Madeline Miller's Circe

Circe was a very wicked person. She would steal men away from their wives. She also would put magic spells on their food and wine, and tap them on the shoulder with her wand as she said a spell, turning them into animals, as she did to Ulysses crew, turning them into pigs. She also

Circe’s magical abilities cause Zeus to banish her to a small island, where she lives in isolation, only accompanied by the native creatures and plants. Circe’s story explores the many physical and emotional challenges she must overcome, all of which transform her. The theme of metamorphosis is the most important part

Even the goddesses appealing offer, “Remain with me and share my meat and wine” is an enticement for Odysseus, since by staying back at Circe’s island, he would get to relish all the luxuries he had missed ever since “[he] sailed away from stony Ithaca”. Naturally, as a mortal, no matter how great he may be, Odysseus seemed to get drawn into the temptations offered by Circe; however, his perseverance triumphed over the crafty advances of the vile goddess when he tells her, “O Circe, now you must keep your promise… /Help me sail for home/Day after day my longing quickens, and my company gives me no peace, but wear my heart away” Regardless of how tempted Odysseus initially was by Circe’s wealthy promises, he admits that “day after day [his] longing

In her poem, “Circe’s Power,” Louise Gluck alters Homer’s description of Circe from a beguiling, yet submissive seductress to a calculating, powerful, and lonely witch to develop the theme that even those with great power are unable to force authentic love. Odysseus arrives with his crew on the Island of Aeaea, Circe’s home, after losing all but one of his ships to an attack from the Laestrygonians, a race of giants intent on killing Odysseus. On the island, Odysseus splits up his men to explore it, and one group stumbles upon Circe’s palace. Circe tempts them into her halls with “her singing, lifting/ her spellbinding voice” (Homer

Circe, the first women to seduce Odysseus and his men, used her “beguiling voice, while on her loom/ she wove ambrosial fabric sheer and bright/ by that craft known to the goddesses of heaven” to lure his men into her house (10.235-37). While the men still under her trance, allow Circe to trick them and use her magic to turn them into pigs. Even though Circe did not come off as a seductress from the beginning, she eventually able to seduce Odysseus and keep him entertained. Circe was turned on by Odysseus not falling for her tricks and wanted him to lay in bed with her. But Odysseus made Circe “swear

Facing their temptation of their string appearance, he determines to choose loyalty. First, after his 22 soldiers were turn into swine, he have to stay on the island of Circe for one years. Circe, as the daughter of sun god Helios, have charming face and great power. However, although Circe have the magical power, she fails to get Odysseus’s love because of his sacred fire and loyalty for his wife and child. Secondly, when he was imprisoned by the sea goddess Calypso who loved him so much, he never actually look at that beautiful goddess for once. Instead, he resists the temptation from this good-looking goddess in the long seven years. And the only thing he does is to sit alone upon the shore of the wine-dark sea and weep with longing for his wife and home. With the longing and his loyalty for his wife and his hometown, he passes through the difficulty as well as temptation successfully and finally go back to his kingdom Ithaca and meet his wife and

Circe- Circe is a deceitful goddess that turns those that end up on her island into pigs. She eventually captured Odysseus’ crew but, with the help of Hermes, the messenger god Odysseus is able to overcome her. Hermes gives Odysseus a magical plant called moly that, when eaten, will make him immune to her spell. When Odysseus confronts Circe, he convinces her to turn his crew back into their human forms. Odysseus and Circe then fall in love and live together on the island for a year. Her character remains static through much of the

After the encounters with the Sirens, Odysseus had to face a terrifying creature that he feared of. Circe warned Odysseus about the dangers of Scylla. He is informed that she will snag six of his men and tells him that it is much better than loosing everyone. “Nobody would feel good seeing her, not even a god who crossed her path. She has a dozen feet all deformed, six enormously long necks, with a horrible head on each of them and three rows of teeth packed closed together, full of murky death” (Steele and Alwa, 489). Odysseus knew that in order for his survival and to be able to get to the island, he had to sacrifice his men and escape this monster. “Monsters such as the Sphinx are often represented as female, as if to imply that women are on the borderline between human and “other” than human”(Steele and Alwa, 41). Odysseus also had to deal with his love affair with the witch goddess, Circe. She lived with nymphs on a mythical island. She changed all of Odysseus’s men into animals when he showed up to see her. Hermes helped Odysseus remove the men from the spell. “Many men appear to have felt that they could truly not love women who were not educated well enough to read, write, or engage in informed dialogue with their husbands”(Steele and Alwa, 43). The love between Odysseus and Circe failed due to her lack of ability to engage with men, by

