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In our next trip taking adventures, two
shorts and a long.

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Again, we've got, short episode with Elias
and other one with Laestrygonians and then

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the longer one with Circe.
With Elias, we have a pretty strange

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environment.
We run across a foreign king that has

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somehow control of all the winds, and he's
got them all stuffed into a single bag,

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how did that happen?
And then also, reading closely, looking at

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the details in the episode, Elias's sons
and daughters marry one another.

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That's not quite normal, the lines that
get drawn around incest taboos are

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sometimes tangible from society to
society, but in most of them, brother and

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sister marriage counts as prohibited.
And in Elias that's, or in Homer's time

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that's surely the case.
So, representing Elias this way represents

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things as being a bit strange.
They, again, Odysseus men's curiosity

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leads to a problem, they can't wait to see
what's inside that bag, leaves them to get

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blown back to Elias who says, my goodness,
you must really be cursed.

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I don't want you here anymore, and sends
them off on their way.

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And we get to the Laestrygonians where we
have some bloody battle.

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And, again, we get this introduction to
the creature, the monster that eats human

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beings.
The Laestrygonians eat some of Odysseus's

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men.
An awful thing, the revulsion of that

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carries forward through these episodes.
Moving on to our next larger piece of what

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our story's all about and the episode
involving Circe.

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We get an even more full meditation on
some of these themes.

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The episode begins in the same kind of way
with some variations, there's a wash up on

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an unknown shore.
A search party goes off to see what's

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happening there, Odysseus himself stays
behind.

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We get tales of strange, awful things
happening.

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Odysseus, then sets out to make sure that
we can set things right there in the, in

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the, in the hut in Circe's village.
And, things are quite wrong there in

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profound ways.
The most powerful piece of this episode is

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that Odysseus's men get turned into pigs,
and that's terrible.

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The turning of a human being into a pig is
a kind of shape-shifting that makes us,

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you know, just feel awful that someone
should have their humanity taken away from

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them.
But, I think, there is even more whole

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piece of what is awful about the scene in
that its not just that men are turning

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into animals, its that men are turned into
animals that are in a standard repertoire

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of food.
Pigs are raised domestically in order for

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one thing, just for one thing.
In order to be eaten.

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And now, Odysseus's men are taking that
role of becoming these kind of edible

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parts of a normal food chain which is
really adds to the horrific nature of

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this.
Now, in the Circe episode, we see

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Odysseus's men wondering themselves, you
know, how is that a, a woman can turn a

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man into a swine.
It could be that there's a kind of

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psychological reason that's possible here.
It may be that what is really the case is

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that men who made up this myth, Homer's
gender is male, such as we know, made,

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made up this myth and who liked to hear it
from each other, may well fear that women

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have the power to turn men into some other
kind of creature, a beguiling magical

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power.
Circe's not the first female gender

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character that we've seen that has a, a
witching power to her and a power to

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un-man, in this case, literally the, the,
the men that approach her.

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This is mixed up also with the erotic
dimension to Circe.

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Remember that in the end, after Odysseus
wins her over, she carries forward with an

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erotic relationship with Odysseus that
lasts fully over a year.

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So, this kind of cluster of ideas of
dangerous women that have magical powers

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that can do shape-shifting with men and
that have erotic lock, an erotic lock on

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the male creatures is something that's a
standard piece of, of ancient myth.

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We've already seen two characters like
this.

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The, Odysseus's way of overcoming Circe's
power pretty straightforward, he pulls his

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sword on her, sure, but he also remember,
you know, it's not just his manly heroic

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prowess that's coming through here.
He has this special magical potion that he

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gets from Hermes on his way to Circes's
hut.

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And when he gets that magical potion, he
now has a power to resist her magic.

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So, she can mix up her herbs as she does
in this beautiful scene from Greek, Greek

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pottery, mix up her herbs, hand it off to
the other men but the other men get turned

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into pigs.
Odysseus himself is now, because of his

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counter-magic, is impervious to her
spells.

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Because of this now, he can rush at her
with her sword.

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When he does, she falls for him, seems
kind of weakly characterized.

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But, yeah, that seems to be what Circe
wanted all along was just for Odysseus to

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love her.
So, when he does, she's wonderfully

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overjoyed at being overpowered and then
she has this long tryst, this long

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relationship with him.
Notice in this case, this thing goes on

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for nearly a year, and Odysseus's men have
to talk Odysseus out of this one.

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He's just kind of going along, day by day,
enjoying this relationship and they say,

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now, come on, Odysseus, it's time to go.
They push and get him ready to, to move on

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to the next step.
Now, when they do, Odysseus then says,

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we're going to leave, she says, well, you
know, there's some stuff you need to know.

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Circe is now going to fill him in with
special kind, with a special kind of

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secret knowledge.
She is going to give him clues that he

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needs to use in order to find his way
home.

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There's a problem with his journey home
that Odysseus is ignorant of.

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He is going to need to find, she says, the
smartest man around, Tiresias.

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There's one unfortunate thing, Tiresias
just happens to be dead.

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So, in order to talk to Tiresias.
Odysseus is going to have to make his way

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to the underworld.
In order to do that, she gives him the,

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the basic formula that he needs the place
to go, how to lay out a trench and lay out

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an attractive, kind of, bait for the
shades to come out of the underworld and

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then he can interview them, find his way
to Tiresias and get the information he

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needs to make his way home.
Now, on this, before they leave the island

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of Circe, there is this one little loose
end that doesn't quite get tied up.

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Remember, there's, one of the men in
Odysseus's crew, Elpenor, is drinking too

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much up on the roof, falls off the roof
and dies.

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Dies completely alone.
No one realizes what's happened.

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They're off on their next adventure and
they don't even know he's dead, poor

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Elpenor.
He's going to be someone who helps us tie

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the next couple of books together.
So, keep an eye on his story.