A To Z Blogging Challenge 2023: Myth And Legend In Fiction - C Is For Circe And Cinderella

 Circe was, as you probably know, the goddess who turned sailors into pigs when they arrived on her island, Aeaea. Odysseus met her in Homer’s Odyssey. She turned his crew, but he escaped that by the use of a magical herb called moly. He slept with her, but refused her bed until she changed his men back. 

There is a lot more to her in Greek mythology than this story, and quite a lot of it appears in Madeline Miller’s novel Circe, a retelling of the myth, in which Odysseus plays only a small part. She seems to have been related to quite a few other figures in Greek mythology, including Pasiphae, mother of the Minotaur(her sister) and Medea(niece) and her father, the king of Colchis.

The novel is seen from Circe’s viewpoint, from her childhood onwards. She turns her lover, Glaucus, into a god and regrets it when he dumps her for another goddess, Scylla, whom she turns into the monster encountered by Odysseus on his way home.

In general, though, she is the only decent member of her dreadful family. And she has very good reason for turning sailors into pigs… 

It’s very faithful to the myth. Every time I thought, hang on, that wasn’t in the myth, I checked it out in Robert Graves’ The Greek Myths and found out that yes, it was! 

I know this author has written another Greek myth-themed novel, The Song Of Achilles, though I haven’t read it yet. 

C is also for “Cinderella”. Personally, I think most YA romance novels have elements of “Cinderella” in them, in that the mousy heroine is in love with the “Prince” - captain of the football team or some such - and has to get to him despite the persecution of at least one mean girl. And the girls who read these novels just love it!

There is a play, The Other Cinderella, by Nicholas Stuart Gray, in which Cinderella is dreadful and her stepsisters and stepmother are lovely. The stepmother understands why they are resented - she has been running the household and suddenly she is just the youngest daughter. It’s basically a send up of the Christmas pantomime. A Demon and Fairy Godmother are involved, trying to fix the story. Somehow it all ends up well. Cinderella marries the family page, not the Prince. The stepsisters get the Prince and his best friend.

But my favourite Cinderella-themed YA novel is Moonlight And Ashes by Australian writer Sophie Masson. It sets the story in a fictional 19th century European country, and is based on the German version, Ashputtel rather than the French version, Cendrillon, with which we are more familiar. There is a difference, in that in the Grimm version, instead of a fairy godmother, there is a hazel tree on her mother’s grave which drops her a dress for the ball. The heroine’s name is Selena. She is a “moon-sister” with magical powers. The country where she lives has banned magic except for certain people doing what the government wants. 

It’s only Cinderella up to the ball scene. After that, Selena goes on an adventure - and there are things about the prince she never knew.

Sophie Masson also wrote a novel set in the same country and era, based on Snow White, which I will tell you about in another post.

Tomorrow: D is for Discworld!