Circe’s conversation with Prometheus sparks an epiphany for her. After hearing Prometheus’s words that “Not every god need be the same,” Circe questions whether she has agency. Having spent most of her life aimlessly existing in the halls of the gods, her life feels insubstantial, like “murk and depths.” She decides to cut her hand as a test of her existence. Essentially, her fear that she may be unable to draw blood from her hand illustrates her deeper fear that her existence is so meaningless that she isn’t really alive. As soon as she cuts her hand, she knows that she
does exist and that her life’s emptiness does not define her. Or, as she puts it, she is “not a part of that dark water.” She realizes her agency, that she has a life and can choose how to live it.