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
As the boat nears the shore, Circe spots a thin mast and ragged sail and, in the boat, a sunburnt man: a mortal. Circe remembers the nymphs’ stories of mortals, and how they rape and abuse defenseless goddesses, but she decides that the man looks kind, not cruel. Circe takes a step toward the approaching boat and calls out to the mortal, telling him to “Hail, mortal.” The man is clearly startled, but he recovers and greets her, asking which goddess she is. She tells him her name and states that she would like to ride on his boat. When she boards the boat, she tells him to carry on with sailing. The man hurries to obey her, shaking and twitching with fear.
Circe can tell that the man is a mortal by his sunburn, which is the first instance of a mortal being identified by the marks on his body. This begins to suggest that a mortal’s marks or scars say something deeper about their identity. By greeting the man with “Hail, mortal,” Circe identifies herself as a goddess, which makes the man frightened. The man’s fear is due to her divinity—he is afraid of her power, which gives credence to Circe’s theory regarding the “great chain of fear.” As a mortal, he fears that gods may abuse him. But as a woman, Circe is afraid of being raped by the man.
Themes
But Circe doesn’t want the sunburnt man to be afraid. She tells him that she has hardly any powers and asks him to be calm. Her words have no effect on the trembling man, whose timidity makes Circe laugh. At the sound of her laughter, the man calms, and they soon start chatting. At the end of the day, the fisherman kneels before her to thank her for the prosperous day of fishing. But Circe asks him to rise, realizing that she would rather see the man’s face than see him kneel.
To Circe, forming a friendship is more important to her than having someone fearfully obey her, a preference that is not common among the gods. When the man kneels—the expected reaction for a mortal before a god—Circe gets no pleasure from it, which both distinguishes her from the other gods and demonstrates that intimidating people doesn’t fulfil her. She wants a genuine connection with another being, indicating that she is not interested in perpetuating the cycle of fear and abuse that many of the other gods benefit from.
Themes
After Circe tells the sunburnt man that she does not have the powers to fill his nets with fish, the man nevertheless asks if he may visit her again, as she is the most “wondrous thing” he’s ever known. Deeply touched, Circe knows that no one has ever made her feel so “warm.”
The man wants to see Circe again not because he gains something out of it, but because genuinely likes her company. Circe is moved because she has not experienced affection before, suggesting that this selfless emotion is rare among the gods.
Themes
The man, whose name is Glaucos, visits Circe every day afterward. He tells her all about his life—his family’s poverty, his ailing sister, his cruel father—and Circe savors her newfound role as his confidant. She loves watching him perform manual chores, tasks that she has only seen completed with divine powers. Self-conscious of his mortality and the physical marks it leaves on his body, Glaucos believes himself to be ugly to Circe, but she secretly finds him more beautiful than all the deities in her father’s halls. When she tells Glaucos about Aeëtes and how he left her, Glaucos calls Aeëtes a fool to leave behind such a “beautiful and kind” sister.
Glaucos’s empathy and kindness is evident in his interactions with Circe. He trusts in her, and the two build a kind of relationship that Circe has never known. Even her relationship with Aeëtes pales in comparison, particularly since his leaving suggests that he never truly loved her. Glaucos empathizes with Circe’s pain over being left behind by her brother, listening to her sorrows just as she listens to his. Their conversations are interspersed with evidence of Glaucos’s mortality—his manual chores and his imperfect body—which suggests that Glaucos’s empathy and kindness are intertwined with his mortality. The patience, tenderness, and humility that he displays while laboring or contemplating his physical weaknesses are the same traits that Circe appreciates and that allow them to form an affectionate relationship. This implies that mortals have a greater capacity for empathy and interpersonal connection.
Themes
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One day, as Glaucos is making a fire to cook lunch, Circe tells him that she had once met Prometheus. At first, Glaucos is confused, pointing out that she and Glaucos are the same age. Circe laughs and informs them that he is wrong. Glaucos pulls back from her, looking panicked. He demands to know how old she is. Surprised at his revulsion, she walks back her claim, telling him that she had been joking and that they are indeed the same age. Glaucos is relieved.
Circe discovers that there is a limit to hers and Glaucos’s closeness—she cannot tell him much about her own past because she risks frightening him away. Glaucos’s insistence at Circe being his age is likely rooted in the sexism of ancient Greece. He is uncomfortable at the concept of her being older and more knowledgeable than he is, which suggests that such an age gap in her favor upsets his expectations of women’s submissiveness to men. Glaucos’s reaction deters Circe from telling him more about her life and even prompts her to lie about her experiences, which means that he will never truly respect and love her for who she is. As a woman, she feels pressured to reduce herself to be what the man in her life wants her to be.
Themes
One day, Glaucos arrives late to Circe’s shore. He has a bruise on his face, which Circe assumes is from his father. She greets him with concern and tells him to rest, but he doesn’t leave his boat. Glaucos’s voice is cold, and he informs her that, because he hasn’t been catching enough fish, his father blames Glaucos and his laziness for the starvation that his family will certainly suffer. He sails away after declaring that he will never be able to see her again.
The cycle of power, fear, and abuse is active among the mortals as well. Glaucos’s father, who presumably has more power in the family as the patriarch, beats Glaucos to discourage him from spending time with Circe, which distracts him from fishing. The abuse makes Glaucos afraid of his father, so he obeys him.
Themes
Desperate, Circe runs to her grandmother Tethys, the mother of the earth’s waters. Circe begs Tethys to bless Glaucos’s nets, as she doesn’t have the power to do so herself. Tethys asks her what Glaucos has offered in gratitude, a question that takes Circe by surprise. Tethys warns her that mortals will “forget to be grateful” if they aren’t required to make a sacrifice. But Circe brushes aside the question, saying that she does not need anything in return. Resigned, Tethys concedes, but first she makes Circe promise that she will not have sex with Glaucos.
