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
One morning, Hermes pays Circe a visit to tell her that a ship is coming to her island, but he withholds more details. When it arrives that afternoon, she can see that it is magnificent and, excitingly, contains mortals. A man steps onto the shore and makes his way to her.
Hermes’s withholding information from Circe is an example of how their relationship isn’t genuinely caring or affectionate. He can help her by giving her more details on what to expect but refuses to for his own amusement. Circe is again excited to see mortals; since discovering that she has a mortal’s voice, she is likely excited to see the people with whom she shares this characteristic. She doesn’t feel like she fits in with the other gods, so it is possible that she hopes to find connection elsewhere.
Themes
When the man arrives, Circe recognizes him at once—it is Daedalus. He greets her without fear, which Circe interprets as a sign that he is used to gods and witches. Daedalus tells her that Pasiphaë wants Circe to help her during labor. Circe asks why, and he says that she needs Circe’s magic. Inwardly, Circe notes that Pasiphaë’s request for her help is the only compliment she has from her sister. Daedalus adds that Helios is momentarily releasing Circe’s exile for this. Circe is confused and wonders if it is a trap.
Circe has no reason to trust her family, given how badly they have treated her. She is nevertheless flattered that her sister requests her presence, as it shows that, for the first time, Pasiphaë believes that Circe has value. Circe’s value lies in her power, which Pasiphaë apparently intends to use for her own benefit.
Themes
Daedalus adds that Pasiphaë requires that they travel through Scylla’s strait, which Circe recognizes as her sister’s cruel desire to bring Circe pain and guilt. Circe wants to refuse but thinks of the sailors who will lose their lives. Though she isn’t sure if she can do anything to Scylla, she wants to at least try. As the sun sets, Circe imagines astronomers hoping for accurate calculations. She packs a bag and leaves, knowing that her “lion could take care of herself.”
Circe’s guilt over the deaths that she causes are what inspire her to try to kill Scylla. Her decision to undo her wickedness sets her apart from her family, who are referenced in Circe’s recollection of the pitiful astronomers that her father enjoyed killing indirectly. Her decision to take matters into her own hands—as opposed to simply hoping that another god will kill the monster—demonstrates her independence and initiative. Her independence is also reflected in her reference to her female lion (an animal often associated with power and fierceness), whose gender associates her with Circe.
Themes
On the ship, Circe marvels at its artistry, particularly the beautiful figurehead, which is a young girl. Circe knows that Daedalus had created it and that the ship—so impressive yet sent to dangerous seas—is proof of Minos and Pasiphaë’s power. The men of the ship begin to row. Circe examines their faces and is surprised to see that “each face was relentlessly distinct,” with lines, scars, messy hair, and various ornamentation. Such variation shocks her.
Minos and Pasiphaë’s using a ship’s beauty to show off their power illustrates how, in the power-obsessed society of ancient Greece, people often use whatever means available to advertise their might. By sending a beautiful boat on a dangerous journey, Minos and Pasiphaë are implying that they have such an abundance of wealth and engineering talent that they can afford to be careless with what they have. Meanwhile, Circe is astonished at how unique all the mortal men on the boat are. She especially focuses on their scars, which symbolize how a person’s struggles and failures—and how one grows from them—make them unique. Given Circe’s shock at the variation of mortals, it is implied that gods are less varied, given that they are immortal and don’t experience change and hardship in the same way that mortals do.
Themes
Get the entire Circe LitChart as a printable PDF.
Daedalus approaches, and in reference to his being searched when they boarded, Circe asks why Pasiphaë is watching him. He tells her that she and Minos fear that he doesn’t “appreciate their hospitality.” When Circe says he could escape, Daedalus tells her that Pasiphaë is holding something hostage from him. He says nothing more, and Circe observes his scarred hands that he rests on the ship’s rail.
Daedalus’s being searched implies that he is imprisoned by Pasiphaë and Minos. Daedalus isn’t escaping because he is unwilling to leave something behind—perhaps because he is afraid of the hostage’s fate if he tries to leave—which shows that Pasiphaë is using fear to keep Daedalus in her control.
Themes
Seeing the deck’s blood stains, Circe asks about Scylla and learns that the ship lost 12 men on the way over. Circe feels sick with guilt as Daedalus describes the monster. She tells him that Scylla is her fault, but he merely nods and says that Pasiphaë already told him. Circe is unsurprised at this. He asks if she can do anything against Scylla, and Circe says that she’ll try.
Pasiphaë has told Daedalus that Scylla is Circe’s fault to turn him against her. Pasiphaë has always been cruel to Circe, but it is likely that she has another motive: she wants to keep Daedalus under her control and doesn’t want to risk him getting close to her powerful sister, which he is unlikely to do if he sees Circe as a villain. Daedalus is Pasiphaë’s prisoner, so keeping him isolated from Circe and her powers is in Pasiphaë’s best interest.