In Homer’s The Odyssey, “Book 10: The Bewitching Queen of Aeaea,” Circe is initially depicted as a powerful and commanding character who takes charge of whatever scene she is present in. This characterization is in contrast to the typical roles of women within ancient Greece; once she meets Odysseus and he proves himself to be more powerful than her through his immunity to her magic and his strength, she becomes subservient to him. She transitions into that traditional portrayal of what a woman is supposed to be: more subservient and hospitable. Odysseus uses the help of Apollo to trick Circe into thinking that he is immune to her magic.

In the epic poem The Odyssey by Homer contains the overall mission by the protagonist, Odysseus, while trying to sail back home after battling at Troy. Throughout his mission, Odysseus meets women who both affect his life positively and negatively. Women in The Odyssey either play one of two roles, the unfavorable person with consequences or a strong women who holds on her own. Odysseus’ first encounter, Circe when him and his men land on her island, she turns the men into pigs, and persuades Odysseus to stay with her. In the story Odysseus says, “Circe tossed them acorns, mast, and cornel berries-- fodder for hogs…”

Circe lured some of Odysseuses men in, and turned them into swine. Eurylochos ran back and warned Odysseus, who then armed up to rescue his men. Hermes gave Odysseus a magical herb called moly that would make him immune to Circe’s spell. Odysseus pulled out his sword on Circe as she tried to put the smell on him too. Then she bargained with him, he agreed to sleep with her,if she took the spell of his men and lets them

In the story Circe tells Odysseus, “…but harm them in any way, and I can see it now: your ship destroyed, your men destroyed as well! And even if you escape, you’ll come home late, all shipmates lost, and come home a broken man.” (275,

      Circe and Calypso, while very tricky and sly, are still very strong feminine characters.  Circe takes Odysseus' crew and turns them into swine; when Odysseus is able to resist her spell, due to the Moly he had been given by Hermes, she is dismayed and takes him as her lover. She is mysterious and seductive and is strong even up against Odysseus.  Calypso is a sea nymph who keeps Odysseus captive for nine years, hoping to make him her husband.  She is a strong-willed temptress whose sultry ways are able to reel in even the most determined man.

Segal describes Circe a character who combines “redoubtable magic with the quintessence of female sensuality,” where “an element of callousness” might have occurred (Segal 421). This means that there was always the threat that Circe could be selfish wither her powers. He writes how Homer’s Circe embodies the pleasures of the flesh “in both their restorative and dangerous aspects”. While she can transform men into animals, “Homer thrice stresses her clear and lovely voice as she plies the great, immortal loom” (Segal 425).

This time spent on Circe's island was a test of whether he could resist lust from a goddess, and he fails. At first it appears as though the only reason Odysseus sleeps with Circe is to regain his companions, but she easily persuades them to stay. What makes it worse is the fact that Odysseus is not even the first one ready to go. His men are the ones who urge him to leave: "What ails you now? It is time to think about our own country" (Book X, line 472). At a glance, it appears that Odysseus is merely succumbing to Circe's schemes for reasons related to their health and well being, if we read between the lines, we soon begin to realize that Odysseus is weak in the voracious hands of lust. Odysseus arrives on Calypso's island in her cave. At first, it seems like Odysseus doesn't seem much to mind her taking care of him, but over time it is plainly evident that he is unhappy with her. When Hermes arrives on Calypso's island to give her the message from Zeus to release Odysseus, he is bawling on the beach-- a daylong activity for him. Calypso is holding him with her by force; she has no companions to help him back to Ithaca, nor has she a ship to send him in. Athena pleads with Zeus to give Odysseus good fortune,