"ὣς ἔφαν, αὐτὰρ ἐμοί γ᾽ ἐπεπείθετο θυμὸς ἀγήνωρ.475
ὣς τότε μὲν πρόπαν ἦμαρ ἐς ἠέλιον καταδύντα
ἥμεθα, δαινύμενοι κρέα τ᾽ ἄσπετα καὶ μέθυ ἡδύ·
ἦμος δ᾽ ἠέλιος κατέδυ καὶ ἐπὶ κνέφας ἦλθεν,
οἱ μὲν κοιμήσαντο κατὰ μέγαρα σκιόεντα.
αὐτὰρ ἐγὼ Κίρκης ἐπιβὰς περικαλλέος εὐνῆς480
γούνων ἐλλιτάνευσα, θεὰ δέ μευ ἔκλυεν αὐδῆς·
καί μιν φωνήσας ἔπεα πτερόεντα προσηύδων·
‘ὢ Κίρκη, τέλεσόν μοι ὑπόσχεσιν ἥν περ ὑπέστης,
οἴκαδε πεμψέμεναι: θυμὸς δέ μοι ἔσσυται ἤδη,
ἠδ᾽ ἄλλων ἑτάρων, οἵ μευ φθινύθουσι φίλον κῆρ485
ἀμφ᾽ ἔμ᾽ ὀδυρόμενοι, ὅτε που σύ γε νόσφι γένηαι.’
ὣς ἐφάμην, ἡ δ᾽ αὐτίκ᾽ ἀμείβετο δῖα θεάων·
‘διογενὲς Λαερτιάδη, πολυμήχαν᾽ Ὀδυσσεῦ,
μηκέτι νῦν ἀέκοντες ἐμῷ ἐνὶ μίμνετε οἴκῳ.
ἀλλ᾽ ἄλλην χρὴ πρῶτον ὁδὸν τελέσαι καὶ ἱκέσθαι490
εἰς Ἀίδαο δόμους καὶ ἐπαινῆς Περσεφονείης,
ψυχῇ χρησομένους Θηβαίου Τειρεσίαο,
μάντηος ἀλαοῦ, τοῦ τε φρένες ἔμπεδοί εἰσι·
τῷ καὶ τεθνηῶτι νόον πόρε Περσεφόνεια,
οἴῳ πεπνῦσθαι, τοὶ δὲ σκιαὶ ἀίσσουσιν.’495
ὣς ἔφατ᾽, αὐτὰρ ἐμοί γε κατεκλάσθη φίλον ἦτορ·
κλαῖον δ᾽ ἐν λεχέεσσι καθήμενος, οὐδέ νύ μοι κῆρ
ἤθελ᾽ ἔτι ζώειν καὶ ὁρᾶν φάος ἠελίοιο.
αὐτὰρ ἐπεὶ κλαίων τε κυλινδόμενος τ᾽ ἐκορέσθην,
καὶ τότε δή μιν ἔπεσσιν ἀμειβόμενος προσέειπον·500
‘ὢ Κίρκη, τίς γὰρ ταύτην ὁδὸν ἡγεμονεύσει;
εἰς Ἄϊδος δ᾽ οὔ πώ τις ἀφίκετο νηὶ μελαίνῃ.’
notes
Odysseus begs Circe to fulfill her promise to send him home. Circe tells Odysseus of his visit to Hades.
The crew’s embassy to their captain becomes the pivot around which the rest of the episode turns. From now on, the paradigm of the dangerously seductive woman, with all of its dark implications for the psychic integrity of the hero, will give way to preparation for the next big adventure, a journey to the land of the dead.
read full essay
When Odysseus goes to Circe, he kneels in supplication, begging for her to allow them to continue toward Ithaka. This gesture recalls Circe’s response to the failure of her drugs to subdue Odysseus (10.321–24) and forms a frame around this part of the episode, an example of “ring form,” a structural device frequently found in Homeric epic and elsewhere in archaic Greek literature. Now the power dynamic between Odysseus and Circe that Hermes’s intervention created is reversed. The witch is back in control, holding special knowledge that will help the hero reach home.
