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
Circe anxiously paces the shore of Aiaia, wondering all the while where Telegonus is. She wants to believe that his meeting with Odysseus, Penelope, and Telemachus will go well, but she can’t help but feel that this is fantasy. She crosses her island, its many changes making her life feel all the more static. Now that Telegonus is gone, she realizes that no matter if he survives Athena’s murderous attempts, she will nevertheless have to watch him die slowly.
Circe has seen enough cruelty in the world to make her doubt that Telegonus’s meeting with Odysseus and his family will go well. Her experiences have taught her that people are quick to exploit others in order to get ahead, so she is worried that this will happen to Telegonus. As she walks over Aiaia, all the changes of the plants and animals make her feel out of touch with the cycles of life—growing, aging, and dying. As a goddess, her body will never undergo any of these changes. Her love for the changing plant and animal life on Aiaia is intertwined with resentment for her divinity, which implies that Circe’s immortality prevents her from really being alive, like the plants and animals of her island are. Although she has personally developed throughout the story, she feels trapped knowing that neither her body nor her situation (she is in eternal exile) will change. Additionally, because she will live forever, she is doomed to watch Telegonus die and leave her.
Themes
One night, Telegonus’s favorite wolf Arcturos wakes Circe with her howling. Looking out to the horizon, Circe sees Telegonus’s ship. Circe rushes to the beach, wondering why he is back so soon. She runs into him in the woods and, seeing the grief in his face, demands that he tell her what is wrong. Telegonus tells Circe that he arrived when Odysseus was away from home. When Odysseus returned, he stormed at Telegonus, raging at him to get off his lands. Telegonus tried to tell Odysseus that he was his son, but he didn’t listen. When Odysseus lunged for the spear, the sheath slipped, and Odysseus cut himself on the stinger. Horrified, Circe realizes that Telegonus’s killing of Odysseus is why Athena had so desperately wanted the boy dead.
Accustomed to the violence and greediness of the world, Odysseus assumed that Telegonus was a threat, probably thinking that Telegonus was trying to rob him or otherwise undermine his rule. Odysseus attacked Telegonus to (in his mind) maintain his control over his land and belongings. Because Odysseus lunged for the spear, it is likely that he intended to kill Telegonus in his effort to maintain his power, even though Telegonus was never threatening him. Odysseus’s actions show how, in a society built on power, fear, and violence, people are quick to assert their dominance over others, even misinterpreting friendliness as a threat. Circe realizes now that Athena wanted to kill Telegonus because Odysseus is one of her favorite mortals, which demonstrates her callousness toward mortals—she was quick to try to kill an infant just so she could keep someone she prefers alive.
Themes
Telegonus weeps, mourning the death of his father. Circe also grieves, thinking of her time with Odysseus. His sobs slowing, Telegonus then tells Circe that Telemachus and Penelope are in the boat. Reeling, Circe demands to know why. Telegonus explains that they asked to come and said that they needed help. Circe exclaims that Telemachus will try to kill Telegonus, in vengeance for Odysseus’s death. But Telegonus shakes his head, saying that they are brothers. His statement makes Circe think of Ariadne’s affection for the Minotaur. Realizing that there is no changing Telegonus’s mind and taking comfort in her own strength, she agrees to meet them.
Telegonus betrays his innocence by assuming that Telemachus won’t hurt him because they are brothers. Having had a sheltered childhood away from the rest of the world, he does not realize that ancient Greek society is obsessed with power and that family ties are meaningless to those who seek to obtain power by any means. Telegonus’s naïveté makes Circe think of Ariadne, who loved the Minotaur as her brother, even though it was dangerous and even attacked her at one point. Although Circe wants to make Telegonus see the risk in bringing Telemachus and Penelope to Aiaia, she knows at this point that trying to change someone’s mind is often futile. The most effective way to protect her child is to use her power to do so, instead of trying to convince him to keep himself safe.
Themes
Circe and Telegonus lead Penelope and Telemachus up from the beach to the house, where Circe feeds them. The conversation is courteous but tense, with Telegonus being overly attentive, his guilt obvious. After Circe sends Telemachus and Penelope to bed, she holds her weary son until he falls asleep. She then tucks him in and has Arcturos keep watch at the foot of the bed.
Telegonus’s guilt and overly attentive behavior set him apart from many other characters who have caused deaths. Instead of placing the blame on someone else (including Odysseus), Telegonus assumes all guilt, which suggests that being raised away from the power struggles of the rest of society has made him empathetic and kindhearted. By raising her son to be kind, Circe contributes to making the world a less violent place. She doesn’t dismantle the whole structure of power and abuse, but she mitigates the world’s cruelty in the ways that she can.
Themes
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When Circe steps back into the dining hall, she sees Telemachus waiting there. She walks to her fire, feeling her power pulsing through her. When she tells him that she knows that he plans to kill Telegonus to avenge Odysseus, Telemachus contradicts her, saying that he doesn’t blame her son. Odysseus had been hostile in his later years, he explains, and died by his own hand; to blame Telegonus would be wrong.
