Circe

by

Madeline Miller

Scylla Character Analysis

Scylla starts the story as the most beautiful nymph in the halls of the gods. When Glaucos falls in love with her, Scylla flaunts his affection before Circe. Circe is pained by Scylla’s cruelty, but she is mostly heartbroken that Glaucos would choose someone else over her. Still hoping that Glaucos will marry her, Circe meddles with pharmaka with the goal of exposing Scylla’s ugliness in a way that would make Glaucos uninterested in her. But Circe does not have a good grasp on magic at this point and ends up turning Scylla into a horrific monster. While Glaucos simply moves on to different nymphs, Circe has to grapple with the consequences of her cruelty. When on Aiaia, Circe learns from Hermes that Scylla eats men. Circe is filled with guilt, knowing that these deaths are her responsibility. While the other gods of the story do not worry about the mortal lives they ruin, Circe constantly reminds herself of the suffering she has caused. Her regret is one of the things that sets her apart from the other gods, and it also prompts her to take action. At the end of the story, she demands an end to her exile so that she can kill Scylla by using the poison from Trygon’s tail. After turning Scylla to stone—and thus ending her part in perpetuating the careless violence that the gods inflict on the world—Circe decides to leave all the immortals behind for good and drinks a potion to become mortal.

Scylla Quotes in Circe

The Circe quotes below are all either spoken by Scylla or refer to Scylla. 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 5 Quotes

[Glaucos] pushed me from him. His face was caught, half in anger, half in a sort of fear. He looked almost like his old self […]

“No!” He slashed his hand through the air. “I will not think on those days. Every hour some new bruise upon me, some new ache, always weary, always burdened and weak. I sit at councils with your father now. I do not have to beg for every scrap. Nymphs clamor for me, and I may choose the best among them, which is Scylla.”

Related Characters: Circe (speaker), Glaucos (speaker), Helios, Scylla
Related Symbols: Scars
Page Number: 54
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:
Chapter 9 Quotes

“You fools,” I said. “I am the one who made that creature. I did it for pride and vain delusion. And you thank me? Twelve of your men are dead for it, and how many thousands more to come? That drug I gave her is the strongest I have. Do you understand, mortals?” […]

The light from my eyes beat down upon them.

“I will never be free of her. She cannot be changed back, not now, not ever. What she is, she will remain. She will feast on your kind for all eternity. So get up. Get up and get to your oars, and let me not hear you speak again of your imbecile gratitude or I will make you sorry for it.”

The cringed and shook like the weak vessels they were, stuttering to their feet and creeping away […] I yanked off the cloak. I wanted the sun to burn me.

Related Characters: Circe (speaker), Helios, Pasiphaë, Daedalus, Hermes, Scylla
Page Number: 117
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 21 Quotes

“You pity me. Do not. My father lied about many things, but he was right when he called me a coward. I let him be what he was for year after year, raging and beating the servants, shouting at my mother, and turning our house to ash. He told me to help him kill the suitors and I did it. Then he told me to kill all the men who had aided them, and I did that too. Then he commanded me to gather up all the slave girls who had ever lain with one of them and […] kill them as well.” […]

“I hanged them” […] Each word was like a blade he thrust into himself. “I had never seen it done […] I had some thought that it must be more proper. I should have used the sword instead. I have never known such ugly drawn-out deaths. I will see their feet twisting the rest of my days.”

Related Characters: Circe (speaker), Telemachus (speaker), Scylla, Odysseus, Penelope
Page Number: 308-309
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 25 Quotes

With every step I felt lighter […] I had been old and stern for so long, carved with regrets and years like a monolith. But that was only a shape I had been poured into. I did not have to keep it.

Telemachus slept on […] So often on Aiaia, I had wondered how it would feel to touch him.

His eyes opened as if I had spoken the words aloud. They were clear as they always were.

I said, "Scylla was not born a monster. I made her."

His face was in the fire's shadows. "How did it happen?"

There was a piece of me that shouted its alarm: if you speak he will turn gray and hate you. But I pushed past it. If he turned gray, then he did. I would not go on anymore weaving my cloths by day and unraveling them again at night, making nothing. I told him the whole tale of it, each jealousy and folly and all the lives that had been lost because of me.

Related Characters: Circe (speaker), Telemachus (speaker), Scylla
Page Number: 373
Explanation and Analysis:

“Her name,” he said. “Scylla. It means the Render. Perhaps it was always her destiny to be a monster, and you were only the instrument.”

“Do you use the same excuse for the maids you hanged?”

It was as if I had struck him. “I make no excuse for that. I will wear that shame all my life. I cannot undo it, but I will spend my days wishing I could.”