Themes
That night, the crew camps on land. Circe cannot sleep and wanders the shore while thinking of Scylla as she had once been, often flirting with Perses. Circe’s thoughts turn to Daedalus, and what Pasiphaë has of his. At first, Circe thinks it may be a lover, perhaps one that her sister had deliberately sent to the man to catch him. But Circe finds that Daedalus doesn’t seem like the type to be in a couple—he is alone.
Circe is sure that Pasiphaë uses love as a tool to keep people in her power, which reveals how the gods use emotional attachments as a weapon against those who love. Nothing is off-limits from them in their quest for more power. Additionally, it seems that many of the gods do not experience love, likely because they are too jaded or too obsessed with power to genuinely care about someone else. By heartlessly using a person’s loved one as a pawn in their quest for power, the gods demonstrate how they lack empathy for others’ pain.
Themes
Circe begins to panic about what to do with Scylla. She considers calling for Hermes and asking for help, but she knows that he would mock her later behind her back. Knowing he won’t help—her struggle would amuse him—she thinks of other options and eliminates them. Helios wouldn’t intervene, and Aeëtes, who would maybe help to show off his power, is too far away. Loneliness, her life-long companion, settles over her. Suddenly recalling Helios telling Glaucos the law of irreversibility—that no god can undo the action of another—she wonders whether she, as the one who had done the transformation, may reverse it. She begins listing potential herbs, concluding with moly.
Circe is again showing her tendency to rely on others when she faces challenges, but now she is aware that no one will come help her. The relationship between Hermes and Circe is devoid of true emotion—she knows that he would sooner watch her struggle than help her, just for his own amusement. Helios also wouldn’t bother—he has shown many times that he doesn’t care for his child. And Aeëtes is too far away, even though Circe considers that her power-hungry brother could be tempted to help her so long as it benefited him. She realizes that she is alone, as she has been for most of her life—which speaks to the fate of many women, particularly now that Circe’s power has led to the gods exiling her. Because she is alone, she knows that she can only trust herself to undo her mistake.
Themes
The next day, the men are terrified. Circe gathers her courage to stay strong. She demands that Polydamas, the guard captain, give her his shirt and cloak. She sees him wanting to refuse, “jealous of his little power, to whom [she] [is] only a woman.” She tells him that it will prevent his companions’ deaths, which gets the crew’s attention. The guard hands over the clothes.
In a society where one must use others or be used, those with only a little power often hold onto it fiercely, as they know how much they have to lose. Polydamas, as a man, occupies a higher position in the social hierarchy than women. He is hesitant to help Circe because he fears that aiding her will encourage her to rise above him, and he will do what it takes to keep women beneath him so that he feels like he has power.
Themes
Circe uses a paste to transform into Perses, telling Daedalus that Scylla had loved her brother. She orders the best men to the oars and demands that everyone put down their weapons, as they will only slow them down. Surprised at their obedience, she wonders if this is how life is for Perses.
Even though the men know that it is actually Circe disguised as Perses, they’re far more willing to obey a male figure. While they are distrustful of a woman giving orders, they accept a male’s position of power without question.
Themes
They reach the fog-shrouded strait. The men row as swiftly and quietly as they can. Suddenly, Scylla appears, her many heads stretching down from their cave. Just as Scylla is about to strike, Circe calls out for her. Using Perse’s voice and speaking slowly to give the crew extra time to row, she says that she (as Perse) has found Scylla to ask for her vengeance against Circe and to give her a potion that will change her back. At first, Scylla appears to listen, but her attention swivels back to the men. One head comes near Circe, so she throws a potion at her and says the spell to turn her back into a nymph. Scylla screams and hits the ship. She rears back to strike again but misses—the boat is safely past.
The potion that Circe gives Scylla doesn’t work. Scylla will thus remain a point of guilt for Circe, which will continue to inspire Circe’s self-reflection and desire to change. In addition, this passage suggests that Scylla’s mind is really gone (she has lost her consciousness as a nymph), meaning that her transformation has changed her personality along with her body. This could be due to Circe’s magic, or it could have been a change that happened over time, in that the longer that Scylla was a monster, the more her mind changed to match her physical form.
Themes
As Scylla screams in the distance, Daedalus and the other men—battered from the encounter—fall to their knees, thanking Circe and offering sacrifices. But she can only think of Scylla’s blank eyes and realizes that her hesitation had only been from surprise at seeing a god. Circe snaps at the men, calling them fools for thanking her when it was her selfishness that brought this monster to the world. As they tremble away from her, she wishes that the sun would burn her.
Circe feels guilty at the terror and death that she brought into the world by making Scylla a monster. She lets the regret gnaw at her, even wishing that she could be punished. While her guilt over her action sets her apart from her family—none of them have shown any regret over their cruel actions—her anger connects her to her father. She lashes out at the innocent men because she can, which demonstrates that she has vices that she picked up from her family that she still has to get rid of.
Themes
