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Summary
Chapter 22
Circe allows Penelope use her loom to weave a black mourning shroud. Meanwhile, Circe becomes suspicious of Penelope and asks Telegonus whose idea it was for them to flee to Aiaia. He reveals that he offered to take them to Sparta, but Penelope wanted to go to Aiaia. Circe doesn’t confront Penelope right away but is troubled by these events. She’s sure a secret lies beneath the surface.
Telemachus asks Circe to about his father, so she tells him all the stories she never told Telegonus. She tells him about men Odysseus tricked, murdered, and betrayed. When she’s done, Telemachus concludes that Odysseus did not live a good life. He insists that if his father had not been so greedy for fame and treasure, he would have returned home much sooner and prevented all the death and destruction. Circe tells him one more story about Odysseus going to the underworld. There, he met the warrior Achilles who told him that he regretted the choices he made in his life while chasing fame.
Circe finally confronts Penelope who confesses that she insisted on coming to Aiaia to take part in the island’s protection against the gods’ wrath. Penelope further describes how Odysseus adjusted after his adventures. She says the war and all that happened on his journeys did not change him but rather honed and refined who he always was. Back in Ithaca, he becomes restless and bored, but he could not satisfy his desires for more adventures. Penelope says that Athena kept stoking him to greater and greater dissatisfaction with his life. Since Odysseus is dead, Penelope fears that Athena will see Telemachus as her next plaything. Circe says the two of them may stay a while longer.
Chapter 23
Penelope teaches Telegonus to swim. Telemachus mends Telegonus’s boat and does other tasks to stay busy, and he and Circe spend more time together. After dinner one night, Telegonus asks his brother to tell the stories he knows from bards back in Ithaca. Telemachus tells of Perseus, Tantalus, Atalanta, and others. Circe asks if he knows any stories about Pasiphaë, and he says that after Minos’s death, she went back to the halls of the Titans to live. Telegonus is astonished to learn that his mother is not only Pasiphaë’s but was also midwife to the Minotaur. He asks more questions, understanding for the first time that his mother has her own story to tell. When he asks if she knows Scylla, Circe says she’s done talking about her past.
Circe and Penelope spend more time together as the brothers work on the boat. Penelope expresses interest in Circe’s herbs and how they’re used but assumes she’d have to be a goddess to do anything with them. Circe tells her the mortal Medea was a powerful witch, and Penelope tells her stories she knows about Medea and how Circe’s concerns for her life came to pass.
Time passes. Telemachus is peaceful on Aiaia, helping to take care of tasks. Likewise, Telegonus heals from his grief and trauma. However, Penelope and Telemachus are still distant with one another. Circe and Telemachus spend more time together.
Hermes arrives with a message that Athena commands Circe to drop her spell so the goddess may come talk to Telemachus. She agrees only after Hermes says Athena vows not to hurt anyone. She is no longer interested in Telegonus. Circe lies and says it will take three days to drop the spell. Penelope tells Telemachus that the two of them need to finally talk.
Telegonus’s story of his time in Ithaca illustrates how he differs from the traditional heroic ideal which his father supposedly fit into. Although the stereotypical norm is for men to show independence of thought and action while demonstrating fearlessness and courage at all times, Telegonus respects his mother’s command to stay on the boat in Ithaca where he is protected by her spells. Additionally, Telegonus does not journey to Ithaca in the first place to claim a birthright or challenge Telemachus for a position within the power structure of the kingdom; Telegonus simply wants to get to know his father. That contrasts with men like Jason and Theseus who devote their lives to getting what they think is owed to them. It’s also antithetical to Odysseus’s tales of sacking and looting cities during the Trojan War and claiming spoils for himself as well as other historical figures of that era whom Odysseus references when he’s on Aiaia. In fact, it’s that very mentality that makes Odysseus confront and attack Telegonus on the beach, showing how Telegonus does not fit into the mold of the traditional heroic man of his time. Odysseus’s injury and resulting death is a symbolic one which indicates that his own character flaws of paranoia and greed led to his ultimate demise.
Analysis
Telemachus’s decision not to seek vengeance for his father’s death links his character much more closely to his gentler half-brother Telegonus rather than his aggressive and paranoid father Odysseus. He sees his father’s failures and thus regrets helping him murder the suitors and hanging the maids. Unlike Odysseus, Telemachus is clear-minded and can fully understand that his father’s death was not Telegonus’s fault. Even as he must flee Ithaca because he chose not to seek revenge, Telemachus holds fast to his peaceful and fair values. Meanwhile, Telegonus demonstrates his similarities with his half-brother as he offers to take Telemachus and Penelope with him to Aiaia. It’s an incredibly kind act, and he is trusting and honorable even when his mother challenges his decision back on Aiaia. Circe may chide Telegonus for making himself vulnerable, but Telegonus has an open heart completely unlike his father’s. As Circe gets to know Telemachus better, she finds out that he is even more unlike Odysseus than she first imagines.
Telemachus demonstrates how one’s character can be a choice rather than solely influenced by a parent. He is haunted by hanging the maids when Odysseus returned, demonstrating that he has more humanity and compassion than his father who wanted the girls to be tortured and their bodies desecrated. In this regard, Telemachus is more similar to Circe than to his own father because Circe also carries the burden of guilt over the men Scylla killed over the years. Telemachus is also content with the day-to-day life on Ithaca, even leaving the palace to tend flocks in the fields. This contrasts with Odysseus’s discontent upon returning to Ithaca. The things Odysseus thought of as boring, such as tending to animals, harvesting olives, and mending things that needed fixing, are things Telemachus enjoys and takes pride in. Telemachus bears no resemblance to his father, and he can therefore abandon his birthright to ensure his mother’s safety and ultimately find a humble and satisfying life with Circe.
Circe has a better understanding of, and confidence in, her power and herself at this point in the novel. Before she learns that Penelope and Telemachus mean them no harm, she trusts that her witchcraft will keep her son safe. When she confronts Penelope about her reasons for coming with Telegonus to Aiaia, she knows that Penelope is no threat and has confidence in her ability to protect her son as well as herself from any threat. Unlike her interactions with the sailors earlier in her life, she no longer reacts like Odysseus did when he had encountered Telegonus. She is also open with Penelope about her witchcraft and doesn’t feel the need to mislead her about the source of her magic. Her newfound understanding with Penelope foreshadows that Circe will pass her island and her magical supplies to Penelope. This generosity of spirit shows that Circe does not feel the need to hoard or misrepresent her power.
