Circe

Circe makes two spells, one to block Athena from coming to the island and one to mark the island with her son’s name so that everything on it—every piece of it—will defend him if Athena somehow bypasses the first spell. She thinks, “Athena would kill my child, and so I defend him. Be witness now to the power of Circe, witch of Aiaia” (254). She believes her son is safe and they can finally be happy, but she soon remembers that ordinary things can harm him too. Telegonus is a difficult child for the first few years; the sea is the only thing that calms him. When he asks about his father, Circe spins tales to make Odysseus sound better but sees no harm in it, privately admitting, “I would have done much, much worse to make my son happy” (262).

At 15, Telegonus sees a sinking ship and begs his mother to save the sailors. She agrees, but when they ask who Telegonus is, he announces himself as demigod, and the sailors are enchanted by his natural charisma. Circe wonders if this is his power, as he never had any interest in spells. Circe realizes his disinterest in witchcraft is because he never wanted to change the world, “only to join it” (266).

On his 16th birthday, Telegonus reveals the boat he has built and tells Circe that he means to sail to Ithaca to meet his father with Hermes’s help. She is furious and tries to tell him that he does not understand the danger that Athena poses, but he is young and stubborn, incapable of true comprehension. Telegonus insists that he would rather die than stay on the island forever, and Circe announces that she does not care—that she could take away his desire to leave if she had to keep him safe. He runs away, horrified by his mother’s power and the possibility that she would use it against him for his own safety. Circe realizes that by shielding him from unpleasant truths, she has left him completely ignorant and unprepared for the dangers of the outside world. She laments, “I had wanted him to walk freely in the world, unburnt and unafraid, and now I had gotten my wish. He could not conceive of a relentless goddess with her spear aimed at his heart” (271).

Circe begrudgingly decides that Telegonus can leave the island, but only after she casts spells to protect him. He agrees, but it is apparent he has no comprehension of the dangers and naively expects his heritage to protect him. Circe realizes it is too late to make him understand the horrors and dangers of the world—in shielding him from unpleasantness, she has left him naïve and unprepared:

I kept the face of the world veiled from him. I had painted his history in bright, bold colors, and he had fallen in love with my art. And now it was too late to go back and change it. If I was so old, I should be wise. I should know better than to howl when the bird was already flown (276).

Circe breaks her exile to visit the old god in the deep sea, a stingray called Trygon whose tail’s poison could torment even a god. She tries to challenge him to win his tail as protection for Telegonus, but he makes it clear that she cannot hope to fight him and win. She asks to trade instead, and he tells her that the only way for her to gain his tail is for her to stab herself with it and feel the agony of the poison—pain that will linger eternally. Out of love for her son, she reaches to do so. To Circe’s great surprise, Trygon decides that her willingness is enough. At his instruction, she cuts off his tail. As he swims away, she thinks that she cannot bear the world anymore. He responds, “Then, child, make another” (283). Circe fits the tail to Telegonus’s spear, creating a weapon that should protect him against even Athena. Her son sails away, full of boyish excitement to go on his adventure and meet his father.

Missing her son to distraction, Circe is surprised by his early return. Distraught, Telegonus tells her that when he met Odysseus on the beach of Ithaca, his father attacked him and, in the jostling, the spear grazed Odysseus, killing him with its poison. He had finally met his father only to hold him in his arms as he died, desperately trying to tell him who he was. Circe is certain the Fates are laughing her:

It was their favorite bitter joke: those who fight against prophecy only draw it more tightly around their throats. The shining snare had closed, and my poor son, who had never harmed any man, was caught (291).

Telegonus also informs her that he has brought Odysseus’s wife and son, Penelope and Telemachus, back to Aiaia with him. Circe grieves for Odysseus and tries to comfort her son, who blames himself for his father’s death. Circe allows Penelope and Telemachus onto the island but privately suspects them of plotting to kill Telegonus in vengeance.

To Circe’s surprise, Telemachus explains that Odysseus returned from war alone, angry, and paranoid. He killed anyone he decided opposed him and suspected his child of conspiring against him. As she listens to Telemachus recount his father’s instability, Circe realizes that he has no intention of harming Telegonus. Similarly, Penelope is a gracious guest, grateful for Circe’s hospitality to them now and to her husband in the past. An unlikely friendship buds as the two share stories and weave at the loom Daedalus made.

Telemachus asks Circe for all of her stories about his father. Unlike when she told them to a young Telegonus, Circe spins them to make Odysseus sound better than he was. Through their conversation, it becomes clear that Odysseus’s praised, brave heroics could also be seen as self-indulgent, glory-hungry, and war-mongering. Telemachus states that the stories sound like “a bad life” in that his father had “made life for others a misery” (321). He shrewdly observes that so many lives were lost and ruined, including Odysseus’s own, for the sake of his pride: “He would rather be cursed by the gods than be no one” (321).

In speaking with Penelope, Circe learns that Athena caused Odysseus’s madness by stirring up his longing for battle and glory whenever he started to calm. Penelope admits that she came to Aiaia to protect Telemachus from the same fate, though they are not currently on speaking terms. Circe realizes that Penelope’s civility toward her is not hiding any aggression—Penelope views Athena as the goddess who stole her husband, not Circe. She agrees to house them on the island for the moment, thus keeping Athena away with the magic she cast to protect Telegonus.