an almost second antagonist.

For those not versed in such esoterica, Thetis is, of course, the mother of Achilles, Aristos Achaion, Best of the Greeks, and a major player in the Trojan War. She's a sea nymph, who married Peleus, and tried to make her son immortal. That she did not succeed should be obvious. Indeed, it was their wedding that Eris crashed and threw the apple into.

Then there's Achilles himself, raised in Phthia, who won't die unless Hector does.

And how his world changes when Patrocles arrives as a foster in Peleus's kingdom following some rather unpleasant events in his father, Menoitius's, kingdom. (Namely, accidentally killing a Noble's son, and not having the presence of mind to claim self defense and prevent the outcry for a blood price.) Of course, that exile comes a bit after the journey to Sparta in a failed attempt to betroth himself to Helen. (Menoitius's idea.) Wily Odysseus, suggests allowing Helen to choose her own husband (Menelaus), and making all the suitors present pledge to defend her honor.

We'll return to that promise much later, since both Patrocles and Achilles swore that oath.

Anyway, Achilles ends up naming Patrocles his companion, much to his mother's chagrin. Their friendship blossoms, and they end up becoming lovers while studying warcraft and medicine with Chiron the centaur (who previous students included Heracles.) During that period, Paris of Troy comes to Sparta and elopes with Helen, courtesy of Aphrodite.

Achilles, or more to the point, Thetis, has no desire to involve himself in avenging the cuckold Menelaus. Thetis spirits Achilles off to Scyros, where he's disguised as one of Lycomedes's foster girls. There's a lot of drama on Scyros, as Thetis has married Achilles off to Deidamia, who in turn is now bearing Neoptolemus (or Pyrrhus) in her womb. Mind you, Deidamia is quite put out when Patrocles shows up and Achilles declares him to be his husband. Eventually, to save her reputation, Deidamia is sent off to have her child, which is of course when Odysseus and Diomedes show up. They reveal the ruse of Achilles and wind up convincing both Patrocles and Achilles to honor their oath to Helen and join the forces of the Greeks in a short little war with Anatolian Troy to get back Meneleus's wife. 

For those familiar with Homer's Illiad, you know about how well this turns out. However, with this being told in narration by Patrocles, we get much more of the human side of the war and much less of the divine interference. Not that the Gods don't play their parts, (we indeed see Athena on the battlefield once, and Apollo shows up a few times), but we're much more involved in the reasons Achilles walks away from Agamemnon and causes the rout of the Greeks in the tenth year of the siege. We also meet Briseis, who becomes a fuller character than she is in Homer, and the reason for her lamentations after Patrocles dies become clearer. (Among other things, Achilles uses his place as  Aristos Achaion to save her and other girls caught in the siege from bed slavery to the other Greeks. This is mainly Patrocles's influence.) 

Eventually, Agamemnon kidnaps the wrong girl (a priestess of Apollo) and refuses to ransom her to her father, who is a priest of Apollo. Plague breaks out among the Greeks, and Agamemnon, in his hubris, refuses to do penance to fix it. Achilles leads his army off the field in protest, which leads to Thetis petitioning Zeus to change the balance. The Trojans break through the walls and start firing ships. Patrocles, sick of seeing people he knows die, convinces Achilles to let him don his armor and lead the Myrmidons onto the field. He winds up helping the Greeks drive the Trojans back to the city, but winds up getting killed by Hector. Not that it matters, Patrocles's restless spirit remains to narrate the end game, as Achilles mourns Patrocles, takes on the River god, then kills Hector and drags his body behind his chariot. Eventually Paris takes out Achilles with an arrow aimed with help from Apollo. Achilles's son Neoptolemus shows up, dictates how his father should be buried, complains about Achilles's ashes being mixed with Patrocles's ashes, and demands that Achilles's marker bear only his father's name, condemning Patrocles to restless spirithood. 

At the end, Patrocles does gets his name added to the marker after telling the entire story to a mourning observer. Adn the final paragraph actually made me cry.

Thankfully, there are a few appendices added on to the end, complete with some fairly helpful refreshers on who all these people are, since Greek myth tends to name drop frequently. 

One thing I really enjoyed in this was that by putting it in human time frame, one gets a better sense of the depth of time involved in the myths, since they talk of Heracles being born a generation or two before where we are now, showing how the legends grew. Generally speaking, most of books containing the myth tends to run them together where this doesn't really come through. 

While it's been a while since I last delved into Homer, it seems to follow pretty well. It's well written, certainly towering over other such retelling (like The Firebrand by Marion Zimmer Bradley). And it's fairly obvious that this author has a love of Classics that matches my own.