Way back when, I vividly recall sobbing in my bed as the iconic novel The Song of Achilles drew to a close. Being a deeply sensitive person and avid Classicist, perhaps I’m both prone to weeping and heavily biased where this mythology book is concerned. Nevertheless, my teenage self was fundamentally changed forever, and I’m sure I wasn’t the only one.
The Song of Achilles created a boom in the literary community, with good reason: from the tenderness between the lead characters, the humanisation of queer-coded ancient characters (shh don’t tell Xenophon), and a tale about war being told from the hero’s life companion, it’s fanfiction and fanart gold. However, perhaps monogamy and romantic love are infused too heavily into this archaic relationship, when contemporarily both factors might have been irrelevant or entirely absent. I hear you. As a Classics student (I don’t know if I mentioned that already), the projection of modern perspectives onto another world with a different set of rules is frustrating. Newsflash, however: it’s almost like this novel isn’t trying to be an academic history textbook. Crazy, right? My advice, sit back and relax, history buffs (I understand this is a challenge, trust me). Try enjoying this lyrically-written angsty romance for what it is. If Plato can be captain of this ship, surely we can at least try to get on board.
I haven’t even gotten to the jewel of Miller’s literary portfolio: Circe. This book far surpassed Achilles in my eyes when I was not even a quarter of the way through. What can I say, I’m a sucker for the humanisation of “evil” women. Circe feels real, she feels human, she feels like a bad person sometimes. In spite of her extraordinariness, Circe is an Everywoman, and she’s allowed to be so. Of course, this incurs “boring” allegations even from the other characters, but it’s certainly refreshing for a female character to just “be”. After all, why can’t we as women be unglamorous and “mundane” every once in a while?
Madeline Miller sure knows how to humanise the hell out of us all, whether it’s the swift-footed hero, his lover or the villainous man-hating witch. She’s on the side of both the leading man and the underdog, particularly backing the latter, and for that I will always defend her.
“Wright Barker (British, 1863-1941) – ‘Circe’ c.1889” by sofi01 is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.
