I kept getting psyched out by boats and the prophecy about Odysseus arriving as I did GCSE Classics and read the Odyssey. Odysseus surmises his very lengthy and wordy journey into only a few passages! I was quite glad this didn’t have all those repetitive descriptions of the sun! It made the weird sounding things like Elpenor falling off the roof more believable or at least funny. I love the little cameos of Jason, Helen, Achilles and Patroclus (OTP) etc. The story follows Circe’s life and the effect of the mortals she meets on it.
It briefly retells the story of Zeus destroying Kronos. Most of the Titans sided against the soon to be king of the gods but Helios did not. So he married a beautiful nymph Perse and they had a daughter Circe. Her mother hated her immediately: first because she was a girl; then because her father prophesied she would marry a mortal prince not one of Zeus’s; going on to attack her face and voice. A pair of twins was born after her: Pasiphae who was said would marry a son of Zeus; Perses to honour his mother. Eventually another son would be born, Aetes, and because there was no prophecy their mother refused to take him so Circe raised and loved him. He was strange from birth and knew how Zeus had killed Kronos- pharmaka flowers. It humanises myths such as the day she saw her uncle Prometheus being punished for giving mortals fire and waited until everyone left to get him nectar but he was then sent to a worse punishment where an eagle would pick out his liver every noon. You pity him through her rather than just thinking of the gruesomeness of the act.
SPOILERS
It turns out Pasiphae’s husband isn’t quite so impressive as he’s only a demigod Minos but this pleases her as she’ll be on top of the food chain. At the wedding Aetes reveals he is leaving his sister to rule his own kingdom. Luckily she isn’t alone for long as a man named Glaucos arrives and gets to know her, telling her if he had a sister like her he would never lose her- maybe she should have taken this as a sister zone. She tells him the story of the day she. This story antagonises him as he can’t handle the fact she is so old so she take it back. Still she asks her grandmother to bless him with fish and in return her grandmother says she cannot lie with him. But he’s grateful and she wants even more for him- for him to be a god. She discovers from an uncle of a flower and feeds it to him to make him his truest self. Seeing that he has transformed, Circe’s grandmother and the other gods gladly accepts him and raise him to be a high god but he quickly becomes attracted to a nymph called Scylla and asks her to marry him. Wild with jealousy, Circe begs Glaucos to take her instead and when he friendzones her she spikes Scylla’s bath with the flowers to transform her into ‘her truest self’- a monster with six heads! Curve admits to it and the gods mock her saying the flowers are just flowers but her brother arrives and tells them all the siblings are witches and the magic was real. He has known he was this all his life but because she confessed to cruel deeds, Helios and Zeus banish her to an island called Aiaia. Her mother is delighted at all this news but horrified when Helios announces he will have no more children with her!
The island is beautiful and she hones her craft. One dayHermes comes to visit and returns again and again to sleep with her. A famousmortal arrives later, Daedalus, telling her she has been requested for hersister’s childbirth and her father agreed to lift her exile. On the way, Scyllakilled 12 of his men so Circe transforms into Perses to trick Scylla but she’scold to Daedalus when he thanks her. Still he tries to warn her but she entersinto her sister’s rooms. Pasiphae forces Daedalus to cut her open because hewas the one who created the sacred bull she formed a monsterous child with!Circe has to reach in and it bites off her fingers! To stop it she went to MountDicte to read its future and saw it would be killed later in life so they couldnot destroy it now. Besides, Pasiphae’s daughter Ariadne loves it as herbrother anyway. Minos wants it dead but when they refuse he takes the glory andnames it the Minotaur. Daedalus asks her to dine with him and she discovers thereason he cannot leave is as he has a son Pasiphae could take, Icarus.
Circe goes to see Pasiphae once more and her vision of hersister flips- Perses made her do terrible things which is why she didn’t summonhim; Aeetes has never loved a woman, even Circe. Because she won’t stayPasiphae sends her away and she goes to sleep with Daedalus. She wants him tocome with her but knows he cannot and sails away with only the loom he gaveher, later learning he made a Labrynth to confuse the Minotaur but Icarus flewtoo close to the sun (as the Hamilton song says) and Daedalus died ofheartache.
