Odyssey 10.457 · Book 10, lines 457–459
Circe: no more grief — I know your suffering
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Circe — μηκέτι νῦν θαλερὸν γόον ὄρνυτε· οἶδα καὶ αὐτὴ ἠμὲν ὅσʼ ἐν πόντῳ πάθετʼ ἄλγεα ἰχθυόεντι, ἠδʼ ὅσʼ ἀνάρσιοι ἄνδρες ἐδηλήσαντʼ ἐπὶ χέρσου.
No longer now raise swelling lament; I too know, even I myself, both all that you suffered on the fish-filled sea — the woes — and all that hostile men did to harm you on the land.
Word by word
The setting
Circe answers the crew's weeping. She speaks to Odysseus and his men, telling them to end their lament because she already knows all they have endured at sea and on land.
A note on this passage
Circe tells the men to stop grieving because she already knows their whole ordeal, at sea and ashore. She lays out the two halves of their suffering — the fish-filled deep and the hostile mainland — as a goddess who sees it all.
Her knowledge is the point. She insists 'I too know, even I myself,' and the claim carries the authority that will make her the crew's guide for a full year. The comfort is genuine, yet it comes from the same power that could turn men to swine; her sympathy and her sorcery are one voice.
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