Tethys’s advice that Circe ask for a sacrifice before helping Glaucos reveals that the gods interpret helping a person as a kind of transaction. Tethys is certain that Glaucos won’t appreciate Circe’s help unless he has to lose something in order to receive her aid. Her ignorance of the nature of generosity and gratitude suggests that these characteristics are uncommon among the gods. Generally unaffected by suffering, the gods do not know what it is to be in need and consequently do not know the relief of receiving aid. The gods are unmoved to simply help others out of empathy, instead requesting something in return so that they benefit from the transaction. The gods also jealously guard their power and seek to rule over as many people as possible, so they are unmotivated to give the mortals tools that they could use to gain independence from the gods. The gods would sooner prolong others’ suffering so that they do not diminish the gods’ power. Circe, however, is not interested in maintaining power over Glaucos. While she does benefit from helping him in that she doesn’t want to lose his companionship, she is largely motivated to help him because she loves him.
Themes
Glaucos returns to the shore, racing across the water and joyfully calling out to Circe. He tells her that enormous fish had jumped into his boat, giving him enough to pay off their fees and even get credit for the future. He drops to his knees before Circe, who tells him that it was her grandmother’s doing, not her own. Nevertheless, Glaucos remains bowed before Circe, thanking her for interceding. If only he were a god, he tells her, then he could “thank [her] as [she] deserves.” Circe, meanwhile, silently mourns her lack of powers, wishing that she could always bless Glaucos’s fishing so that he would never leave her.
Tethys’s concern that Glaucos would be unappreciative is disproven here. Glaucos is extremely thankful for Circe’s assistance, even dropping onto his knees to offer unprompted homage. But Circe doesn’t want the homage, again revealing her discomfort with the distance that her divinity creates between her and the mortal she loves. She would rather be loved than feared, which implies that she finds genuine connection more fulfilling than being worshipped. Yet she does wish to be more powerful so that she can keep Glaucos close to her. Although she wants to help him, her desire for the power to bless mortals reveals that her perception of relationships is affected by the selfishness of the gods she grew up with and her world’s system of power and abuse. She sees power as a way of keeping someone indebted to her, not realizing that love alone (and not obligation) should keep a person in a relationship. Granted, Glaucos reinforced this belief in his vowing to never see her again, which he did out of fear of retribution from his father. Circe’s feeling that she needs power in order to override someone else’s control (in this instance, Glaucos’s father’s) illustrates how the society-wide competition for power continues.
Themes
Circe and Glaucos continue to meet day after day. Glaucos tells Circe of his plans for the future, and after she insinuates her desire for a chair in his home, he nervously asks her if Helios will pick her husband. Although she desperately wants to hold Glaucos close and tell him that she chooses him, Circe confirms that Helios will indeed select her husband, who will likely be a prince or a king. Glaucos dejectedly accepts her response.
Circe and Glaucos’s conversation reveals how women in ancient Greece had very little control over their lives. Even though Circe loves Glaucos and longs to marry him, she cannot do so without Helios’s permission, which she knows he will not grant because Glaucos will not bring the impressive connections or pay the high prices that Helios wants from his daughters’ marriages. Helios does not see his daughters as independent people with their own desires—they are simply objects for him to bargain off for his own personal gain.
Themes
That night, while Helios is playing a game of draughts, Circe asks him if it is possible to transform a mortal into a god. Irritated, he tells her no, that not even a god as powerful as he “can change the laws of the Fates.” The significance of Glaucos’s mortality suddenly hits Circe: one day, Glaucos will die and leave her forever. Distraught, Circe races back to Tethys for guidance, but Tethys simply affirms that the fate of mortals is indeed death.
Circe’s selfishness in her relationship with Glaucos is again apparent in this passage. When pondering his mortality, she worries most about how his death will affect her. She doesn’t consider the pain or fear that mortals have regarding their own impending death. Although she knows what it means to love someone and have a deep connection with them, she still thinks of herself first, which reflects the selfishness of her family and the other immortals she grew up with.
Themes
Nearly hysterical, Circe does not accept this answer. When going through possible options, Circe mentions the word pharmaka. Tethys abruptly snaps, enraged that she dares to say that word, and orders Circe from her halls. As Circe leaves, she realizes that her grandmother’s reaction was one of fear. She knows that gods only fear “power greater than their own.” After a moment of reflection, Circe accepts that she would do anything, no matter how evil, to keep Glaucos alive. After getting dressed, Circe goes to Helios’s feast and asks her uncles about the war against the Olympians, inquiring particularly where the most divine blood had been spilled. While caressing and sweet-talking them, she hears that one such place is located near the shore where she and Glaucos meet.
Tethys’s reaction to the word pharmaka demonstrates how people who fear losing their power employ fear as a means to maintain it. Tethys unleashes her fury on Circe to make her too afraid to seek out pharmaka, which Tethys fears because it threatens her own power. This doesn’t work on Circe, who is intent on getting what she wants: an eternity with Glaucos. Circe is aware of her selfishness, prioritizing her desires over everything else and even mentally preparing herself to commit evil in order to attain her goals. This mentality is a common one among the gods, which indicates that Circe—even with her capacity for empathy—still inherited her family’s vices, such as their egotism and ruthlessness. In order to find pharmaka, Circe uses what power she has: her sexuality. As a woman, she doesn’t have any other forms of power, so she uses her sexuality to persuade her uncles to tell her the information she needs.
Themes
