Tethys’s reaction to the word
pharmaka demonstrates how people who fear losing their power employ fear as a means to maintain it. Tethys unleashes her fury on Circe to make her too afraid to seek out
pharmaka, which Tethys fears because it threatens her own power. This doesn’t work on Circe, who is intent on getting what she wants: an eternity with Glaucos. Circe is aware of her selfishness, prioritizing her desires over everything else and even mentally preparing herself to commit evil in order to attain her goals. This mentality is a common one among the gods, which indicates that Circe—even with her capacity for empathy—still inherited her family’s vices, such as their egotism and ruthlessness. In order to find
pharmaka, Circe uses what power she has: her sexuality. As a woman, she doesn’t have any other forms of power, so she uses her sexuality to persuade her uncles to tell her the information she needs.