Back home it finally feels like a prison and Hermes is nowfull to her. He tells her the Minotaur was killed as in her vision by Theseus,who was taught the Labyrinth by Ariadne and he would have married her butDionysus claimed her then she was killed by Artemis before this was evenpossible. Two bloody supplicants come to her, her niece Medea and the demigodJason. They were being chased by her father and killed her brother so he wouldstorm to mourn him. Medea inherited Aeetes’ witchcraft so Circe invites her tostay and be witches together but Medea calls her lonely and selfish, refusingand leaving. When Aeetes arrives for her he is pleasant when he thinks Circehas her but what Pasiphae said turns out to be true and he leaves immediatelywhen he discovers she doesn’t. Zeus decides to send nymphs to her forpunishment but this is not the kind of company Circe desires so she isdelighted when a crew of men show up however they rape her and she is unable tofight back until it is over so she can kill them slowly and satisfyingly. Thisbecomes her method of torture for any beastly men, but at last Hermes sends PrinceOdysseus for his men, who she has turned into pigs. He immediately proveshimself honourable by speaking of his wife and intelligent by refusing to sleepwith Circe unless she swears not to hurt him on the River Styx. She turns hismen back to humans and falls in love with him. He decides to extend his staybut they both know he is honourable and will go back to the wife he loves.Indeed, Apollo forces his prophecy on Circe that Odysseus will arrive so shehas to tell him to go to the prophet Teiresias, but gives him full directions.While he does she does the funeral rites for Elpenor and when he returns giveshim more information about what he will face, letting him go even though shedid not take the potion to stop her becoming pregnant for the last month so sheis carrying his child.
Her pregnancy and son Telegonus’s birth is dreadful- somegod is trying to harm her child and one day he wakes up with a scratch shefears they put there. But she’s so busy with constantly looking after him shedoesn’t realise someone is sending scorpions and crashing pans to try to killhim. That someone turns out to be Athena who is determined the baby must dieand offers to give Circe her favour and send another man for her to make achild with but she refuses and becomes even more protective, making a potionwhich will make the island protect her son. But she can’t control him foreverand when he begs her to save a ship he shows his leadership skills. Hermesappears to Telegonus and helps him build a ship to meet his family in Ithaca.At first Circe refuses him but then she sees she must let him go so breaks herexile to go to the god of scorpions and takes his poison tail in exchange forexperiencing its pain, for Telegonus to use on Athena or any other extremedanger. However when he returns he has accidentally killed Odysseus when hisfather accused him of being a pirate and fought him for the tail. To Circe’shorror, she brought Telemachus and Penelope here as she thinks they will killher son. But Telemachus tells her what happened to Odysseus after he left her:that all his men died when they ate the cattle; when he got home he killed themen fighting for Penelope; he killed the fathers of his old crew forquestioning them on his son. His mother was blinded with love and Odysseus wasaccused him of being a traitor; he told Telemachus to kill people for him andso his first son hated him. Now Circe is convinced Telemachus doesn’t want tokill her son but she isn’t sure about Penelope and whilst Penelope tells her ofOdysseus’s capture by Calypso, she learns little else and allows her to weavewith her loom. But it appears Penelope was the one who chose to come to Aiaiabecause Athena wants a new hero- their son- so she came here for protection.Eventually Athena arrives but Telemachus refuses her to live a life ofobscurity so she offers the same to Telegonus- a group of sailors to take torule a land and go down in history.
Once her son has left Circe gives Penelope her poisons touse on unwanted guests but Telemachus chooses to come with her to use thepoison rail one last time on Scylla before they give it back. As they travelhome he asks to hear her stories and wants to travel with her. They leavePenelope to take Circe’s place and the witch takes a potion to age with her newhusband and her two daughters.
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