The next adventure finally comes into view as Circe breaks the news to Odysseus that his journey home will have a detour to Hades, to consult the sage Teiresias about how to reach Ithaka. The news shatters Odysseus’s heart and he falls on the bed, weeping and again contemplating suicide, as he did when discovering that his men had opened the bag of winds and blown them away from Ithaka. The gesture is certainly understandable in both cases: being within sight of home after twenty years, only to be denied at the last minute, would be shattering for anyone, while visiting the land of the dead is the most perilous adventure a hero can pursue. On another level, the hero’s physical and emotional response to both situations is proleptic, symbolically enacting the terrible events to come, moving downward toward death. We see something similar when Antilochus brings the news of Patroclus’s death to Achilles in Book 18 of the Iliad:
ὣς φάτο, τὸν δ᾽ ἄχεος νεφέλη ἐκάλυψε μέλαινα:
ἀμφοτέρῃσι δὲ χερσὶν ἑλὼν κόνιν αἰθαλόεσσαν
χεύατο κὰκ κεφαλῆς, χαρίεν δ᾽ ᾔσχυνε πρόσωπον:
νεκταρέῳ δὲ χιτῶνι μέλαιν᾽ ἀμφίζανε τέφρη.
αὐτὸς δ᾽ ἐν κονίῃσι μέγας μεγαλωστὶ τανυσθεὶς
κεῖτο, φίλῃσι δὲ χερσὶ κόμην ᾔσχυνε δαΐζων.
So [Antilochus] spoke, and a black cloud of pain covered [Achilles].
Gathering the grimy dust in both hands,
he poured it over his head, fouling his handsome face,
and the dark ash blackened his immortal tunic.
He himself lay stretched out in his might in the dust,
tearing his hair with his hands to defile it.
Iliad 18.22–27
Hearing the terrible news mortifies Achilles, pulling him toward death. He tries to bury himself, covering his face with dirt, stretched out like a corpse. When his mother comes to comfort him, she holds his head, creating a tableau that mimics a loved one grieving over a dead man. When Patroclus dies, something of Achilles dies too; when the specter of failing to reach home surfaces for Odysseus, it feels like death to him.
In this crucial moment in the larger structure of the story, we might pause to reflect on how Homer controls his narrative and our response to it. Looking at the Books 9–12 as a whole, we can see that the material is shaped around a few major episodes, each of which reflects major ongoing themes in the poem, the conflicting forces at work in and on the hero, the imperatives in the story’s rhetoric that shape our response to the characters and events. In between are smaller episodes, each preserving and advancing the major themes of the story but with its own particular cast of characters. Homer must consistently engage his audience—who are hearing the poem recited rather than reading a fixed text—with the details of each episode, while continuously laying the foundation for the poem’s larger structure.
Looking at Book 10 from this perspective, we note that once Hermes intervenes and arranges for Odysseus to be invulnerable to Circe’s magic, the witch ceases to be a threat to the hero’s mission and the poet has a problem: when the motif of the dangerously seductive woman fades away, it takes with it the energy generated by our investment in the hero escaping her wiles. Eurylochus’ anxiety and distrust do keep the motif of the dangerous seductress alive for a little longer—another explanation for this curious interlude—but when Odysseus leads his men from the ship to the witch’s house, Homer turns toward the next big adventure. Circe now functions entirely as the benign boundary figure, whose advice points the Greeks toward the future. When Odysseus collapses on the witch’s bed, a new source of energy appears, crippling fear of the unknown. The serenity and joy of the Greeks’ yearlong party, which also gave us some respite from the continuous dramatic tension of the adventures, are now swept away by new fears:
ὢ Κίρκη, τίς γὰρ ταύτην ὁδὸν ἡγεμονεύσει;
εἰς Ἄϊδος δ᾽ οὔ πώ τις ἀφίκετο νηὶ μελαίνῃ.
