Odysseus’s scouts arrive at Circe’s island and follow the smell of cooking. Circe welcomes them, feeds them, and turns them into swine. Odysseus marches alone to rescue them, armed with moly — a herb Hermes gave him to break her spell.
Once her magic fails on him, Circe changes register entirely. She invites him in, restores his men, and the crew stays a year on her island. She becomes his lover and his guide.
It is Circe who tells him he must go to the underworld to consult the prophet Tiresias before he can sail home. She gives him precise sailing directions for the trials ahead — the sirens, Scylla and Charybdis, the cattle of the sun. She is the rare obstacle that turns into a teacher.