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“It was my first lesson. Beneath the smooth, familiar face of things is another that waits to tear the world in two.”
In Chapter 2, Circe says that nothing is as it seems in the world because there is always a violent battle for power simmering underneath. As long as both gods and mortals value power above all else, there will never be peace in the world. Greed and the desire to dominate others are forces Circe realizes are at work in not only her father and Zeus but in everyone she knows. This includes her mother trying to maintain her status, her brothers who want kingdoms of their own, her sister who knows she must be married off but seeks to have her own power in her life, and the mortal men who rape in order to assert their dominance over women. Circe later comes to understand that she has her own facade hiding violent forces underneath. She becomes a link in the chain of fear when she turns men into pigs and asserts her power to threaten others. By the end of the novel, Circe finds ways to be true and peaceful within herself. She may thus avoid seeking the illusion she knows that power actually is.