Oh Circe, who will lead us on this journey?
For no one has ever arrived in Hades in a black ship.
Odyssey 501–2
Further Reading
Edwards, M.W. 1987. Homer: Poet of the Iliad. 1987, 61–69. Baltimore and London: Johns Hopkins University Press.
475 same line as 406, with ἐμοί for ἡμῖν.
476-478 repetition of lines 183–85, 9.556–58, and 12.28–30. These lines are missing in many MS(S). and may be an interpolation.
478 ἐπὶ κνέφας ἦλθε: “darkness came around again,” tmesis > ἐπέρχομαι.
479 κοιμήσαντο: “fell asleep,” aor. mid. > κοιμάω.
481 γούνων ἐλλιτάνευσα: "implored by clasping her knees," 1st sing. aor. > λιτανεύω. The verb is regularly accompanied by a partitive genitive, in this case γούνων (Smyth 1347). Clasping someone by the knees is a traditional gesture of supplication in Homer.
481 αὐδῆς: genitive of source with verb of hearing (Smyth 1361).
484 πεμψέμεναι: “namely, to send,” aor. infin., in apposition to ὑπόσχεσιν (Smyth 1987).
484 ἔσσυται: “is eager,” 3rd sing. pf. mid. > σεύω, with the force of a present tense (Monro 28; Smyth 1946).
486 ὅτε … νόσφι γένεαι: "whenever you are away," "whenever you're not around," general temporal clause, ἄν omitted (Monro 283; Smyth 2402).
486 γένεαι: 2nd sing. aor. mid. subj.
490 χρὴ: “it is necessary for you to,” “you must.” Understand ὑμᾶς with χρὴ, which takes an accusative and infinitive.
490 ὁδὸν: “journey,” fem. acc. sing.
492 χρησομένους: “to consult with …,” followed by a dative; future participle expressing purpose. For χράομαι, “to consult with an oracle or seer,” see LSJ χράω (B) III.
493 μάντηος: gen. sing. > μάντις, which declines like πόλις.
493 ἔμπεδοί: "unchanged." As explained in the following lines, even though he's in the Underworld, he still has the prophetic powers he possessed in life.
494 τῷ καὶ τεθνηῶτι: “to him even in death,” dative indirect object of πόρε (unaugmented impf.).
495 οἴῳ: agreeing with τῷ in 494.
495 πεπνῦσθαι: "to have understanding," infinitive of purpose (Smyth 2008).
495 τοὶ … ἀΐσσουσιν: “but the others flit like shadows” (Edwards).
497 κλαῖον: unaugmented 1st sing. impf.
497 λεχέεσσι: dat. pl. > λέχος, used as singular (Monro 171; Smyth 1000). λέχος declines like ἔπος.
497–98 οὐδέ ... / ... ἔτι: “no longer.”
497 νύ: νῦν
499 κλαίων τε κυλινδόμενός τ᾽: supplementary participles with ἐκορέσθην (“I had my fill of …”).
501 τίς γὰρ: in questions, γάρ expresses “surprise or indignation” (Monro 348.4; Smyth 2805a). Like many Greek particles, it affects the tone of the sentence, but is difficult to translate with complete accuracy.
502 εἰς Ἄϊδος: “to the house of Hades.” The accusative that properly takes the preposition is regularly omitted in Homer (Smyth 1302).
vocabulary
ἀτάρ (or αὐτάρ): but, yet 475
ἐπιπείθομαι ἐπιπείσομαι ἐπεπιθόμην – ἐπιπέπεισμαι ἐπεπείσθην: to be persuaded (to)
ἀγήνωρ –ορος: manly, courageous, heroic
πρόπας –ασα –αν: all
ἦμαρ –ατος τό: day
καταδύω καταδύσω καταδέδυκα/κατέδυν καταδέδυμαι καταδεδύθην: to sink; (of the sun) to set
ἧμαι (or κάθημαι) ––– ––– ––– ––– –––: sit
δαίνυμι δαίσω ἔδαισα: (act.) to give a banquet, distribute (food); (mid.) to share a meal; to feast (on), eat (+ acc.)
