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
That afternoon, Penelope offers to teach Telegonus to swim, an opportunity that thrills him. When Telemachus and Circe are alone, he approaches her, telling her he wants to be useful. He provides a list of potential tasks, which amuses Circe. They begin trimming the sheep together, and soon they are laughing and conversing easily.
Telemachus is very down-to-earth—he goes out of his way to find small manual tasks to do, simply because it feels rewarding to him. His actions suggest that he is very different from his restless and power-hungry father, from whom he hopes to distance himself, since he feels so guilty for the violence that Odysseus caused. But he also enjoys the labor that mortals do, implying that hard work and problem-solving are perhaps more rewarding than sheer power.
Themes
After dinner, Telemachus amuses Telegonus by telling him tales of various heros. Circe admires Telemachus’s face and the serious way he tells stories. Suddenly she interrupts to ask whether Telemachus knows anything of Pasiphaë, to which he responds that the Minotaur’s mother is always in Theseus’s story. Circe then mentions that she was present at the birth of the Minotaur, a revelation that shocks Telegonus. He wonders aloud why she never told him more, to which she replies that he never asked.
While Telegonus was always been interested in learning about Odysseus, he never asked Circe about her past. She is a familiar figure to him, and he never realized that she could have her own stories. This could be due to how women are rarely ever the stars in the ancient Greek myths that Telegonus knows, which suggests that he may have internalized ancient Greece’s sexism. Even the fact that the Minotaur is framed as Theseus’s story, with Pasiphaë—the maker of the Minotaur—only featuring in it as the beast’s mother, points to how women often get reduced in the telling of stories. They appear less important and less powerful than they really were.
Themes
Telegonus pushes her to tell more of her past, asking whether she knows anything of the other monsters, including Scylla. At the name of the nymph, Circe chills, sickened by her past. She abruptly leaves the table, leaving the two men confused.
Despite the hundreds of years that have passed since Circe turned Scylla into a monster, her guilt over the transformation is still raw—she cannot separate herself from this cruel act. Her regret over Scylla has led her to reflect on her past to examine the ways in which she contributed to the world’s violence, particularly the violence caused by her immortal family. Yet it is by reflecting on what she did wrong that Circe becomes resolved to be kinder and more selfless.
Themes
The following day, Penelope sits at Circe’s loom to continue weaving. After a moment’s hesitation, Circe brings her herbs to the hall to speak with Penelope while working on her craft. They speak pleasantly of their children until Penelope asks to watch Circe work. When Circe mentions that her mortal niece was a witch, Penelope asks whether she is speaking of Medea.
Both Penelope and Circe have a craft: for Penelope, it is weaving, and for Circe, it is witchcraft. Just as Circe bonded with Daedalus over his craftsmanship, so does she connect with Penelope over their respective crafts. Given these connections, it is clear that Circe values the act of acquiring a skill through labor (something common among mortals but uncommon among gods), and she connects most with people who share this love. To Circe, hard work is enriching, particularly because one grows and improves through laboring. It is also possible that one of the reasons why Circe finds gods vapid is because they do not work and therefore do not know the satisfaction or personal growth that comes with it.
Themes
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Circe requests that Penelope tell what she knows of Medea, and Penelope obliges. She tells Circe how Jason, scared of his wife’s magic, abandoned Medea and their two children for another woman. Medea sent the new bride poisoned gifts that burned the woman alive. To ensure that Jason would never have their children, Medea killed both children, too, before fleeing to Colchis. Circe thinks of how Medea was unable to escape the evil that Aeëtes had bred around her. Penelope asks how a mortal becomes a witch, to which Circe responds that she has “come to believe it is mostly will.”
Circe’s prediction that Jason would leave Medea for a less powerful woman was indeed accurate. His fear of powerful women resulted in Medea’s isolation, demonstrating how misogynistic attitudes make women more likely to alienate themselves from society out of self-preservation. Medea’s brutal retaliation signifies how she became very similar to her father, Aeëtes. She had denounced Aeëtes’s evil, and yet she shows his same selfishness and disregard for the people around him. Just as Aeëtes chased down Medea with the intent to kill her, Medea shows a lack of love for her family, killing her own children just to spite Jason. Circe suggests that Medea became like Aeëtes because his evil is what she knew, implying that Medea unconsciously learned from her father that using cruelty is how a person survives in ancient Greece.
Themes
The days pass, and the two families grow closer. Penelope and Circe continue to work and converse together, and each afternoon Circe and Telemachus work on a household chore. Even Telegonus’s mood improves, especially after Circe tells him of Odysseus’s violent rage. The only tension that remains is between Telemachus and Penelope, who still do not speak.
Circe’s deepening friendship with Penelope and her connection with Telemachus are both rooted in a mutual appreciation of work, which again shows that Circe values labor.
Themes
Circe is increasingly charmed by Telemachus’s steadiness, patience, and quiet dignity. One day while working side by side, she asks whether he would want to return to Ithaca and become king. She encouragingly tells him that he would make an excellent ruler, but he declines, saying that Ithaca is too haunted with bad memories of his father.
Circe becomes attracted to Telemachus while they work together. She is drawn to his steadiness and patience, qualities that are evident as he labors, which again demonstrates the value of manual work. Not only does Telemachus’s patience set him apart from his restless father, but he also has no desire for power and glory, which he demonstrates by turning down his opportunity to become king of Ithaca. His father’s violence disgusted him so much that he refuses to follow in his footsteps and become king. He is not interested in continuing the cycle of power and violence that Odysseus spread.
Themes
At this, Circe wonders aloud whether it is hard for him to spend so much time with Telegonus, when he so closely resembles Odysseus. Telemachus laughs, telling her that Telegonus is blessed to look like her. Their gazes meet, and Circe finds that her mouth waters. She enjoys the slow, comforting feeling that she gets around Telemachus, but she knows that she cannot be with him—not only has she already had sex with his father, but Athena has claimed him.
Circe is falling in love with Telemachus but hesitates from making a move, particularly because she knows that they wouldn’t have any chance at a future together because he is a mortal. In addition, he is already a pawn in another god’s scheme, which shows another way in which their differences as an immortal and a mortal keep them apart.
Themes
One day, breakfast is interrupted by a knock at the door. Everyone is startled—the protections prevent most gods from stepping foot on the island. Circe opens the door to find Hermes. He tells Telemachus that Athena has requested to speak with him, and he orders Circe to remove her spells. Circe rejects the command, until Hermes communicates that Athena has sworn not to harm Telegonus. Hearing this, Circe relents, but she tells Hermes that Athena will have to wait until Circe is able to lift the spell, which she tells Hermes will take three days. Hermes leaves, and Penelope turns to her son and asks him to walk with her.
Circe’s magic has been effective in keeping Athena out, but it hasn’t changed Athena’s selfishness or her callousness toward mortals, which speaks to the limitations of Circe’s power. She cannot convince other people to not be cruel, but she can make a difference by using her power to protect people directly.
Themes
