Free. Circe and the Others

The myths are like a prism. They reflect different stories based on the voices that pass them down. So what do we really know, for example, of witches, gods and nymphs such as Circe, Iphigenia, Daphne and Cassandra beyond what male storytellers have told us? Sabina Colloredo, one of children’s literature’s best-loved writers, translated into multiple languages and popular also with an adult audience for her historical novels and female biographies, tackles this in Free. Circe and the Others, giving a voice to four very well-known Greek myths, investigating their lives, their intimate nature and their secrets. This is a powerful re-telling that shines new light on the characters of some of the most rebellious personalities, who broke away from their epoch’s masculine and possessive social constructs: Circe, Iphigenia, Daphne and Cassandra. Each of them, despite facing huge sorrow and unimaginable trials, achieved their own form of “liberty” from the male hegemony: Iphigenia finds it in sacrifice, Daphne in metamorphosis. Their freedom lies in refusing to be constricted by life as dictated by men, becoming something “other”. These are strong women, whom today we would call non-conformist. With her cutting and direct style, which never tends to the banal, Sara Collaredo offers us a glimpse of the present in the history of women whose past and future we overlook.  

Libere. Circe e le altre
by Sabina Colloredo
Rizzoli, 2022