Odyssey 10.314 · Book 10, lines 314–317
The drugged cup
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εἷσε δέ μʼ εἰσαγαγοῦσα ἐπὶ θρόνου ἀργυροήλου καλοῦ δαιδαλέου· ὑπὸ δὲ θρῆνυς ποσὶν ἦεν· τεῦχε δέ μοι κυκεῶ χρυσέῳ δέπαι, ὄφρα πίοιμι, ἐν δέ τε φάρμακον ἧκε, κακὰ φρονέουσʼ ἐνὶ θυμῷ.
She led me in and seated me on a silver-studded chair, fair and cunningly wrought, with a footstool under my feet; and she made me a kykeon in a golden cup for me to drink, and cast a drug into it, devising evil in her heart.
Word by word
The setting
Circe plays the gracious hostess: a fine silver-studded chair, a footstool, a golden cup of kykeon — the mixed potion — into which she stirs her drug, meaning harm.
A note on this passage
The hospitality is lavish and exact: the studded chair, the matching footstool, the golden cup, the proper mixed drink. Every gesture is what a good host owes a guest, and Homer lists them in order, letting the courtesy build.
The undercurrent is the single clause that poisons all of it — κακὰ φρονέουσʼ ἐνὶ θυμῷ, ‘devising evil in her heart.’ The φάρμακον goes into the cup under cover of the ritual; the same word that can mean ‘remedy’ here means the exact opposite. Circe weaponises xenia itself, turning the guest-cup into the trap, which is why the guest-gift Hermes gave — moly — had to come first.
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