κρέα κρεῶν τά: meat, piece of meat
ἄσπετος –ον: immense, abundant, infinite
μέθυ –υος τό: wine, mead
ἦμος: when, while
καταδύω καταδύσω καταδέδυκα/κατέδυν καταδέδυμαι καταδεδύθην: to sink; (of the sun) to set
κνέφας –ους τό: darkness, evening dusk, twilight
κοιμάω κοιμήσω ἐκοίμησα κεκοίμηκα κεκοίμημαι ἐκοιμήθην: (act.) to put to bed, lull; (mid. and pass.) to go to bed, lay down
μέγαρον –ου τό: a large room, hall, feast-hall
σκιόεις –εσσα –εν: shady, shadowy
ἀτάρ (or αὐτάρ): but, yet 480
Κίρκη –ης ἡ: Circe, the enchantress, daughter of Helius, sister of Aeētes, dwelling in the isle of Aeaea
ἐπιβαίνω ἐπιβήσομαι ἐπέβην ἐπιβέβηκα ––– –––: to go on, enter, step up, mount, board (a ship) + gen.
περικαλλής –ές: very beautiful
εὐνή εὐνῆς ἡ: pallet, bed, den; (pl.) stones (to anchor a ship), anchors
γόνυ γόνατος (or γουνός) τό: knee
λιτανεύω λιτανεύσω ἐλλιτάνευσα: to pray, entreat
θεά –ᾶς ἡ: goddess
κλύω ––– κέκλυκα ––– ––– –––: to hear, listen to; to have a reputation, be judged or considered
αὐδή –ῆς ἡ: the human voice, speech
μιν: (accusative singular third person pronoun) him, her, it; himself, herself, itself
φωνέω φωνήσω ἐφώνησα πεφώνηκα πεφώνημαι ἐφωνήθην: to make a sound, speak
πτερόεις πτερόεσσα πτερόεν: winged
προσαυδάω προσαυδήσω προσηύδησα προσηύδηκα προσηύδημαι προσηυδήθην: to speak to, address, accost
τελέω τελῶ or τελέσω ἐτέλεσα τετέλεκα τετέλεσμαι ἐτελέσθην: to finish, complete, carry out
ὑπόσχεσις –εως ἡ: an undertaking, engagement, promise
ὑφίστημι (Ion. ὑπίστημι) ὑποστήσω ὑπέστησα: to place under; mid. to submit, to promise
οἴκαδε: homeward
σεύω σεύσω ἔσσευα – ἔσσυμαι ἐσσύθην/ἐσύθην: to shake, push, hurl; to drive back, chase, hunt; (mid. pass.) to hurl oneself, leap, rush, be eager
ἠδέ: and 485
ἑταῖρος –ου ὁ: comrade, companion
φθινύθω – – – – –: to perish, waste away; to waste, consume
κῆρ κῆρος τό: heart, mind
ὀδύρομαι ὀδυροῦμαι ὠδυράμην ––– ––– κατωδύρθην/ὠδύρθην: grieve
νόσφι: aloof, apart, afar, away
ἀμείβω ἀμείψω ἤμειψα ἤμειφα ἤμειμμαι ἠμείφθην: to respond, answer; to exchange; (mid.) to take turns, alternate; to change, place, pass
δῖος –α –ον: divine, godlike, shining
θεά –ᾶς ἡ: goddess
διογενής –ές: sprung from Zeus (epithet of Odysseus)
Λαερτιάδης –ου ὁ: son of Laertes (Odysseus)
πολυμήχανος –ον: full of resources, inventive, ever-ready
