Circe

by Madeline Miller

“Tell me,” he said, “who gives better offerings, a miserable man or a happy one?” “A happy one, of course.” “Wrong,” he said. “A happy man is too occupied with his life. He thinks he is beholden to no one. But make him shiver, kill his wife, cripple his child, then you will hear from him. He will starve his family for a month to buy you a pure-white yearling calf. If he can afford it, he will buy you a hundred.”

“Calypso fawned over him, and you turned his men to pigs. Yet you were the one he preferred. Do you think that strange?” “No,” I said.

When he was back on Ithaca he was never content, always looking to the horizon. Once we were his again, he wanted something else. What is that if not a bad life? Luring others to you, then turning from them?”

Madeline Miller’s recommendations for further reading If you are interested in reading more about Circe, the Odyssey, or Greek myth, below is a short list of suggestions to get started.