Circe

by

Madeline Miller

Prometheus Character Analysis

Prometheus, a Titan infamous for having given mortals fire, is Circe’s uncle. Circe meets him when he is being whipped as part of his punishment for bringing fire to the human world. Zeus had wanted to keep fire from humans because fear and misery are tools to subjugate others; without “the arts and profits of civilization” that fire brings, humans were more easily kept below gods on the power hierarchy. But Prometheus rebelled, giving the mortals fire to disrupt the endless cycle of power and abuse started by the gods. As punishment for his rebellion, Zeus first has Prometheus whipped in Helios’s halls (where he meets Circe) and then chains him to a cliff, where an eagle rips out his liver every day. With this eternal torment, Prometheus loses his power, a sacrifice that is one of the most impactful acts of the book, as it sparks dramatic development for humans and inspires Circe to distinguish herself from her family of cruel immortals. Throughout the novel, Circe frequently recalls the sight of him covered in his golden blood and asks herself how she can be more like Prometheus and less like the vicious world that she lives in.

Prometheus Quotes in Circe

The Circe quotes below are all either spoken by Prometheus or refer to Prometheus. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Power, Fear, and Self-Preservation Theme Icon
).
Chapter 2 Quotes

I found that I was not afraid of the pain that would come. It was another terror that gripped me: that the blade would not cut at all. That it would pass through me, like falling into smoke.

It did not pass through. My skin leapt apart at the blade’s touch, and the pain darted silver and hot as lightning strike. The blood that flowed was red, for I did not have my uncle’s power. The wound seeped for a long time before it began to reknit itself. I sat watching it, and as I watched I found a new thought in myself. I am embarrassed to tell it, so rudimentary it seems, like an infant’s discovery that her hand is her own. But that is what I was then, an infant.

The thought was this: that all my life had been murk and depths, but I was not a part of that dark water. I was a creature within it.

Related Characters: Circe (speaker), Prometheus
Page Number: 23-24
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 6 Quotes

My face was hot. “I suppose I should take you as my tutor and deny everything?”

“Yes,” [Aeëtes] said. “That is how it works, Circe. I tell father that my sorcery was an accident, he pretends to believe me, and Zeus pretends to believe him, and so the world is balanced. It is your own fault for confessing. Why you did that, I will never understand.”

It was true, he would not. He had not been born when Prometheus was whipped.

Related Characters: Circe (speaker), Aeëtes (speaker), Prometheus, Helios, Scylla, Zeus
Page Number: 75-76
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 8 Quotes

“Tell me,” he said, “who gives better offerings, a miserable man or a happy one?”

“A happy one, of course.”

“Wrong,” he said. “A happy man is too occupied with his life. He thinks he is beholden to no one. But make him shiver, kill his wife, cripple his child, then you will hear from him. He will starve his family for a month to buy you a pure-white yearling calf. If he can afford it, he will buy you a hundred.” […]

“So this is how Olympians spend their days. Thinking of ways to make men miserable.”

“There’s no cause for righteousness,” he said. “Your father is better at it than anyone.”

Related Characters: Circe (speaker), Hermes (speaker), Prometheus, Helios, Scylla, Zeus
Page Number: 96-97
Explanation and Analysis:
Get the entire Circe LitChart as a printable PDF.
Circe PDF

Prometheus Quotes in Circe

The Circe quotes below are all either spoken by Prometheus or refer to Prometheus. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Power, Fear, and Self-Preservation Theme Icon
).
Chapter 2 Quotes

I found that I was not afraid of the pain that would come. It was another terror that gripped me: that the blade would not cut at all. That it would pass through me, like falling into smoke.

It did not pass through. My skin leapt apart at the blade’s touch, and the pain darted silver and hot as lightning strike. The blood that flowed was red, for I did not have my uncle’s power. The wound seeped for a long time before it began to reknit itself. I sat watching it, and as I watched I found a new thought in myself. I am embarrassed to tell it, so rudimentary it seems, like an infant’s discovery that her hand is her own. But that is what I was then, an infant.

The thought was this: that all my life had been murk and depths, but I was not a part of that dark water. I was a creature within it.

Related Characters: Circe (speaker), Prometheus
Page Number: 23-24
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 6 Quotes

My face was hot. “I suppose I should take you as my tutor and deny everything?”

“Yes,” [Aeëtes] said. “That is how it works, Circe. I tell father that my sorcery was an accident, he pretends to believe me, and Zeus pretends to believe him, and so the world is balanced. It is your own fault for confessing. Why you did that, I will never understand.”

It was true, he would not. He had not been born when Prometheus was whipped.

Related Characters: Circe (speaker), Aeëtes (speaker), Prometheus, Helios, Scylla, Zeus
Page Number: 75-76
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 8 Quotes

“Tell me,” he said, “who gives better offerings, a miserable man or a happy one?”

“A happy one, of course.”

“Wrong,” he said. “A happy man is too occupied with his life. He thinks he is beholden to no one. But make him shiver, kill his wife, cripple his child, then you will hear from him. He will starve his family for a month to buy you a pure-white yearling calf. If he can afford it, he will buy you a hundred.” […]

“So this is how Olympians spend their days. Thinking of ways to make men miserable.”

“There’s no cause for righteousness,” he said. “Your father is better at it than anyone.”

Related Characters: Circe (speaker), Hermes (speaker), Prometheus, Helios, Scylla, Zeus
Page Number: 96-97
Explanation and Analysis: