Circe by Madeline Miller

I don't know why I've become so fascinated with Greek mythology.  They are stories from a fictional world, perhaps from The Lord of the Rings or Game of Thrones.

But these stories were believed, in fact were the core of religion for much of the Mediterranean world, for centuries.  From the remove of today we understand them as fiction, but they were believed by millions as reality.

So I don't know if we can classify Circe as a work of historical fiction, or simply fiction.  Regardless, Miller's telling is fascinating, adding abundant backstory and detail to the Circe I knew from The Odyssey.

But the book has unveiled details from Circe's life that I didn't know before.  How she was a sister of Aeetes, king of Colchis, the father of Medea, and how Medea came to live with Circe for a time and in fact learned much of her sorcery from Circe.

How Scylla was a sister of Circe, who used her sorcery to transform her into the deadly sea monster who I first met in The Odyssey.

How another of Circe's sisters was Pasiphae, wed to King Minos of Crete, mother of Ariadne and the Minotaur itself.

And how Circe fathered a child with Odysseus, Telegonus, and how his visit to meet his father for the first time led to Odysseus' death, pierced by a spear that Circe had dipped in poison.

All of these stories are so interwoven, built story by story, author by author, over the course of centuries, of millennia.

Miller's wonderful storytelling no doubt adds its own layers, its own patina, upon which others will build in the coming centuries, the coming millennia.

These stories are the possession of the world, begun by the ancients, but continuing to evolve through all time.