I wanted them to have the same flesh and vitality that the male heroes have had for millennia. Most of all, I loved digging into the women of the story: Circe's sister Pasiphae, Ariadne, Penelope, Medea, and more. I wanted to acknowledge his full capacity for violence, error, and pride, as well as his bravery and intelligence. Today he is a beloved and celebrated figure, but the ancients were much more ambivalent about him. I enjoyed the chance to explore Odysseus again, this time as an older and wearier man. In him, she finds a fellow craftsman, someone who loves to work and create as she does. I expected him to be a minor character, but as I wrote, he kept growing, and his and Circe's interactions became ever more significant. I enjoyed all of the secondary characters that came with that, but the master inventor Daedalus was a particular favorite, mostly because he surprised me. She is an artist, & art itself is transformative. I wanted to discover how she came to the power, and what it was like for her to wield it in a world that is so hostile to her independence. She has done an end-around, and literally invented her own power-witchcraft.

Yet when we see Circe in the Odyssey, she is immensely powerful, capable of great destruction, and also great benevolence. They had little agency over their own lives. In ancient mythology, nymphs were pawns or prey: married off, assaulted, raped. Circe is born a nymph, the lowest of the low in divine terms. I was drawn to Circe in particular because of her mysteries and her complexities. I am always interested in people that others are actively trying to keep quiet! The word 'witch' is still used today as a slur against women with an amount of power that makes society nervous. MM: In the Odyssey, Circe is very clearly the incarnation of male anxiety about female power-the fear is that if women have power, men are getting turned into pigs. JBW: What was it that first attracted you to Circe, and what is it that held your fascination as you authored her story? Circe is arguably the first witch to appear in western literature, and I suspect she might have cast her spell on you by virtue of that fact alone.

Madeline miller circe