On Retelling Greek Classics: An Exploration of the Modern Epics with Madeline Miller

Madeline Miller, The Song of Achilles & Circe, Thursday, March 21st

You’re invited to a fascinating exploratory conversation with Madeline Miller, bestselling author of The Song of Achilles and Circe, as she chats with us about her body of work and her process of retelling Greek classics into fresh, modern epics in fiction. 

In The Song of Achilles, Achilles, "the best of all the Greeks," son of the cruel sea goddess Thetis and the legendary king Peleus, is strong, swift, and beautiful, irresistible to all who meet him. Patroclus is an awkward young prince exiled from his homeland after an act of shocking violence. Brought together by chance, they forge an inseparable bond despite risking the gods' wrath.

In Circe, to Helios, god of the sun and mightiest of the Titans, a daughter is born. But Circe is a strange child--neither powerful like her father nor viciously alluring like her mother. Turning to the world of mortals for companionship, she discovers that she does possess power: the power of witchcraft, which can transform rivals into monsters and menace the gods themselves. Circe must summon all her strength and choose, once and for all, whether she belongs with the gods she is born from or with the mortals she has come to love.