Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Circe, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Power, Fear, and Self-Preservation
Women, Power, and Misogyny
Change, Initiative, and the Self
Mortality, Fragility, and Fulfillment
Family and Individuality
Summary
Analysis
A rumor is circulating in Helios’s halls that a Titan named Prometheus is going to be punished. Prometheus had long ago disobeyed Zeus by giving humans fire, a tool that brought humans out of a primitive existence and guided them to civilization. Zeus was furious; he wanted to keep cultural pleasures and technological comforts for the gods alone. In response, Zeus imprisoned Prometheus until he could devise a proper punishment. Now, Zeus has at last decided what that torment will be.
Zeus’s determination to keep fire from humans has to do with his desire for gods to maintain power over the mortals. Without fire, mortals were stuck in a miserable and primitive state. Because only the gods were able to enjoy the world’s pleasures and comforts, they easily kept the mortals fearful of the gods’ power and indebted to the gods for any of life’s pleasures. But now that the humans have fire, they gained some independence from the gods, as it has enabled them to progress and form civilizations.
Themes
Circe’s Titan relatives are frantic; to them, Zeus’s punishing Prometheus reads as an example of Olympian power over the Titans. After all, the Olympians are now the ruling divinities, a situation that the Titans, who pre-existed them, resent. Not only are the Titans older, but the Olympians are actually descended from the Titans; Kronos, the king of the Titans, was the father of the original Olympian gods. Long ago, Kronos heard a prophesy that one of his children would overthrow him. In an effort to prevent the prediction from coming true, Kronos ate each of his children as they were born. When Zeus was born, however, his mother, Rhea, concealed him and kept him hidden until adulthood.
Zeus’s punishment is not just revenge—it also serves as an example to the other Titans that the Olympians are the ones in power. Zeus wants to instill fear in the other Titans so that they don’t rebel. The use of abuse to maintain power has a long-standing history among the gods, and this history demonstrates one way that families pass down their vices. In punishing Prometheus in order to flex his power over the other Titans, Zeus follows the footsteps of his own cruel father, Kronos. Titan Kronos ate his children in an attempt to maintain power, which again illustrates how the gods’ love for power supersedes any love that they have for their families. Zeus narrowly escaped being eaten by his father, but he appears to have absorbed Kronos’s violent ways.
Themes
Once grown, Zeus poisoned Kronos and freed his siblings from Kronos’s stomach. Gathering them together, Zeus then led his siblings into battle against the Titans. Although most of the Titans joined Kronos in the fight against the Olympians (as Zeus and his siblings named themselves), Helios and a few other Titans joined Zeus. While some people believe that Helios sided with Zeus because he hated Kronos’s pride, others say it was because Helios, who has prophetic powers, knew that Zeus would win. The war was gruesome and bathed the earth in divine blood. Eventually, the Olympians won, and Zeus stripped the defying Titans of their powers.
Helios’s prophetic abilities suggest that he choose to side with Zeus not because he disapproved of Kronos’s character, but because he wanted to be on the winning side. In other words, Helios doesn’t really care about the personalities or temperaments of the people in power—he just wants to be among them, holding onto his own power. Sure enough, Zeus strips the rebellious Titans of their divine abilities in order to maintain his own newfound power.
Themes
Centuries have passed since the war, but gods’ grudges never die. The Titans are still bitter about their subjugation at the hands of the Olympians. Circe frequently overhears her Titan relatives’ defiant whispers, and though Helios quiets them with concessions that Zeus “does well enough,” he insinuates that the Olympians’ reign won’t last forever. Helios’s words satisfy the resentful Titans, and they hope for a future battle.
It is likely that immortality is one of the reasons why the gods refuse to let go of grudges. Not pressed with impending death, the gods do not have a mortal’s pressure to fix wrongs before it is too late. Mortality, on the other hand, allows only a finite amount of time to mend relationships or find personal contentment, which could prompt a mortal to let go of a grudge. Additionally, because power is of utmost importance in ancient Greece, the gods know that their superiors will subjugate them forever, unless they gain back power that they can then use against their oppressors. The Titans, therefore, never forget about their loss and hope for a battle that will result in them taking back power.
Themes
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Now that Prometheus is going to face punishment, the other Titans again seek Helios’s council, as they suspect that the Olympians are flexing their power over the Titans by making an example of rebellious Prometheus. But Helios dismisses their fears and refuses to defend Prometheus. To Helios, Prometheus deserves to be punished for “his foolish love for mortals.” The other Titans nod and passively accept Helios’s judgement.
Always anxious of the Olympians’ power over them, the Titans suspect that Zeus is making an example of Prometheus. They don’t actually care about Prometheus, though; they are afraid for themselves, worried that the Olympians are tightening their control over the Titans in general. But Helios refuses to intervene. He is not interested in possibly losing his power to defend someone else, even if that someone is a relative. Sacrifice is clearly uncommon among the gods—not only does Helios refuse to help Prometheus, but he also dismisses Prometheus’s selfless act as “foolish” and even deserving of punishment.
Themes
Leading up to the punishment, the other divinities eagerly debate what horrors wait in store for Prometheus. Gods rarely ever experience pain, and this novelty is what makes them so excited to see it in action. Of course, the thought of being in pain themselves is terrifying.