“It is how you know you are different from your father,” I said.

“Yes.” His voice was sharp.

“It is the same for me,” I said. “Do not try to take my regret from me.”

He was quiet a long time. “You are wise,” he said.

“If it is so,” I said, “it is only because I have been fool enough for a hundred lifetimes […] I must tell you, all my past is like today, monsters and horrors no one wants to hear.”

He held my gaze. […]

“I want to hear,” he said.

Related Characters: Circe (speaker), Telemachus (speaker), Scylla, Odysseus, Trygon
Page Number: 373-374
Explanation and Analysis:
Get the entire Circe LitChart as a printable PDF.
Circe PDF

Scylla Quotes in Circe

The Circe quotes below are all either spoken by Scylla or refer to Scylla. 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 5 Quotes

[Glaucos] pushed me from him. His face was caught, half in anger, half in a sort of fear. He looked almost like his old self […]

“No!” He slashed his hand through the air. “I will not think on those days. Every hour some new bruise upon me, some new ache, always weary, always burdened and weak. I sit at councils with your father now. I do not have to beg for every scrap. Nymphs clamor for me, and I may choose the best among them, which is Scylla.”

Related Characters: Circe (speaker), Glaucos (speaker), Helios, Scylla
Related Symbols: Scars
Page Number: 54
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:
Chapter 9 Quotes

“You fools,” I said. “I am the one who made that creature. I did it for pride and vain delusion. And you thank me? Twelve of your men are dead for it, and how many thousands more to come? That drug I gave her is the strongest I have. Do you understand, mortals?” […]

The light from my eyes beat down upon them.

“I will never be free of her. She cannot be changed back, not now, not ever. What she is, she will remain. She will feast on your kind for all eternity. So get up. Get up and get to your oars, and let me not hear you speak again of your imbecile gratitude or I will make you sorry for it.”

The cringed and shook like the weak vessels they were, stuttering to their feet and creeping away […] I yanked off the cloak. I wanted the sun to burn me.

Related Characters: Circe (speaker), Helios, Pasiphaë, Daedalus, Hermes, Scylla
Page Number: 117
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 21 Quotes

“You pity me. Do not. My father lied about many things, but he was right when he called me a coward. I let him be what he was for year after year, raging and beating the servants, shouting at my mother, and turning our house to ash. He told me to help him kill the suitors and I did it. Then he told me to kill all the men who had aided them, and I did that too. Then he commanded me to gather up all the slave girls who had ever lain with one of them and […] kill them as well.” […]

“I hanged them” […] Each word was like a blade he thrust into himself. “I had never seen it done […] I had some thought that it must be more proper. I should have used the sword instead. I have never known such ugly drawn-out deaths. I will see their feet twisting the rest of my days.”

Related Characters: Circe (speaker), Telemachus (speaker), Scylla, Odysseus, Penelope
Page Number: 308-309
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 25 Quotes

With every step I felt lighter […] I had been old and stern for so long, carved with regrets and years like a monolith. But that was only a shape I had been poured into. I did not have to keep it.

Telemachus slept on […] So often on Aiaia, I had wondered how it would feel to touch him.

His eyes opened as if I had spoken the words aloud. They were clear as they always were.

I said, "Scylla was not born a monster. I made her."

His face was in the fire's shadows. "How did it happen?"

There was a piece of me that shouted its alarm: if you speak he will turn gray and hate you. But I pushed past it. If he turned gray, then he did. I would not go on anymore weaving my cloths by day and unraveling them again at night, making nothing. I told him the whole tale of it, each jealousy and folly and all the lives that had been lost because of me.

Related Characters: Circe (speaker), Telemachus (speaker), Scylla
Page Number: 373
Explanation and Analysis:

“Her name,” he said. “Scylla. It means the Render. Perhaps it was always her destiny to be a monster, and you were only the instrument.”

“Do you use the same excuse for the maids you hanged?”

It was as if I had struck him. “I make no excuse for that. I will wear that shame all my life. I cannot undo it, but I will spend my days wishing I could.”

“It is how you know you are different from your father,” I said.

“Yes.” His voice was sharp.

“It is the same for me,” I said. “Do not try to take my regret from me.”

He was quiet a long time. “You are wise,” he said.

“If it is so,” I said, “it is only because I have been fool enough for a hundred lifetimes […] I must tell you, all my past is like today, monsters and horrors no one wants to hear.”

He held my gaze. […]

“I want to hear,” he said.

Related Characters: Circe (speaker), Telemachus (speaker), Scylla, Odysseus, Trygon
Page Number: 373-374
Explanation and Analysis: