The Island of Circes

The Reading Log for The Enchantress Circe:

Glade: a clearing in the middle of a forest.

Beguiling: (be gi ling): bewitching, tricking through beauty and charm. Guile: trickery, slyness, subterfuge

Swinish: having to do with swines or pigs. Attributes of swines: greedy, gluttonous, dirty, muddy, fat, lazy

Ambrosial: drink of the gods; from the word ambrosia

Ambrosial: adjective meaning having to do with the gods or of Mount Olympus.

Tidbits: morsels, tiny little delicious bits of food

Fond: with affection, with liking

Fawned: to show excessive affection for someone

Pigsty: a pen where pigs are kept

Foreboding: a sense of doom

Odysseus sends 23 men on a scouting expedition to explore the island. The men find Circe's cave, which is filled with beautiful and exotic animals that seem very human. Beautiful wild animals look at the twenty three warriors with eyes which seem human, unsettling so, which seem to plead with them to do something…. The men are disturbed by these animals with eyes which seem to hold the light of human intelligence, but the men shake off this odd feeling when they spot a beautiful woman singing an enchanting song while weaving ambrosial fabric.

Why do Odysseus’ men find the animals so unsettling? Do you think the animals may turn into humans? Or do you think the enchantress may turn Odysseus’ men into animals?

The beautiful enchantress offers the men something to eat and drink, which the men greedily accept - they have, after all, been on board boats for a very long time – and all of them gobble the food down, except for one, Polites, who senses a trap.  Suddenly, before his eyes, he sees his friends turn into pigs!

 The Enchantress, whose name is Circe, turns the men into their “totem animal” with her magic potion. The totem animal is the internal animal that represents the secret hidden nature of the person. Odysseus’ men are sometimes driven more by their carnal needs than by their intelligence and so the animal that represents the men’s real nature is the swine, noted for its sensual indolence and huge appetites.

Polites, horrified, runs to the ship to tell Odysseus the terrible news. Before Odysseus goes to save his men, Hermes, the messenger god arrives to give him “moly” which is believed to be a sort of garlic to protect him from the witches’ power.  (Who knew that twenty five hundred years ago, garlic was not only effective against vampires but also evil witches (;-)? Odysseus runs to Circes’ cave where she tries to give him the magic potion with the hope that such a fine man as he would be turned into a lion, or some other sexy beast.  But when Odysseus eats the potion without incident, she knows she has met her match.  When he tells Circe to either turn his men back into humans or he will kill her, she replies, “Do and you will never see your men again.” Realizing he has met his match, Odysseus resheaths his sword and she agrees to turn his men back into men.

 Reaching a sort of détente, Circe, Odysseus and his men begin to celebrate for what the humans think is a wild five day party. After five days of this celebration, Odysseus informs Circe that they appreciate her hospitality (after all, she did turn them back into men) but after five days it’s time for them to head back to sea.  Circe is amused by this for she knows that on her island of sensuality and indulgence, time bends and lose its shape, which humans are particularly vulnerable to. Humans become victim to their senses and of time, and five days can stretch out to…..five years!  Odysseus doesn’t believe her when she tells them they have wasted five years of their lives on food, drink and sex on her island.  It’s not until she shows him the five years of sand that’s accumulated on their ships that he believes her. 

What important lesson do you think the chapter holds for us humans?

But first, before he leaves, Circe tells him he must go to the “Land of the Dead” to seek out Teresias, the blind oracle to learn his fate. Circe warns him that he must go, unaccompanied by his men, and that he must carry a black lamb to attract the attention of the dead prophet.

Persephone: Her mother is Demeter or Ceres. The myth of Persephone and Ceres explains the seasons.

Myths: Stories made up by ancient peoples to explain naturally occurring phenomena, such as the changing of the seasons, rain, the sunrise, etc.

Teiresias is a blind Greek seer who predicts the future. He was also the only man who knew what it was like being a woman for he had spent seven years as one. One day he was walking down a road and saw two snakes mating. For some reason, he was turned into a woman. Seven years later, walking down the same road he saw two snakes - maybe the same ones - mating and he was turned back into a man. There is also a belief that the blind, who are denied sight of the material world, are compensated by having sight or knowledge of the psychic or unknown world - the future, the past and those worlds that are unknown to the sighted living world.

Teiresias is a very important character in Greek literature for many different writers in the Greek era used him as a prophet to predict the future, provide hidden information about the past and to provide guidance and advice to other characters.

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