Circe is comforted by her power; she knows that she is capable of protecting her son and herself, as this is exactly what she has been doing for years. Her confidence in her abilities has increased since she defied Athena, a rejection of the gods’ power over her which represents her independence from them—she no longer seeks their aid. Since being so isolated, she has learned that, while she is generally unable to influence other people to be less cruel, she can still make a difference by attending to what is in her control. For example, while she couldn’t convince Athena to not try to kill her son, she was able to use her magic to make Aiaia a safe haven for Telegonus.
Themes
But Circe does not relax. She asks Telemachus why he left Ithaca, when he can now be king. He responds that, because he has showed no intention of avenging Odysseus’s death, Ithaca is not a safe place for him. He did not even weep at the funeral, for he never knew his father to be the glorious man others had described. Intrigued, Circe asks him to explain.
Telemachus’s acceptance that Odysseus, and not Telegonus, was at fault for Odysseus’s death suggests that he is not interested in using his father’s death as an excuse for attacking Telegonus. As Odysseus’s son, Telegonus could try to claim the throne of Ithaca, but Telemachus is not interested in trying to protect his power. In fact, Telemachus isn’t interested in having power at all, as he reveals that he has no wish to become king. Circe doesn’t know why Telemachus is turning down his chance to participate in the cycle of power and violence, but his decision to do so sets him apart from many of the novel’s other power-hungry characters.
Themes
Telemachus begins his tale with the years following the Trojan war. When Odysseus didn’t return, suitors flocked to their halls, wanting to marry Penelope. Angrily, he describes how the suitors wouldn’t honor their requests for them to leave—the men knew that a woman and her young son were powerless.
Presuming that Odysseus, the patriarch of the home, was dead, suitors tried their chance at getting power by vying for Penelope, the queen of Ithaca. They hoped to marry Penelope so that they could become king, which demonstrates both the power-hungry society of ancient Greece and the fact that the ancient Greeks primarily valued women for what a man could gain from marrying them (like a kingdom). The men knew that Penelope, as a woman, was quite powerless and that Telemachus was too young to pose a threat. Unafraid of punishment, they felt free to exploit Penelope and Telemachus, harassing Penelope and staying in their halls, where they drained their resources.
Themes
But when Odysseus finally did return, he killed them all. When the suitors’ fathers came to demand some amends for their sons’ murders, Odysseus refused and began to kill them, too. But Athena intervened and ordered that the feud end. The following day, the fathers of Odysseus’s soldiers came to ask about the whereabouts of their sons. All of Odysseus’s soldiers, however, are dead, the last of them killed by Helios after they ate his cattle. Upon learning this, the fathers then requested that Odysseus at least give them their sons’ loot from fighting Troy. But Odysseus didn’t have any of the treasure—it had all been lost at sea on the journey home. The fathers visited Odysseus time after time, until he began beating them and insulting their sons.
Odysseus showed no mercy to the people who tried to usurp his place. He killed all the suitors and even began attacking the suitors’ fathers, probably to discourage anyone else from attempting to take his power from him. By killing the suitors and some of their fathers, Odysseus used fear as a way to control others and protect his power. Athena stopped the bloodshed, although it is likely that she did this not out of concern for the men Odysseus was going to kill, but because she wanted to salvage Odysseus’s reputation for her own sake. As Odysseus’s patron, Athena gained glory through his deeds, as his accomplishments reflected on her. Athena is an example of a god who does take interest in a mortal; but even though she may have helped Odysseus, her actions always benefitted her, too. Even after Athena stopped the killings, Odysseus was still intent on punishing anyone who confronted him. He guarded his power jealously and lashed out whenever anyone tried to question it.
Themes
Even though the soldiers’ fathers avoided Odysseus after his violent outburst, Odysseus became paranoid. Telemachus admits that he should have intervened then, but he hoped that Odysseus would calm. When Circe asks what Penelope thought, Telemachus coldly responds that no one can guess Penelope’s thoughts. He had once been close with his mother, but that changed when Odysseus came home from war, full of rage and easily angered. Penelope never tried to stop Odysseus’s senseless violence and didn’t intervene when Odysseus exiled Telemachus, whom he called a coward and a traitor when he refused to believe his conspiracies.
Telemachus’s inaction demonstrates that it is often ineffective to hope that people will change in the way that one wants them to. In order to actually make a difference in any particular situation, like Odysseus’s violence and paranoia, a person has to act. Telemachus’s waiting for Odysseus to change into a calmer person was futile. While Telemachus doesn’t give a reason for Odysseus’s paranoia, it could be because Odysseus had seen so much cruelty in the world that he assumed that he believed everyone was out to get him. Sadly, the story has supported Odysseus’s fears: people will stop at nothing to get power when living in a society where one must use others or be abused.
Themes
Odysseus began to go on monthly raids, which churned up wild rumors: that he had married again, that he had another child, and that he ruled another kingdom. Penelope still never confronted Odysseus, and Telemachus, sick of his father’s wrath and his mother’s inaction, moved to the countryside. Then Telegonus came, and Odysseus died.
Penelope’s inaction, like Telemachus’s had deadly consequences. Because she never tried to confront or contain Odysseus, he never stopped spiraling into deeper paranoia and violence, which resulted in the unchecked aggression that led to his death.
Themes
Circe is moved by the story and reminds Telemachus that he is “not [his] blood,” but Telemachus rebuffs her sympathetic words. He tells her that he is indeed a coward, since he should have intervened when Odysseus proved himself to be unstable. He confesses his guilt for following Odysseus’s orders to not only kill the suitors, but also the enslaved girls who had slept with them, no matter that, as slaves, they never had any choice. Their deaths, he said, will haunt him forever. On that note, he goes to bed.
Circe tells Telemachus that he is “not [his] blood” to remind him that he is not defined by his family. This means that just because Odysseus is his father, Telemachus shouldn’t worry that he is going to turn out to be violent and callous like him. Additionally, it implies that he shouldn’t feel guilty for Odysseus’s actions. But Telemachus rejects Circe’s sympathetic words because he does feel guilty and does see himself as a villain. Having gone along with Odysseus’s orders, Telemachus contributed to the careless violence of the world. He feels particularly guilty for killing the enslaved girls whom Odysseus ordered to be killed in spite of their innocence. Odysseus wanted to make an example of their deaths, showing people what happens when people dare try to usurp his power. These girls were already victims, as they had been raped by the suitors who saw them as objects, which speaks to the misogyny of ancient Greece. Telemachus did as Odysseus said and killed the women, and he feels terribly guilty for it. He keeps this guilt close to him, like Circe does with her guilt regarding Scylla, possibly to remind himself of his capacity for cruelty. His guilt and regret motivate him to be less like Odysseus.
Themes
Circe paces the beach, thinking of Odysseus and the ruthlessness that Telemachus described. She remembers a conversation they once had in which she told him that, when turning men to pigs, she never thought of whether there were some with good hearts; they were in her house, and that was enough. Odysseus had smiled and agreed. In retrospect, Circe knows that she had been boasting, feeling powerful in her brutality.
Circe realizes that bragging about her callousness was to show off her power. Traumatized by the rape that she endured, Circe lashed out at the men who arrived on her island so that she could feel in control again, and so that she could prove to men (and herself) that women are not weak. But by carelessly turning all men (regardless of guilt or innocence) into pigs, Circe was contributing to society’s system of power and abuse. In retrospect, she sees how heartless she was and regrets her actions.
Themes
While Circe believes that Telemachus is not a threat, she has not made up her mind about Penelope. Circe returns to the house for breakfast, where she meets Telegonus, still grey with grief. She tells him that she agrees that Telemachus is not dangerous and suggests that he spend the afternoon with him.
Telemachus’s regret and guilt have convinced Circe that he is not trying to cause any more harm for the sake of power and revenge. This suggests that reflecting on one’s past actions is an important part of personal growth.
Themes
In her room, Circe considers the poison spear, which is leaning against her wall. She thinks of returning it, but she hesitates—she may need it yet. Someone knocks at her door, which she opens to reveal Penelope. Penelope thanks her for her hospitality, both now and many years ago, when Circe hosted Odysseus. She says that he had spoken favorably of Circe and had also told her of Daedalus’s loom. Circe is surprised at how much Penelope knows about her, but then she admits that she knows a lot about Penelope, too.
Penelope may be telling Circe all that Odysseus told her as a way to exert dominance over Circe. Essentially, by explaining to Circe that Odysseus told her everything about Circe, Penelope can show that she and Odysseus were so close that he even told her about his infidelity. In some ways, this makes Odysseus’s relationship with Circe sound like an unimportant experience in his life—whereas he chose to return to Penelope and spend the rest of his life with her. Making herself seem superior in this way doesn’t give Penelope any practical power, but as a woman in ancient Greece, it is likely that she doesn’t have any other claim to power that would affect Circe.
Themes
Penelope eyes the spear on the wall and mentions that Telegonus told her and Telemachus of both the spear with Trygon’s tail and of the many spells protecting the island, magic that can keep out even gods. When Circe confirms that this is all true, Penelope tells her that Circe is lucky to have such powers. After a pause, Penelope then asks whether Circe has a black cloak for her to wear to symbolize her mourning for Odysseus. Circe tells her no, that she doesn’t have one, but that Penelope is welcome to weave one at Daedalus’s loom.
Penelope expresses jealousy of Circe’s magical powers. As a woman in ancient Greece, Penelope doesn’t have much power or control. To her, then, Circe’s abilities to keep out gods and obtain powerful weapons are enviable.
Themes
