1. How would you describe the personality that
Madeline Miller crafts for Circe? Why is she so roundly dismissed,
bullied, and belittled by her fellow immortals? Talk about the ways in
which this treatment shapes her character. Despite her ancient,
mythological roots, do you relate to Circe?
2. Follow-up to Question 1: In what way is Circe's desire for
vengeance at odds with her inherent compassion?
3. How does the ancient Greek society, at least in the realm of the
deities, view and treat women.
4. Follow-up to Question 3: Circe tells us:
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
.
How does Circe disprove the widespread view of
women as fragile?
5. Talk about Circe's attitude toward
motherhood: as she says, despite all her military style preparations, it
was "not enough." What does she mean, and what kind of a mother does
Circe end up becoming?
6. What does Circe mean when she says, "All my life had been murk and
depths, but I was not a part of that dark water. I was a creature within
it"?
7. How does the author portray the love affair between Circe and
Odysseus? If you are familiar with The Odyssey, how does the
novel differ from Homer's telling (or does it)?
8. How does Miller depict many of the legendary characters of Greek
mythology, including Odysseus, Daedalus, Hermes, among others? In other
words, how does she flesh out their "human" traits as distinct from
their godlike or heroic ones?
9. What did you know of Greek mythology before reading Circe?
If you had some prior familiarity with the mythical figures and their
stories, has Miller's novel added to or changed your understanding or
appreciation of them?
* Some questions from
LitLovers.