Previous
Setting
Definition of Simile
A simile is a figure of speech that directly compares two unlike things. To make the comparison, similes most often use the connecting words "like" or "as," but can also... read full definition
A simile is a figure of speech that directly compares two unlike things. To make the comparison, similes most often use the connecting words "like... read full definition
A simile is a figure of speech that directly compares two unlike things. To make the comparison, similes most often... read full definition
Chapter 2
Explanation and Analysis—Prometheus's Punishment:
In Chapter 2, Circe and the rest of her father's court watch as her uncle Prometheus is whipped. Circe uses similes and imagery to describe the torture:
The sound of the whip was a crack like oaken branches breaking. Prometheus’ shoulders jerked and a gash opened in his side long as my arm. All around me indrawn breaths hissed like water on hot rocks.
Related Themes:
Chapter 3
Explanation and Analysis—Great Chain of Fear:
In Chapter 3, at Pasiphaë and Minos's wedding, Circe encounters mortals for the first time and is surprised to see how fearful they are. She uses a simile that alludes to a Christian concept about the organization of the universe:
Unlock with LitCharts A+It was like a great chain of fear, I thought. Zeus at the top and my father just behind. Then Zeus’ siblings and children, then my uncles, and on down through all the ranks of river-gods and brine-lords and Furies and Winds and Graces, until it came to the bottom where we sat, nymphs and mortals both, each eyeing the other.
Related Themes:
Chapter 6
Explanation and Analysis—Water Around a Rock:
In Chapter 6, after Helios announces Circe's exile, no one speaks in her defense or even looks at her. She uses a simile and situational irony to comment on how it feels to be ignored in this moment:
Unlock with LitCharts A+For the last time, I watched all the gods and nymphs take their places. I felt dazed. I should say goodbye, I kept thinking. But my cousins flowed away from me like water around a rock. I heard their sneering whispers as they passed. I found myself missing Scylla. At least she would have dared to speak to my face.
Related Themes:
Chapter 7
Explanation and Analysis—Open Cage:
In Chapter 7, Circe arrives on Aiaia for her eternal exile. After a fearful first night, a simile helps her arrive at an epiphany about the irony of her situation:
Unlock with LitCharts A+The worst of my cowardice had been sweated out. In its place was a giddy spark. I will not be like a bird bred in a cage, I thought, too dull to fly even when the door stands open.
I stepped into those woods and my life began.
Related Themes:
Chapter 10
Explanation and Analysis—Walking the Plank:
In Chapter 10, when she must determine what to do with the Minotaur, Circe decides to test whether or not she has inherited Helios's power of prophecy. She uses a simile to describe the limitations of prophecy:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Among the gods there are a few who have the gift of prophecy, the ability to peer into the murk and glimpse what fates will come. Not everything may be foreseen. Most gods and mortals have lives that are tied to nothing; they tangle and wend now here, now there, according to no set plan. But then there are those who wear their destinies like nooses, whose lives run straight as planks, however they try to twist. It is these that our prophets may see.
Related Themes:
Chapter 19
Explanation and Analysis—Like Vines to Sun:
Telegonus entertains a group of visitors in Chapter 19, and Circe is struck by how easily her son commands the room. She uses an evocative simile to describe not only his demeanor, but also her own uneasy feelings about it:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Telegonus gestured for the man to rise. He took the head of the table and served out food from the platters. The men scarcely ate. They were growing towards him like vines to sun, their faces awestruck, competing to tell him their stories. I watched, wondering at where such a gift had hidden in him all this while. But then I had done no magic till I had plants to work upon.
Related Themes:
Chapter 21
Explanation and Analysis—Spider-Silk:
Circe repeatedly uses similes comparing Penelope to a spider. An early example of this motif occurs in Chapter 21, when Penelope comes to Circe's door to thank her for her hospitality:
Unlock with LitCharts A+The knock upon my door came, as I had guessed it would.
“Open,” I said.
She was framed in my doorway, wearing a pale cloak over a gray dress, as if she were wrapped in spider-silk.
Related Themes:
Chapter 25
Explanation and Analysis—Weaving Sea, Yellow Pears:
In Chapter 25, after Circe has convinced Helios to end her exile, she tells Telemachus that she is leaving Aiaia but that he and his mother may stay. She sets the scene with two images that are also evocative similes:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Outside, the sea made a sound like a shuttle weaving. The stars were yellow as pears, low and ripe on the branch.
Related Themes:
Chapter 27
Explanation and Analysis—Dead Gods:
In Chapter 27, as Circe prepares to give up her immortality, she uses a simile to help explain her paradoxical choice to be a mortal instead of a god:
Unlock with LitCharts A+My divinity shines in me like the last rays of the sun before they drown in the sea. I thought once that gods are the opposite of death, but I see now they are more dead than anything, for they are unchanging, and can hold nothing in their hands.
Related Themes:
