u/Glittering-Day9869

I never wanted to make this post because I hate going into these arguments but I feel like I really need to state my opinion at this point.

The main articles used to make this post are: The Character of Circe in the Odyssey (by J D McClymont), Odysseus, Circe, and the Italian Tradition of National Descent (by Lorina N. Quartarone), first chapter of the transformation of Circe (by Judith Yarnall), and Circeian temptation: Homer, Vergil, Ovid (by Charles Segal). Now let's go through each point people make about their relationship:

>Odysseus slept with Circe willingly and happily

Lett's start off with this argument, the text itself outright states that Odysseus *had* to sleep with Circe if he wanted to save his men. Hermes told him that so it was a predetermined action by an Olympian.

It's not an opinion nor is it up to debate that sex was a coercion, it is something that is literally written in the text itself as it was said that he *can't* refuse a goddess like Circe.

If you still think we shouldn't taje Hermes' words as absolute then pay attention to the wording used by him here. When Hermes came to Odysseus he told him " I'll rescue you from the evils and save you". keyword here being "I". Hermes gave the entire win against Circe to himself therefore Odysseus was nothing more than a tool by the god, so just like a tool he had to obey Hermes' commands step by step if he wanted to survive his encouter with the witch and restore his crew. Everything including the sex was predetermined by Hermes and demanded by Circe hereself (Odysseus himself never mentioned to her that he wanted sex once and was responding to her actions) and were outside Odysseus' control so saying he "had a choice" is a misinterpretation of the text.

According to J D McClymont, when Odysseus told Circe to swear an oath not only did the text reminds us that Circe was his superior as he addressed her with a divine status "Unless you deign, goddess" (343) but the word used when he bid her to swear it was the verb keleuo (345) which can be understood in the sense of urgently beseeching rather than ordering (Liddell & Scott 371). This implies that he is not forcing her, and that her response to him is willing on her part. So Odysseus' "hold" over Circe is something she freely gave to him.

The entire interaction was Hermes helping Odysseus to get on Circe's good side which was all about him giving her sexual satisfaction.

Essentially, the entire thing was an "I give you my body, you give me my men back". Sex was a transactional and a means to an end for Odysseus which was shown by the way he was acting at the dinner table after doing the deed. The story showed that he was distressed because his main goal of freeing his men was not yet achieved so when Circe asked him about what was troubling him and he told her that he wouldnt partake any more actions with her until she frees his men, only then did she free them.

Circe herself told Odysseus to jump into her bed so they may mingle in lovemaking and trust each other, but Odysseus made her swear an oath first because she was a sexually dangerous woman and because he can't yet trust her for what she did to his crew. The entire foundation of their relationship was supposed to be built on the idea that no one needed to hurt the other anymore.

Circe did this out of her own free will, Odysseus never got his men back by "threatening Circe with a sword" that was never the point nor was it how the text treated their relationship. Odysseus became Circe's partner so she took care for him (as Hermes told him she'll do) which is why Odysseus had to give her his body to become that partner in the first place.

>Circe was the one who was coerced as she was crying and had a sword at her neck.

This idea grossly misses Circe's personality and her nuanced relationship with Odysseus and turn her into some victim for no reason. No Circe was not being "coerced" here.

First of all, like many things in these mythos, we need to understand the symbolism behind Odysseus' sword here. It was similar to the way other heroes were represented with the weapon (IO.32I, for instance, uses the formula describing Achilles when he draws against Agamemnon, Iliad I.I90). Basically, the sword at Circe's neck is a sign of Odysseus' masculinity and his heroic identity. The entire interaction was about overcoming Circe's wiles and seduction. It was sword against a wand, a heroic male against a seductress female. I'm mentioning this because the symbolism is why Circe herself immediately later identified him as the hero that Hermes told her about when she was at her knees.

We should not. However, take Circe's cries at face value. As Judith Yarnall explained, Circe is an immortal so she wasn't begging for her life, she was taking an intimate position and using measured words to invite him to her bedroom. Circe's actual motive was her wanting to to court the heroic figure who has beaten her. Odysseus was the perfect partner for Circe as he was able to resist her and prove to be her equal and not just another man she can dominate and throw in her Pigsty (the Moly was seen as a symbol of self-control by people)

This is how people like Plutarch (Conjugalia Praecepta) saw their encouter. It was intentional that her "cries" in the text were overshadowed by her describing Odysseus as the hero from the Trojan war that Hermes told her would come to her. The first thing she mentioned was how impressed she was because no other man was able to resist her herbs and that he had a "mind that can't be enchanted".

