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Summary
Chapter 6
After she puts the magic sap in Scylla’s favorite bathing pool, Circe overhears other nymphs gossiping about Scylla going to her pool and then turning into a horrible, twelve-legged, six-headed, gray-skinned monster before diving into the water and disappearing. Circe is fascinated but horrified that she was capable of such a terrible act of magic. She’s also shocked that the others are gleeful about the story. When Helios takes Glaucos aside to tell him what happened to Scylla, Circe follows them and notes that Glaucos’s only response is to ask if Scylla can be changed back. Helios says no and encourages him to simply choose another nymph to replace her. As Circe hopes for Glaucos to pick her, she also finds herself hoping that he will mourn for Scylla. Instead, he immediately starts asking Helios about other nymphs as if nothing of any significance happened.
As Circe comes to terms with the fact that she and Glaucos will never be together, she remembers her conversation with her uncle Prometheus. His words about gods not all having to be the same echo in her mind as she experiences guilt for the first time in her life. She watches her family’s callous pursuit of pleasure and power and remembers how much they enjoyed watching Prometheus be whipped. She does not want to be like them, she realizes. She imagines Prometheus saying that if she truly doesn’t want to be like them, she must do what a god would not. She goes to Helios and confesses what she did to Glaucos and Scylla through witchcraft. She expects to be tortured like her uncle, but Helios just keeps drinking. He insists that she has no power to do such things. Circe insists that she is the one who did it, but Helios and the other gods laugh at her, saying if such power existed, she would not be the one to find and wield it. For the first time, Circe dares to tell her father that he is wrong, and he uses his power of the sun to burn her while saying she is making him hate her even more than he already does. The pain causes her to drop at Helios’s feet, take back what she said, and beg for forgiveness.
Blackened, blistered, and bleeding, Circe goes to the beach where the magical flowers grow and begins to heal. She feels a humming within herself and has the idea of using her magic on herself and be changed into her authentic self, but she loses her nerve because she can’t face finding out what she truly is. Circe is summoned by an uncle back to her father’s palace because Aeëtes has come and asked for her. Aeëtes insists to their father that Circe was telling the truth about her power because he and his other siblings have the same power. He demonstrates his abilities by healing Circe instantly. Aeëtes offers to demonstrate his powers for Zeus, and Circe sees that their father is scared. He dismisses his two children while he considers how to proceed. Alone together, Aeëtes asks Circe what has taken her so long to realize she is a witch.
As gossip spreads, Circe’s family becomes fearful of her, and Aeëtes assures her that is part of being a witch. Their witchcraft cannot be taught. It is something that must be found within. Finally, he laughs when Circe says she was only trying to turn Glaucos and Scylla into their truest selves and insists that she transformed them into what she wanted them to be. He says that Scylla’s life as a monster is actually much less of a punishment than if she’d merely been made ugly.
Helios talks with Zeus before rendering his edict. It’s decided that the power of his four children is unique in the world but doesn’t present any real danger to the gods. However, since Circe admitted to seeking out her powers and disobeying her grandmother who told her to stay away from pharmaka, she will be punished. As a result, Helios and Perse are to have no more children together, and Circe is to be exiled to a remote island for eternity.
Analysis
This chapter marks a turning point in Circe’s life. Even though she’s already seen her power at work with Glaucos, the act of transforming Scylla and its ensuing consequences change everything. Circe truly sees her family for what they are when they enjoy the story of the nymph turning into a monster. The fact that they ask to hear the tale again and again reveals that they take pleasure in Scylla’s downfall. Their glee is a reminder of how they saw Prometheus’s torture as an amusement. As Circe reflects how she always thought Scylla was a favorite, she realizes in this pivotal moment that the gods enjoy anything new and novel. It reveals their absolute pettiness. Therefore, it may be inferred that there is no loyalty in Helios’s halls as the gods take pleasure in others’ pain and suffering. If Scylla, by all appearances a favorite, can be so easily dismissed, then Circe’s fate could be far worse.
The male characters’ misogynistic nature is on full display in this chapter. It’s evident that Scylla’s only value was in her beauty. Once that is lost then she is not even worth an errant thought. The fact that Glaucos moves on immediately reveals that he has no humanity left in him. He cannot even spare a semblance of grief or pity for Scylla’s predicament. Ultimately, Glaucos has completely transformed into a selfish and unfeeling god who only values women for their beauty. Aeëtes echoes these sentiments. He reveals his own misogyny in rationalizing Scylla’s transformation over simply becoming ugly. At least a monster can take pleasure in its nature. A merely ugly nymph would be scorned, shunned, and denied the best that a woman could hope for: a husband and children. The men’s reactions to Scylla’s monstrous transformation reflect their stance that women are but objects in their society which can be easily replaced with something more appealing to their gaze.
Circe demonstrates a degree of self-awareness in this chapter which she has never experienced before. She in effect confronts her own family’s barbarism and Glaucos’s nonplussed demeanor. But most importantly, she experiences something which conceivably no god ever has before—guilt. This newfound emotion expands her character and sets her apart from everyone else in Helios’s palace. By concluding that the gods don’t need to be the same, Circe can manifest how much she truly needs to be different from her family. Importantly, the revelation recalls Circe’s interaction with Prometheus. Furthermore, it propels her to question who she really is. If she wants to be herself, she must do something that a god would never do. Confessing to her father is Circe’s way of asserting her independence and trying to evolve as a character capable of more than what the gods have shown.
The gods’ arrogant and spiteful nature is further developed in this chapter. Helios’s disbelief of his ill-favored daughter having any kind of power, let alone power beyond his own, reveals his hubris. Circe’s challenge to him for the first time while asserting her abilities comes off as a threat to the most powerful god in the room in this scene. In effect, Helios’s hold on power and his status are threatened. By physically turning his power onto Circe, he demonstrates how willing he is to save face and maintain his control. After she recants and begs for mercy, Circe knows not only that no one will help her, but they will walk over her with revulsion and disgust. In effect, Helios has accomplished his goal by bending his daughter back to his will and reminding everyone else what the consequences are of challenging him in any way.
The fact that despite Circe’s confession and demonstrations of power it takes Aeëtes to convinces Helios of her guilt further demonstrates the patriarchal structure of this world. Aeëtes’s arrogance is front and center as he does not consider there to be any risk in coming to his sister’s aid. Circe was just previously brutally tortured for saying essentially the same thing Aeëtes tells their father, yet he is treated with respect and serious consideration. Furthermore, Aeëtes’s primary goal seems not to be helping his sister but flaunting his magic in his father’s face to assert his own power. Meanwhile, the witch children’s fates further support the gods’ societal structures. The male siblings are left alone to do as they wish, and Pasiphaë can do no harm over in Minos’s court. This leaves Circe as Zeus’s sacrificial lamb under the pretense of her confession, and the palace is thusly able to rid itself of its inconvenient witch girl.
