After Odysseus has put the sword to her throat and she has sworn her oath, she goes to the sty with him. The salve is in her hands. She moves down the line, gentle, hands on each snout as it shrinks to a nose, on each curved back as it straightens. The men rise from the mud taller, younger even than they were. They weep when they see him. He weeps with them. The salve is the moral weight of the wand reversed. She does not just have the power to ruin men. She has the patience to undo it. That is the part that complicates her. She is more than the trap.
Circe's Salve
The counter to the wand. She touches each pig with it gently, hands on their snouts as the snouts shrink to noses. They stand from the mud.