Odyssey 10.211 · Book 10, lines 211–215
The beasts that fawn at the door
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ξεστοῖσιν λάεσσι, περισκέπτῳ ἐνὶ χώρῳ· ἀμφὶ δέ μιν λύκοι ἦσαν ὀρέστεροι ἠδὲ λέοντες, τοὺς αὐτὴ κατέθελξεν, ἐπεὶ κακὰ φάρμακʼ ἔδωκεν. οὐδʼ οἵ γʼ ὡρμήθησαν ἐπʼ ἀνδράσιν, ἀλλʼ ἄρα τοί γε οὐρῇσιν μακρῇσι περισσαίνοντες ἀνέσταν.
of polished stones, in a far-seen place; and around it were mountain wolves and lions, which she herself had bewitched, since she had given them evil drugs. These did not rush upon the men, but instead they reared up, fawning around them with their long tails.
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The setting
Odysseus's scouting party, sent inland on Aeaea, has found Circe's house of polished stone in a forest glen. Around it prowl wild mountain wolves and lions — but drugged tame by the goddess, they do not attack.
A note on this passage
The men reach Circe's stone house and meet its guardians: mountain wolves and lions that, instead of springing, rear up and fawn like household dogs. She has tamed them with drugs, and the same drugs are waiting for the men.
The eeriness is that these beasts were once something else. The poem does not yet say so, but the fawning is a clue the scouts fail to read — wild predators behaving like pets is not tameness but enchantment, and the welcome at the threshold is already the trap.
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