Circe Major and Minor Quotes

“Not every god need be the same.” (Ch. 2)

– Prometheus

Analysis: In trying to explain his sacrifice for mortals, Prometheus speaks these words to Circe. Although she is too young to fully grasp the meaning at the time, this quote speaks to her own character and the trajectory of her life. She is deeply moved by Prometheus and returns often in her mind to his brutal whipping and his eternal punishment: alone on a mountain crag, his liver torn out by an eagle daily. Even as a child, she knows she is different from other divine beings. After trying to find her place in the divine world, she accepts that difference. She takes her “punishment” alone on the island, although with more freedom than Prometheus, she can turn her exile to her benefit. Circe is closest to Prometheus in her actions and attitudes toward mortals. She objects to the pettiness of the gods and recoils at her sister’s recklessness and cruelty, at the mortal lives she wastes for nothing. Circe chooses not to be the same as other gods and goddesses and eventually chooses not to be a divine at all.

“For a hundred generations, I had walked the world drowsy and dull, idle and at my ease. I left no prints, I did no deeds. Even those who had loved me a little did not care to stay…. Then I learned I could bend the world to my will, as a bow is bent to an arrow. I would have done that toil a thousand times to keep such power in my hands. I thought: this is how Zeus felt when he first lifted the thunderbolt.” (Ch. 7)

– Circe

Analysis: The language used in this quote speaks to Circe’s first awakening and transformation as she discovers the power she wields through the flowers and herbs she can manipulate. Circe shows her resolve throughout a long learning and discovery process. She pounds and chops, boils and grinds, searching for how to find and release each plant’s power and what it can do: heal, protect, or render immediate death. The spells that transformed Glaucos and Scylla were not the deliberate work of a witch, and when she realizes what she is capable of, it is akin to Zeus and his thunderbolt. She has felt powerless and now feels extraordinary power. She has been disdained by others, an outcast even before she was exiled, and now she has accomplished something all her own, on her own, through her effort and intelligence. For anyone who has felt the exhilaration of achievement—of having spent great time and energy to reach a goal and to finally know success—this quote speaks to that moment and sense of that anything is possible. It’s a thrilling and satisfying moment in her story.

“I pressed on. If my childhood had given me anything, it was endurance.” (Ch. 7)

– Circe

Analysis: Circe speaks in the context of working to discover her witchcraft and adjust to the sudden changes in her life exiled on the island. The quote comes early in the story and speaks to not only what she refers to directly—the emotional hardships of her childhood—but what will continue in her endless years ahead. Throughout the story, Circe must endure, as an epic hero would. She is frequently in a precarious place, even with her newfound powers. She is a woman alone in the world for much of her tale. She does not have a powerful position like her siblings or respect in her divine world. Even as a witch, she is vulnerable. She faces many difficulties and challenges, yet the greater self-confidence and strength she achieves also ensures her capacity to endure, carry on, and overcome.

“It was my first lesson. Beneath the smooth, familiar face of things is another that waits to tear the world in two.” (Ch. 2)

– Circe

“… [A]s if his words were a secret. A thing that looked like a stone, but inside it was a seed.” (Ch. 2)

– Circe of Prometheus

“Next time you’re defy the gods, do it for a better reason. I’d hate to see my sister turned to cinders for nothing.” (Ch. 3)

– Aeëtes

“It was like a great chain of fear, I thought. Zeus at the top and my father just behind. Then Zeus’s siblings and children, then my uncles, and on down through the ranks of river-gods and brine-lords and Furies and Winds and Graces, until it came to the bottom where we sat, nymphs and mortals both, each eyeing the other.” (Ch. 3)

– Circe

“That is what exile meant: no one was coming, no one ever would. There was fear in that knowledge, but after my long night of terrors it felt small and inconsequential. The worst of my cowardice has been sweated out. In its place was a giddy spark.” (Ch. 7)

– Circe

“A golden cage is still a cage.” (Ch. 11)

– Daedalus

“You set yourself against me then. You with your weeds and your little divinity.” — Athena to Circe … “You do not know what I can do.” — Circe (Ch. 18)

“If [wisdom] is so,” I said, “it is only because I have been fool enough for a hundred lifetimes.” (Ch. 25)

– Circe

“We are not our blood…. A witch once told me that.” (Ch. 26)

– Telemachus

“I thought once that gods are the opposite of death, but I see now they are more dead than anything, for they are unchanging, and can hold nothing in their hands.” (Ch. 27)

– Circe