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 and Telemachus stay on the shore for three days. They have sex and harvest food, and she tells him her past. For some stories, like with Prometheus and Daedalus, Circe loves being able to bring them to life. Other stories, however, are grisly, and she has to bite back her anger. When she does so, Telemachus reminds her that “we are not our blood.”
Circe is at last being respected for who she is, including her flaws. When Circe gets upset at the gods and her own cruel actions, Telemachus reminds her that she is not doomed to be like them. In fact, she has taken many drastic steps to separate herself from her family and their brutality.
Themes
On the third day, Telemachus and Circe sail toward Crete. The voyage is easy and pleasant. Wherever they land, they make camp and sometimes engage with the people who live nearby, Telemachus repairing their boats and Circe giving them remedies. Together, they dream of the places they will visit. At night, they lie together, Circe learning all of Telemachus’s lines and creases. But though they are close, Circe feels the barrier of her immortality.
Telemachus and Circe both do what they can to alleviate the world’s problems. Although they know that they cannot dismantle the systems of abuses that terrorize so many, they can do what is in their power to make the world a kinder place. Each night, Circe gets to know Telemachus better, which is represented in her learning the marks on his body. Yet Circe finds that she still feels separate from him—she is immortal, so she will have to watch him die while she lives on forever.
Themes
At last, they find Circe’s old shore. She walks along it, remembering where she and Aeëtes used to talk and seeing where she brought Glaucos to transform him. They walk toward the flowers on that hill and, panicked, Circe orders Telemachus to avoid the flowers. But then she realizes her foolishness: “He was himself already” and would not be changed. She harvests some of them, and then they sail back to Aiaia.
With Circe going back to the shore where she first found the magic flowers, the story emphasizes how much she has transformed throughout the course of the book. She is no longer a powerless and dejected nymph crushed by a sense of purposeless and loneliness. She has transformed herself—through hard work and self-reflection—into a powerful witch who has found fulfillment through the many forms of love she has found as a mother, a friend, and a lover. Significantly, she is not trying to change anyone else with these flowers. She seeks only to change herself, which shows how she has switched her focus from trying to create change through others to creating change herself. She has no desire for Telemachus to be anything other than what he is: an honest, straightforward, and loving mortal.
Themes
As they near Aiaia, Circe tells Telemachus of the first group of men that she turned into pigs, saying that she had been afraid to tell him before in case it would be a barrier between them. Now, however, she simply wants him to know the truth. He holds her hand, and she can feel his pulse. When he speaks, he asks her if he can accompany her forever.
The last story that Circe tells Telemachus is about her sexual assault trauma. It is an extremely intimate part of her past, one that holds a lot of pain. While in the past, Circe hesitated to tell people of her pain because she knew they’d exploit it as a weakness, Telemachus responds only with more love. This again demonstrates how much he respects and genuinely cares for her.
Themes
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When they reach Aiaia, Penelope greets them. Circe walks the island and into her house, feeling the sweetness of her old home. She realizes that she is saying goodbye; something is going to happen tonight. During dinner, Circe asks Penelope how, when they had argued about Penelope’s coming to Aiaia, she had known that kneeling before Circe would shame her. Penelope tells her that it was something Odysseus said, that Circe hated her divinity. After a pause, Circe asks Penelope, whose fingers are stained green, how she enjoys witchcraft. She smiles and tells her that it is indeed a mix of “Will and work.” After telling Penelope that she is leaving Aiaia for good, Circe asks whether Penelope would like to remain as the new witch of the island. Penelope accepts.
One of the reasons why Circe hates her divinity is that it separates her from others—people treat her with deference and fear instead of treating her as an equal . She prioritizes genuine connection over fear and homage, a preference that sets her apart from the other power-hungry gods. Meanwhile, Penelope has become a witch while Circe is away. Witchcraft, as Penelope says, requires “Will and work,” which speaks to how mortals must labor in order to achieve their goals and obtain power. Given that mortals are more accustomed to labor than gods are, witchcraft is perhaps better suited for mortals anyway. Additionally, Penelope’s teaching herself witchcraft indicates her desire to have power; as a woman in ancient Greece, she has very little power of her own. Now that she has the opportunity to acquire some, she puts in the necessary effort.
Themes
Penelope asks Circe whether Telemachus plans to accompany her. Circe replies that she believes he will, but that she still has one task to do beforehand. After dinner, Circe tells Telemachus that she is unsure whether her spell will work, for it is possible that divinity cannot be shed. If it fails, he says, they will try again.
In this passage, Circe reveals that she is trying to become a mortal. Shedding her immortality will be the final step of her transformation, one that will formally remove her from her family and bring her the joys of mortality. Telemachus shows his love for her by informing her that he will stay with her regardless of the outcome, and that he will support her as she tries to achieve her goal. Unlike so many other male characters in the book, Telemachus supports the powerful women in his life.
Themes
