I blame it on Homer’s Odyssey.
You see, a new translation was recently published (November 2017). The first by a female scholar, Emily Wilson. So I absolutely HAD to read it even though I didn’t really want to read about all that crazy stuff that Odysseus did and had done to him. But it was fascinating to read the introduction and author’s note and get a glimpse into her process. And then reading her translation, which she put into iambic pentameter.
That made reading it more enjoyable.
In case you’re not familiar with all the crazy things that happened to Odysseus on his seriously long trip back home from Troy: he ticked off Poseidon; Calypso imprisoned him on her island and used him for sex; he had almost made it home and his crew messed everything up and they ended up almost back where they started; he and his crew had to face Cyclops, Scylla, Charybdis, sirens. The only reason Odysseus got home was because Athena was fond of him.
When he finally got home, his son had turned into a man, his wife was still faithful to him–after 10 whole years of thinking he was probably dead. His house was filled with a bunch of single dudes who were trying to get with his wife because they wanted his wealth and status; and they had no problem with raping the maids, eating all the foods, wasting his resources, taking advantage of the laws of hospitality, planning the murder of Odysseus’s son, Telemachus.
And of course, Odysseus and Telemachus end up killing all those dudes–and the maids they raped. And everything turns out well for Odysseus and Penelope and Telemachus. All because Athena was a fan of his.
But all kinds of things happened to Odysseus and his crew that had been prophesied. It didn’t matter what he did to try to get around the prophesies. As clever as he was and as much as Athena liked him, there was no getting around what was fated.
From there, I discovered Circe by Madeline Miller. She makes an appearance in The Odyssey. She turns Odysseus’ men into pigs. Then she turns them back into men. She helps him with advice for his trip. And Madeline Miller has stitched together the different accounts of Circe’s life and weaved them into quite the story.
Circe does have quite the “gift” for magic, rather than god-like abilities. She gets banished to an island because of the way she used her magic. Her only company there are the nymphs that get sent to her for a time, and the animals that live on the island. She started to turn sailors into pigs because sailors from the first ship that landed on her island raped her.
She must have had quite the supply of bacon.
Madeline Miller’s Circe just kept trying to make the best of everything no matter what happened to her. Being a woman subject to her powerful father, Helios, and the whims of all the other gods and goddesses. Being so different from everyone else in the house in which she grew up. Being called a witch. Being banished to an island.
She kept learning and bettering herself and working as much as she could against the gods and goddesses. And she learned how to defend herself.
And then I had to re-read the Starcrossed series by Josephine Angelini. Because, well, who doesn’t enjoy an adventure with teenagers who just happen to be demigods. A 16-year-old girl, Helen, discovers that she has some serious powers. She can fly and shoot lightning from her hands and travel to the underworld. By the end of the trilogy, some serious damage was done to a small island off the Massachusetts coast, the furies were no longer making people want to kill each other, Zeus was trapped in a world of Helen’s making, and the rest of the gods and goddesses decided to leave the humans and demigods alone unless they wanted to end up trapped with Zeus.
Of course, there’s a best friend, a boyfriend, some fun family dynamics, some death. The usual.
Along with all of the crazy stuff that seems to happen in stories with Greek mythology, the fates and the furies seem to play a big part in all of them. No matter what any human or demigod tried to do, they couldn’t get away from their fates. And they couldn’t get away from what any of the gods or goddesses decided to do to them.
Really makes me glad I don’t live in that world. My decisions have consequences, yes, but my life isn’t already predetermined by some random deity who may or may not have something against me because of some whim, a grudge, or an argument with another deity.
Some Goodreads links in case you’re interested in getting more info any of these books:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34068470-the-odyssey