Circe

Circe lives in a stone house in a tidy clearing on the island of Aeaea, surrounded by wolves and mountain lions that move around her like dogs because they used to be men. She has a wand. She has a bowl of cheese and grain and honey and wine that turns visitors into livestock. Twenty of Eurylochus’s men walked into her hall and woke up in a pig sty. She is the daughter of Helios, sent away by her family and forgotten. She learned her crafts alone, mostly for protection from the violent things the sea washes onto her shore. Hermes meets Odysseus on the path with a black-rooted, white-flowered herb and tells him exactly what to do. Odysseus eats the moly, draws his sword, puts it to her throat. She knows the trick has failed. She invites him to bed. They become lovers. The men are restored. The crew stays a year. [SPOILER: When Odysseus finally tells her his heart has turned to home, she does not fight him. She gives him directions to the underworld, the black ram and white ewe for the offering, the order of the libations. After he returns, she sits with him through one more night and walks him through what comes next. The Sirens with the wax for the ears. The strait with Scylla on one side and Charybdis on the other and the cold arithmetic of which six men he will lose. The cattle of Helios he must not touch. She knows he will leave. She prepares him anyway. On the beach, the whole household stands in the sand and watches him go. She is still there when he looks back the last time, alone.]