As Lorina N. Quartarone explained, Circe's relationship with Odysseus and her admiration for him can best understood as a parallel to his relationship with Athena. When Athena met Odysseus in larer in the poem and he "lies" to her (Odyssey, 13.254-286). Athena admires his quick, strategic thinking and wiliness, and assists Odysseus because of their like-mindedness (homophrosune). Athena recognizes his talents, stating that Odysseus is the best among mortals for cunning and wiles, just as she is among the gods (13.291-299) and declares that this is why she cannot abandon him (13.330-332). Odysseus earns her respect by meeting her as something of an equal (as much as a mortal man could), just as he earned that of Circe, and thus becomes favored by both.

At no point in the story did Circe perform any action out of duress. She saw him sad at the dinner table so she freed his men to make him happy, she took pity on the way his men were crying to him so she invited them to her home. You seriously need to take events out of context and at extreme face value to undermine how actually nuanced the relationship between the two was written.

It's important to note that in Book 10 Odysseus himself was in a submissive position toward Circe as he clasped her knees (an ancient gesture of supplication) so she would tell him how he could return home which shows that the relationship between Odysseus and Circe was treated as a mutually beneficiary one between the two. Odysseus became someone Circe can trust and that trust was forged via giving her a sexual conquest under her demand. This is pretty much why having sex with her was necessary so she would no longer see him as an object of domination but as an equal partner (as equal to her as a mortal can get).

Heck, the idea that the moly gave Odysseus' some clear-cut advantage over her is also greatly contradicted within the same story. Circe is a layered character therefore was a layered threat. Odysseus maybe able to resist her magic but Circe is still a seductress and a goddess above him. If the moly immediately made Circe Odysseus' inferior like people say then the second protection via the oath would be redundant as Circe is under his mercy, but it's not because Odysseus was the one under her mercy and the oath was the bare minimum contingency so that he wouldn't be sexually subjugated by a goddess.

Even after the sexual encouter, this was still how their relationship was portrayed. When she tells him to go to the underworld or to face Scylla then he would absolutely do so without a question since she consistently acted as his superior and guide.

>But why did he stay a year? It obviously means he loved having sex with Circe more!

First of all, this was after Circe was "tamed" and he gained her trust. She was the one who told him to stay on her island and he accepted because she decided to practice good xenia (an important theme in the epic). Secondly, we have no idea of if he had any sexual encouter beyond the clearly coerced first time.

Even if he did have sex with her daily, do people who use this arguement as a smoking gun think that the Odyssey was written yesterday or something? This was a thousands years old epic. None of these arguements are there to prove that "Odysseus never loved Penelope" that is not how people at the time saw it. When Circe is mentioned in the story, it was never there to debunk the love between Odysseus and his wife.

Book 23 was all about the loving ruinion between Odysseus and Penelope and he told her everything about his travels including "Circe's guiles" and it was never written there to disturb the ruinion.

Literally one of the main things that poets admired about Odysseus was his relationship with Penelope as it was used as the ultimate example of the loyalty between a husband and his wife (with Aristotle saying that he only slept with Circe to free his men in his Economica). The entire point is that he left a life of hedonism with a goddess to return to a a rigid homeland.

Charles Segal explained it best. Odysseus' relationship with Circe shouldn't be seen as anything more than a sensual dream that he woke up from. People exaggerated his men reminding him of his home often acting as if they had to drag him or something when this was never the way the story is depicted. This wasnt like the lotus eaters where Odysseus had to drag his men out as they were weeping, there was no struggle on Odysseus' part when he was reminded of his home. The entire point of this was to show how meaningless his relationship with Circe was as something as simple as a simple gesture made him want to leave Aeaea.

Circe is a divine and a beautiful deity that is an objective fact but that doesnt substitute for marital relationship. Odysseus' relationship with her was sex, food and wine but it was never meant to hold any real value.

Segal also made a great point that this is how Odysseus approach to Penelope was meant to contradict his to Circe. Odysseus gained the trust of Penelope by passing the test about their marriage bed unlike Circe whom he had to gain her trust via giving a sexual conquest. Penelope represented his family and home and social orders while Circe was about hedonism and the pleasure of the flesh.

You can choose other options not mentioned here ofcourse

Keep in mind it has an "Aphrodite's influence" margin of error.

A look of pride and love ofcourse