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
It is noon. Circe has walked Glaucos away from where he has moored his boat. He is grouchy; he has a headache and is anxious to be so far from his boat. Circe talks him into lying among the flowers that carpet the hill where they have stopped. Meanwhile, she imagines what Glaucos will look like as a god and fantasizes about the moment when he, newly immortal, will pull her close while saying “I may thank you as you deserve.”
Circe doesn’t tell Glaucos that she’s planning to transform him into a god, which is another example of her selfishness—she is so intent on getting what she wants that she doesn’t even consider asking him his opinion on his future. Additionally, her fantasizing reveals that she already sees him as being indebted to her. This attitude—that her help deserves a reciprocal act, in this case sex—shows that she is still similar to the other gods (like Tethys) who expect something in return when they help someone.
Themes
As soon as Glaucos falls asleep, Circe brushes the flowers around him and sprinkles some on his chest, willing them to work. Nothing happens. Circe slumps beside Glaucos’s sleeping body and sobs, certain that Aeëtes had been wrong about pharmaka. Heartbroken, she rips up the flowers around her. Her hands sticky with the sap, she suddenly hears “a dark humming.” At once, she senses that the flowers are indeed powerful, and that their sap reveals any being’s “truest self.”
This passage is the first time that Circe possesses significant power. Interestingly, she credits the flowers and their sap for her newfound ability and doesn’t consider that there could be something special about her that makes it possible for her to innately know the properties of the flowers. Even if anyone would be able to sense the flowers’ power, Circe’s deflection reveals that she has internalized her society’s expectation that women are not inherently capable or powerful.
Themes
Circe squeezes the flowers’ sap into Glaucos’s mouth, silently urging him to be his “truest self.” Moments later, he transforms into a sea-god, blue-green and muscled. She wakes Glaucos, who immediately senses the change. Instead of passionately pulling her into the forest as she imagined, he marvels at his new form—his strength and smooth, scarless hands—and asks her to bring him to the halls of the gods.
As soon as Glaucos becomes a god, his sense of gratitude evaporates. Indeed, the focus on his now scarless hands signifies how his previous identity—one marked with kindness and compassion born from his own painful experiences—has been wiped away. Additionally, while Circe assumes that she has no power and credits the transformation entirely to the flowers’ sap, Glaucos never once asks Circe whether she had a hand in his transformation. He either doesn’t expect or doesn’t want to believe that a woman could have such power (particularly power over him).
Themes
Circe brings Glaucos to Tethys. Nervous that her grandmother will suspect her meddling with pharmaka, Circe tells her that Glaucos’s transformation was his own, that he had unexpectedly become a god while he napped. Tethys readily believes the tale and welcomes Glaucos to stay with her until he gets his own palace. He accepts.
No one suspects that Circe has had a hand in Glaucos’s transformation. In the misogynist society of ancient Greece, people generally do not expect women to have power. This is seemingly why Tethys doesn’t consider that Circe may have powers of her own that can override the gods’.
Themes
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Glaucos no longer meets Circe on their old beach. They spend all their time in the halls of gods, where Circe introduces him to the other immortals, who are fascinated by his story. The tale he tells implies that the Fates were the ones who transformed him. Circe watches him, adoring his face and basking in his excitement. Although she wishes to tell him the truth of his transformation, she doesn’t want to diminish his joy by informing him that his divinity comes from her.
Glaucos again never considers giving Circe credit for the transformation, which stresses how he either doesn’t expect or doesn’t want to believe that a woman could have and exercise such power. Meanwhile, Circe wants to tell him the truth, but she holds back so that she doesn’t bruise his ego, which is similar to what she did when she decided to lie about her age for Glaucos’s benefit. She is afraid that her power will drive away the man that she loves, so, as a result, she silences herself. Circe’s prioritization of Glaucos’s ego over her desire to be fully recognized and respected for her abilities demonstrates one way that sexism leads to a woman’s loneliness and emotional isolation.
Themes
Hoping to marry Glaucos at last, Circe introduces him to Helios and Oceanos. She helps him dress up and kindly instructs him how to behave with these powerful Titans. The meeting goes well, and Helios and Oceanos introduce him to Nereus and Poseidon, who help him make his palace. Circe goes to Glaucos’s new palace every day to see him, but he hardly pays any attention to her—he is too busy entertaining other nymphs and gods. He loves telling these guests about his terrible mortal life and how now, as a god, he has killed his father and his village appeals to him for blessings. When asked whether he will help his former neighbors, he snidely responds that he will wait to see “what they offer [him].”
Circe still clings onto hope that Glaucos will marry her, which demonstrates how she is still relying on other people to make her happy. Instead of planning a way to independently leave her miserable home situation, she puts her effort into literally transforming someone else in the hopes that he will get her out of Helios’s halls by way of marriage. In this way, Circe is also still playing by the rules of the misogynist society in which she lives, which dictate that she, as a woman, has little control over her own life and must wait for a powerful man to help her. But trying to achieve the change she wants by appealing to someone else isn’t very effective. She can’t control Glaucos’s thoughts, so her transformation of him brings about none of the change she was longing for. In fact, her transformation of Glaucos has stripped away many of the things that she loved about him in the first place. He is as cruel as a god: drunk with power, he kills his father and withholds help from his former village. No longer feeling weak and oppressed by others, he has lost his empathy that he had as a mortal. His transformation from mortal to god is what causes the transformation in his moral character, which suggests that immortality breeds callousness and cruelty.
Themes
Circe watches as Glaucos, who is now one of the most powerful sea gods, joins the ranks of the other dominant divinities, laughing just like her Titan uncles do. One day, while Circe is daydreaming about how Glaucos might propose to her, he asks the name of a beautiful nymph. Circe names the nymph—Scylla—but thinks no more of his question, as she is inwardly sharing in his joy and success.
Glaucos behaves just like the other Titans, which shows how he is assimilating into the divine world. His mortal past and identity are distant. Circe is still blind to the depth of Glaucos’s transformation—his personality has changed for the worse since becoming a god—as she is too wrapped up in her increasingly unrealistic dreams of Glaucos making her happy through marriage. She doesn’t realize that passively hoping for someone else to make her happy will likely be ineffective.
Themes
Scylla becomes a constant presence in Circe’s life. She takes to showing off her jewelry to Circe, so much so that Circe wonders if the nymph loves her. Looking back, Circe is sure that Scylla must have been annoyed at how long it took her to catch on. At last, Scylla bluntly tells her that Glaucos is the one who has given her so many gifts and that he has asked her to marry him. As the news sinks in, Scylla delights at the horror on Circe’s face.
Scylla flaunts Glaucos’s affection for her over Circe because it’s a way for Scylla to establish dominance over someone else. As a woman in ancient Greece, Scylla has very little power of her own, so she has used the little power she does have—her sexuality—to attract the attentions of a powerful male Titan. Her relationship with Glaucos doesn’t give her much power, but it gives her enough to distinguish herself among the other nymphs, including Circe.
Themes
Circe asks Helios if she can marry Glaucos, and he responds with a mocking laugh, telling her that the sea god will pick his own bride. She races to Glaucos’s palace and demands to know if he really means to marry Scylla. His face alight with admiration, he begins praising Scylla’s beauty. Circe urges him to see that the nymph is cruel. Stroking his arm, she tells him that she knows of a better match for him. Recognizing her intention, Glaucos pushes Circe away from him with fear and anger. Pleading now, she tells him that she has loved him from his mortal days. He interrupts her—he doesn’t want to remember such a painful time, not now when he is so powerful, and can marry the “best” nymph of all: Scylla.
As a male, Glaucos has control over his marital future. Circe, however, must wait for a man to pick her, which limits her control over her future, demonstrating the sexism of ancient Greek society. Circe tries to persuade Glaucos to marry her, but it doesn’t work—becoming an immortal has made him superficial, and he now prioritizes beauty over character. Beauty is a form of status, and he wants to marry beautiful Scylla to show that he has enough power and influence to get the “best” nymph. He doesn’t want a partner—he wants a trophy. Glaucos’s callous and egotistical behavior is explained when he tells Circe that he’s deliberately chosen to forget his mortal life, which suggests that he lost his empathy and humility by forgetting what it feels like to be vulnerable.
Themes
Glaucos uses his power to return Circe to her room, where she sobs, heartbroken. Her thoughts turn to Scylla, the idea of whom fills her with hate. That night, Circe sneaks out of her father’s palace to pick the yellow flowers that had transformed Glaucos. She pours their sap into the pool in which Scylla bathes, hoping it will expose the nymph’s ugliness and cruelty to the world. Circe knows that the gods will likely punish her, but she is ready to accept their punishments to show her love for Glaucos.
Instead of getting upset with Glaucos, Circe decides to hate Scylla, which is likely because Circe sees Scylla as within her reach to hurt. Circe is a nymph like Scylla, so they are both on the same low level in the hierarchy of power. Glaucos, however, is superior, as both a male and a powerful Titan. In plotting to harm Scylla, Circe demonstrates her capacity for selfishness and wickedness—both common traits among her family members. She prioritizes her own desires above both Scylla and Glaucos and is willing to harm them in order to get what she wants.
Themes
