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Chapter 25
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
Circe and Telemachus stay on the shore for three days. They have sex and harvest food, and she tells him her past. For some stories, like with Prometheus and Daedalus, Circe loves being able to bring them to life. Other stories, however, are grisly, and she has to bite back her anger. When she does so, Telemachus reminds her that “we are not our blood.”
Circe is at last being respected for who she is, including her flaws. When Circe gets upset at the gods and her own cruel actions, Telemachus reminds her that she is not doomed to be like them. In fact, she has taken many drastic steps to separate herself from her family and their brutality.
Themes
On the third day, Telemachus and Circe sail toward Crete. The voyage is easy and pleasant. Wherever they land, they make camp and sometimes engage with the people who live nearby, Telemachus repairing their boats and Circe giving them remedies. Together, they dream of the places they will visit. At night, they lie together, Circe learning all of Telemachus’s lines and creases. But though they are close, Circe feels the barrier of her immortality.
Telemachus and Circe both do what they can to alleviate the world’s problems. Although they know that they cannot dismantle the systems of abuses that terrorize so many, they can do what is in their power to make the world a kinder place. Each night, Circe gets to know Telemachus better, which is represented in her learning the marks on his body. Yet Circe finds that she still feels separate from him—she is immortal, so she will have to watch him die while she lives on forever.
Themes
At last, they find Circe’s old shore. She walks along it, remembering where she and Aeëtes used to talk and seeing where she brought Glaucos to transform him. They walk toward the flowers on that hill and, panicked, Circe orders Telemachus to avoid the flowers. But then she realizes her foolishness: “He was himself already” and would not be changed. She harvests some of them, and then they sail back to Aiaia.
Themes
As they near Aiaia, Circe tells Telemachus of the first group of men that she turned into pigs, saying that she had been afraid to tell him before in case it would be a barrier between them. Now, however, she simply wants him to know the truth. He holds her hand, and she can feel his pulse. When he speaks, he asks her if he can accompany her forever.
Themes
Literary Devices
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When they reach Aiaia, Penelope greets them. Circe walks the island and into her house, feeling the sweetness of her old home. She realizes that she is saying goodbye; something is going to happen tonight. During dinner, Circe asks Penelope how, when they had argued about Penelope’s coming to Aiaia, she had known that kneeling before Circe would shame her. Penelope tells her that it was something Odysseus said, that Circe hated her divinity. After a pause, Circe asks Penelope, whose fingers are stained green, how she enjoys witchcraft. She smiles and tells her that it is indeed a mix of “Will and work.” After telling Penelope that she is leaving Aiaia for good, Circe asks whether Penelope would like to remain as the new witch of the island. Penelope accepts.
Themes
Literary Devices
Penelope asks Circe whether Telemachus plans to accompany her. Circe replies that she believes he will, but that she still has one task to do beforehand. After dinner, Circe tells Telemachus that she is unsure whether her spell will work, for it is possible that divinity cannot be shed. If it fails, he says, they will try again.
Themes
