Episode description

If you were bored by Homeric epics and Greek mythology in high school and college, Nerdette highly encourages you to reconsider.

“There is a reason these stories have lasted for 3,000 years,” said Madeline Miller, author of Greta’s favorite book of 2018, a novelization of The Odyssey called Circe. 

“[These stories] are incredibly insightful about human nature,” Miller said. “Culture has changed and the way we go to war has changed, but the stories we tell about war and about loss and grief – even things like post-traumatic stress disorder – the Greeks understood all of that.”

Miller said she novelized the story of Circe, a witch from The Odyssey who turns men into pigs, because she wanted more freedom to explore the character. 

“There were things I couldn’t answer in papers that I wanted to answer in a different way,” she said. 

Miller talked with Greta about the book, what makes literary canon, and more about turning men into pigs.