Circe

Ah, the final installment in my ancient Greek historical fiction run. 

For now. 

Circe tells the tale of the famous witch. In this version, she's the immortal daughter of Helios, the Titan sun god, and Perse, an oceanid. 

Circe is despised because she's not as pretty as the rest of her family and they mock her voice a lot. (It's Hermes who tells her later on that she has "a mortal's voice.") 

As the story moves forward, Circe and all her siblings learn that they are witches. Each one has a different specialty. She's sister to Aeëtes (ruler of Colchis, father of Medea), Perses (usurped Colchis from his brother, was killed by Medea), and Pasiphaë (famous for screwing a bull and birthing the minotaur). 

After falling in love with Glaucus the sailor and transforming him into an ocean deity, Circe is hurt when he doesn't return her love. Instead he favors Scylla, who's a rather nasty nymph. Circe prepares a potion that will turn Scylla into her truest self, pours it in a pool where the nymph likes to bathe, and creates Scylla the man-eating monster. For this, Circe is banished to the island of Aeaea, where she hones her witchcraft. 

She's visited by Hermes and the two become lovers. Then she's summoned by her sister to aid in the birth of the minotaur. Still an unrelenting bitch, her sister shows Circe no gratitude. Circe finds solace in the arms of Daedalus, though for a sad short time. (I liked that pairing far better than her with Odysseus.) Then it's back to her island, which sailors begin to find. She treats them well, but her kindness is returned with rape, so that's when she begins her habit of turning lost men into pigs. If they turn on her, she changes them. If they don't, they go free. Guess which most of them do. 

Then there's a whole big chunk of chapters devoted to her time with Odysseus. At the end of this, she stops taking her birth control brew and becomes pregnant, unbeknownst to him. The chapters dedicated to her pregnancy and the younger years of her son were the most dull to me. I just kept thinking "get to the point." And so, they do. Her son Telegonus travels in search of his father, only to end up accidentally killing him. Or rather, Odysseus kills himself while they struggle over Telegonus' poisoned spear. So he returns to Aeaea with Penelope and Telemachus. There's some tumult, but eventually, the four get along well. 

The book ends with Circe winning her freedom from the island and sailing the world with Telemachus, who's now her lover. She relinquishes her immortality to live a mortal life to match her mortal's voice. 

I thought this was quite well-written, though it did slow down too much for me in certain places. What it does very well though is depict immortals in a harsh way that feels more accurate. I recommend it for Greek myth fans.

And now off to Egypt!