Odyssey 10.331 · Book 10, lines 331–332
The god foretold you
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Circe — φάσκεν ἐλεύσεσθαι χρυσόρραπις ἀργεϊφόντης, ἐκ Τροίης ἀνιόντα θοῇ σὺν νηὶ μελαίνῃ.
The Slayer of Argus of the golden wand kept saying you would come, coming from Troy with a swift black ship.
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The setting
Circe's drug has just failed against Odysseus, and he has drawn his sword. Astonished, she recognizes him: he is the man Hermes long ago said would come. These are her words as the recognition lands.
A note on this passage
Circe explains her own astonishment. Hermes had told her that one man alone would resist her magic — a man returning from Troy in a black ship — and now that man stands before her. The prophecy names Odysseus before she does.
The detail is telling: even the witch of Aeaea operates inside a web of divine foreknowledge. Her power over other men was real, but it was always bounded by what the gods had already arranged. The moment she sees the drug fail, she does not fight; she remembers a warning.
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