Odyssey 10.388 · Book 10, lines 388–390
She drives the swine from the sty
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ὣς ἐφάμην, Κίρκη δὲ διὲκ μεγάροιο βεβήκει ῥάβδον ἔχουσʼ ἐν χειρί, θύρας δʼ ἀνέῳξε συφειοῦ, ἐκ δʼ ἔλασεν σιάλοισιν ἐοικότας ἐννεώροισιν.
So I spoke, and Circe had gone out through the hall, holding her wand in her hand; and she opened the doors of the sty, and drove them out, resembling fatted hogs nine years old.
Word by word
The setting
Odysseus has demanded his men back before he will eat. Circe rises to do it, going to the sties with the wand that first transformed them.
A note on this passage
At his word Circe goes out through the hall, wand in hand, opens the doors of the sty, and drives out the swine — his men, still in animal shape, fat as nine-year-old hogs. The rescue begins in motion, not yet in transformation.
The wand that penned them now leads them out, and the same hand undoes its own work. Homer holds the men one beat longer in their swine bodies, herded like livestock through the doors, before the change the next lines will bring. The image of grown men driven out as fatted hogs is left to stand on its own.
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