Circe

by

Madeline Miller

Scars Symbol Analysis

Scars Symbol Icon

Scars are a physical record of the pain a person has experienced and the mistakes they have made. In this way, scars represent how people learn and grow from pain and failure, making them unique. Throughout the novel, Circe is mesmerized by mortals’ scars, as well as their wrinkles and creases, as these are a testament to what they have lived through. This symbolism is most clearly established with Odysseus, who is heavily scarred from years of battle. When Circe asks him whether he would like her to “wipe [the scars] away,” he declines, asking “How would [he] know [him]self?” His response pleases Circe, who sees his scars as his “name stitched into his skin,” proof that he is “a captain with stories to tell.” This exchange clearly links a person’s scars to their identity—scars are a living monument to the important experiences that shape a person.

Scars also show how trying and failing at something leads a person to growth. As a child, Odysseus dreamed of being a craftsman like Daedalus, but he stopped because he “was always cutting [his] fingers open.” This makes Circe think of Daedalus’ hands, which are heavily scarred. The implication is that Daedalus is such an accomplished craftsman because of all of his failure—in other words, because of all the times he tried to make something and accidentally cut his hands. In this way, his scars reflect his growth and are an integral part of his success. Without them, he would be an entirely different person—someone much less accomplished and self-assured. Circe learns this lesson, too, while honing her witchcraft. When she first starts teaching herself magic, “all [she] brew[s] [are] mistakes.” Her skill must come “through errors and trials, [and] burnt fingers.” Failure, in other words, is how a person succeeds and, therefore, grows.

Of course, like all other divinities in the novel, Circe cannot have physical scars; her skin heals swiftly and perfectly when it is damaged. The gods’ lack of scars is symbolic of how they remain static throughout eternity—their personalities, values, and behaviors rarely change. While the nymphs have a “smooth sameness,” mortals are “relentlessly distinct,” mostly due to their imperfections. As the story continues and Circe yearns to leave her immortality behind, she longs to have the scars of mortals, even once imagining what she would look like if her wounds showed on her skin, “[trying] to imagine [her body] written over with its history.” When she does create a potion to become a mortal, having scars is one of the things she anticipates, excited at last for her body to reflect her story.

Scars Quotes in Circe

The Circe quotes below all refer to the symbol of Scars. 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 16 Quotes

The scars themselves I offered to wipe away. [Odysseus] shook his head. “How would I know myself?”

I was secretly glad. They suited him. Enduring Odysseus, he was, and the name was stitched into his skin. Whoever saw him must salute and say: There is a man who has seen the world. There is a captain with stories to tell.

I might have told him, in those hours, stories of my own […] His face would be intent as he listened, his relentless mind examining, weighing and cataloguing […] He would gather my weaknesses up and set them with the rest of his collection, alongside Achilles’ and Ajax’s. He kept them on his person as other men keep their knives.

I looked down at my body […] and tried to imagine it written over with its history: my palm with its lightning streak, my hand missing its fingers, the thousand cuts from my witch-work, the gristled furrows of my father’s fire […] And those were only the things that had left marks.

There would be no salutes. What had Aeëtes called an ugly nymph? A stain upon the face of the world.

Related Characters: Circe (speaker), Odysseus (speaker), Aeëtes, Achilles
Related Symbols: Scars
Page Number: 215
Explanation and Analysis:
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Scars Symbol Timeline in Circe

The timeline below shows where the symbol Scars appears in Circe. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 5
Women, Power, and Misogyny Theme Icon
Mortality, Fragility, and Fulfillment Theme Icon
...into the forest as she imagined, he marvels at his new form—his strength and smooth, scarless hands—and asks her to bring him to the halls of the gods. (full context)
Chapter 9
Power, Fear, and Self-Preservation Theme Icon
Mortality, Fragility, and Fulfillment Theme Icon
...their faces and is surprised to see that “each face was relentlessly distinct,” with lines, scars, messy hair, and various ornamentation. Such variation shocks her. (full context)
Power, Fear, and Self-Preservation Theme Icon
...Pasiphaë is holding something hostage from him. He says nothing more, and Circe observes his scarred hands that he rests on the ship’s rail. (full context)
Chapter 11
Women, Power, and Misogyny Theme Icon
Mortality, Fragility, and Fulfillment Theme Icon
...tells her that he can feel the heavy responsibility for the deaths. She traces the scars on his hands as he speaks. He asks how she handles her guilt over Scylla.... (full context)
Chapter 12
Mortality, Fragility, and Fulfillment Theme Icon
...her: some of his jokes disgust her, and she feels uncomfortable in his “perfect and unscarred” hands. He loves her fluctuating moods and keeps coming back with news and stories. (full context)
Chapter 14
Change, Initiative, and the Self Theme Icon
Mortality, Fragility, and Fulfillment Theme Icon
...there. Surprised, Circe opens the door to see 20 mortal men. She drinks in their scars and wounds, which she finds delightful after “the smooth sameness of nymphs.” One of them... (full context)
Chapter 16
Mortality, Fragility, and Fulfillment Theme Icon
...together and, later, have sex, during which she loves running her hands over his battle scars. When they lie together afterward, Odysseus spins tales of the war. (full context)
Mortality, Fragility, and Fulfillment Theme Icon
...her best to soothe them, once even offering to use her magic to remove his scars. But he declines, asking her “how would [he] know [him]self” if his scars were gone.... (full context)
Women, Power, and Misogyny Theme Icon
Mortality, Fragility, and Fulfillment Theme Icon
...would expose her weaknesses. Sometimes, she wonders what her body would look like if it scarred like a mortal’s: missing fingers, charred skin, countless knife cuts from harvesting herbs. Circe remembers... (full context)
Chapter 17
Women, Power, and Misogyny Theme Icon
...and his men pack their ship. As they prepare to leave, Circe ruminates on the scars of the brilliant-minded Odysseus, and how “he let [her] pretend that [she] had none.” (full context)
Chapter 27
Mortality, Fragility, and Fulfillment Theme Icon
...mirror, Circe will see her age on her face and her skin will show her scars. She will feel the fragility of her life and the lives of Telemachus and their... (full context)