Here, the story establishes the link between empathy and first-hand suffering. It is because the gods never (or rarely) experience pain that they are unmoved when other people suffer. Additionally, the gods’ love of novelty makes pain exciting to witness. Having never experienced pain, they watch it happen with detachment and morbid curiosity. That is not to say that they aren’t scared of pain—they are—but having never experienced it and knowing that pain is not likely to be a part of their future, they have the privilege to not worry about it. Instead, others’ suffering is their entertainment.
Themes
On the day of the torture, the Titan gods and their offspring crowd into Helios’s halls to watch. A Fury (a goddess of vengeance) appears in the doorway, dragging Prometheus and a whip behind her. She chains him high on the wall so that he dangles, his body stretched tight. Circe anxiously waits for one of the other Titans to intercede for him—“they were his family, after all”—but no one does. The Fury begins to whip Prometheus viciously as the spectators look on, occasionally jostling for a better view.
The fact that Prometheus is a relative has no effect on the other Titans’ ability to watch him suffer. Excited by the novelty of seeing pain, the other gods put their own curiosity above Prometheus’s agony, which demonstrates another way that the gods are selfish. It is also likely that none of the gods intervene in the torture because they are afraid of what would happen to them. In this way, Zeus’s plan to use Prometheus as an example to deter other rebels is successful. Fear effectively keeps the Titans under Zeus’s control.
Themes
Eventually the watching deities become bored and meander back to their feasting and lounging. The Fury also leaves. At last, only Circe remains in the hall with Prometheus, whose golden blood streams down his back. Circe remembers having heard that Prometheus could have begged for a lighter punishment, but that he turned down the chance.
The gods are no longer interested in Prometheus as soon as the novelty of seeing pain wears off. They are totally unempathetic toward Prometheus, showing another example of the gods’ dismissal of others’ pain. Prometheus, however, is quite different from the other selfish gods. His blood is the color of gold, which is associated with power. With his golden blood streaming out of him, his bleeding represents how he is losing his power—he is, in fact, choosing to give it up so that mortals can have fire. This sacrifice sets him apart from the other gods and his immortal family. He has taken it upon himself to try to disrupt the cycle of power and abuse in which the gods feed off mortals’ suffering.
Themes
As Circe listens to Prometheus’s ragged breathing, it sinks in that she is the only one left. With her pulse quickening, she offers to bring Prometheus nectar, which he accepts with thanks. As she hurries to the feasting hall, she knows that she is taking a risk; even though no one has banned her from talking with Prometheus, she would nonetheless likely be punished. But no one notices her, so she brings back nectar for the Titan, who thanks her. She is surprised at his gentle manner and realizes that “Bold action and bold manner are not the same.”
Unlike so many of the other gods, Circe is moved by Prometheus’s suffering, which sets her apart from the rest of her callous family. Although no reason is given as to why Circe is the only one who shows empathy, it may be that her youth has something to do with it—she’s not jaded yet. Additionally, although she has never felt pain, she knows what it is to be miserable and alienated from one’s family, which shows how experiencing pain leads to empathy. Circe’s emotion shows that Prometheus’s sacrifice has influence beyond helping mortals, as it has inspired Circe to act with kindness.
Themes
Circe asks Prometheus what mortals are like. He replies that they are all different, sharing only the fate that they all die and go to the underworld. There, they become as insubstantial as shadows. Circe is deeply disturbed by this description. She then asks Prometheus why he refused Zeus’s offer to let him beg for forgiveness. Instead of answering, he turns the question on her and asks what she thinks would drive him to do so. She has no response, and he tells her that “Not every god need be the same.” Suddenly they hear a noise in the hallway, and he urges her to leave.
In Circe and Prometheus’s conversation, Prometheus contrasts mortals’ individuality with the gods’ uniformity. While Circe puzzles over why Prometheus would willingly get tortured, he challenges her to question the systems of behavior—particularly the cycle of power and abuse—that the gods perpetuate. In telling her that “Not every god need be the same,” Prometheus wants her to realize that she does not need to be like the other gods who selfishly prioritize their power over all else, including others’ well-being.
Themes
Circe leaves Prometheus and goes to the feasting hall, where no one acknowledges her. A sense of awareness dawns on her. She walks into her Helios’s treasury and takes one of his daggers, which she brings back to her room. She lays it on her unmarked palm. With the blade in hand, she finds that she doesn’t fear pain so much as not being able to be cut at all. She slices at her hand, and the knife does cut her, revealing her red blood. As she looks at her oozing hand, she suddenly realizes that, while her life feels like “murk and depths.” She is “not a part of that dark water. [She is] a creature within it.”
Circe’s conversation with Prometheus sparks an epiphany for her. After hearing Prometheus’s words that “Not every god need be the same,” Circe questions whether she has agency. Having spent most of her life aimlessly existing in the halls of the gods, her life feels insubstantial, like “murk and depths.” She decides to cut her hand as a test of her existence. Essentially, her fear that she may be unable to draw blood from her hand illustrates her deeper fear that her existence is so meaningless that she isn’t really alive. As soon as she cuts her hand, she knows that she does exist and that her life’s emptiness does not define her. Or, as she puts it, she is “not a part of that dark water.” She realizes her agency, that she has a life and can choose how to live it.
Themes