Ὀδυσσεύς –έως ὁ: Odysseus, king of Ithaca, hero of the Odyssey
μηκέτι: no more, no longer
ἀέκων –ουσα –ον: unwillingly
μίμνω ––– ––– ––– ––– –––: to remain, wait
τελέω τελῶ or τελέσω ἐτέλεσα τετέλεκα τετέλεσμαι ἐτελέσθην: to finish, complete, carry out 490
ἱκνέομαι ἵξομαι ἱκόμην ––– ἷγμαι –––: to come, reach
ᾍδης –ου ὁ: Hades
δόμος –ου ὁ: house, home
ἐπαινός -ή -όν: dread, terrifying, awesome (epithet of Persephone)
Περσεφόνη –ης ἡ: Persephone, Proserpine
χράω χρήσω ἔκρησα κέχρηκα ––– –––: to fall upon, attack, assail; deliver an oracle, (mid.) consult an oracle
Θηβαῖος –η/–α –ον: Theban
Τειρεσίας –ου ὁ: Tiresias, a seer of Thebes
μάντις –εως ὁ: prophet
ἀλαός –όν: blind
φρήν φρενός ἡ: diaphragm; heart, mind, wits
ἔμπεδος –ον: firm-set, steadfast, constant, unchanged; (in neuter as adverb) firmly, steadily
πόρω ––– ἔπορον ––– ––– –––: to offer, furnish, supply, give; (pf. pass. 3 sing.) it is fated
οἶος –α –ον: alone
πνέω πμεύσομαι/πνευσοῦμαι ἔπνευσα πέπνευκα ––– ἐπνεύσθην: breathe, be prudent 495
σκιά –ᾶς ἡ: a shadow
ἀίσσω ––– ἤῑξα ἀίξασκον ––– ἠίχθην: to rise up
ἀτάρ (or αὐτάρ): but, yet
κατακλάω κατακλάσω κατέκλασα – κατακέκλασμαι κατεκλάσθην: to break, shatter; (pass.) to be broken (figuratively of the heart or spirit)
ἦτορ τό: the heart
κλαίω/κλάω κλαύσομαι/κλαήσω ἔκλαυσα ––– κέκλαυμαι/κέκλαυσμαι ἐκλαύσθην: weep, cry
λέχος –ους τό: a couch, bed
κάθημαι καθήσομαι ––– ––– ––– ––– imp: ἐκαθήμην: be seated, sit; reside
κῆρ κῆρος τό: heart, mind
ζῶ (or ζώω) ζήσω ἔζησα (or ἔζωσα) ἔζηκα: live
φάος –ους τό: light, daylight
ἀτάρ (or αὐτάρ): but, yet
κλαίω/κλάω κλαύσομαι/κλαήσω ἔκλαυσα ––– κέκλαυμαι/κέκλαυσμαι ἐκλαύσθην: weep, cry
κυλίνδω ἐκύλισα κεκύλισμαι ἐκυλίσθην: to roll, roll along; to wallow
κορέννυμι (Ion. κορέω) κορέσω ἐκόρεσα κεκόρεσμαι ἐκορέσθην: to sate, satiate, satisfy
μιν: (accusative singular third person pronoun) him, her, it; himself, herself, itself 500
ἀμείβω ἀμείψω ἤμειψα ἤμειφα ἤμειμμαι ἠμείφθην: to respond, answer; to exchange; (mid.) to take turns, alternate; to change, place, pass
προσεῖπον (aor. 2 of προσαγορεύω and προσφωνέω); Εp. προσέειπον: to speak to one, address, accost
ἡγεμονεύω ἡγεμονεύσω ἡγεμόνευσα: to lead, guide, conduct
Ἀΐδης –ου ὁ: Hades
πω: up to this time, yet
μέλας μέλαινα μέλαν: black, dark, obscure