Circe

=Circe=

Encountering the Unlucky One
I live on the gorgeous island of Aeaea which suits me well because I am the most beautiful minor goddess. Not many people come to visit me, but I don't mind being alone. It's actually kind of nice and peaceful; I have plenty of time to make secret potions and no one is there to distract me. When people do come, it does not bother me because if they are mortals, especially men, I use my favorite spell on them which turns them into animals. I do this because they irk me, and I have a short temper. What I have found, is that the men usually turn animals with similar characteristics to themselves. I spend a lot of my time to devise these potions, so I make sure they work all the time.

Then one spring afternoon I was in my house singing and working on my loom when a group of men knocked at my door calling for me to answer it. Eager to meet them, I quickly opened the door and welcomed them into my house. As all men are, they seemed amazed at my beauty and started to treat me as royalty. These words of kindness would of course be their last. I sneakily invited them in to sit on some chairs, and set my plan to action, mixing a potion into their drinks. I walked into the kitchen and brewed my powerful magic into a golden bowl of wine. I then served the strangers their drinks and as soon as they finished, I pulled out my wand, herding those pigs into their pigsties. Human men are the most annoying and intolerable creatures alive. No man, let alone any mortal man, has ever treated me with the respect I deserve, so I take my revenge on their entire race.

I was lying in my bed, very satisfied with what I had done, when there was another shout coming from my door. "Great," I thought, "some more of those insufferable creatures." I put on a happy, welcoming appearance, opened the door, and led the single man standing there, inside. I offered him a very ornate chair to sit on, for it would be his last. Mixing him a drink and secretly slipping in my potion, I offered it to him in a plain gold bowl. I hid a smile that was beginning to creep across my face; I was happy at my clever ingenuity. Then, I held out my wand and ordered him off. The man, surprisingly drew his sword and rushed at me. Fearing he was going to kill me, I burst out crying and seized his knees, begging for forgiveness. It was at that very instance, that I realized he must be Odysseus homebound for Ithaca as Hermes had prophesized. Suddenly, it felt as if I was the one who had drank the potion. I was overcome with adoration and I begged him to go to bed with me, but he said he would refuse unless I made a binding oath not to plot anything against him again. Desperate, I made the oath and he mounted my bed.

I offered him some of my delicious food and provided him with exquisite apparel, yet before he accepted my kindness he pleaded me to release his crew. Eager to please him, I brought him into the hall, opened the pigs' stall, and put my magic ointment onto their skin, changing them back to human beings. I was transfixed by their emotional outcries at seeing Odysseus again, for no one has ever cared so much about me. After changing them back to their original form, I decided to invite the crew to stay with me. I treated them with great care, for it is crucial to be a good host to as powerful a man as Odysseus, mortal or not. Odysseus would have stayed with me for as long as I had wanted except for his crew, urging him to start again on their journey home. Odysseus, being the great leader he is, obediently obeyed his crew's wishes. He left me that next morning; I will never forget him and all the fun and exciting times we had together.