The Odyssey

“My dears, heaven has been pleased to try me with more affliction than any other woman of my age and country.

poor creature stooped to drink, it dried up and vanished,

some way of taking my revenge and cove

No cries of triumph now.
It’s unholy to glory over the bodies of the dead.

Destroy, I call it —I hate to say its name!

whatever form and feature I had, what praise I’d won,
the deathless gods destroyed that day the Achaeans
sailed away to Troy, my husband in their ships,
Odysseus

awesome one, Persephone

she enticed
and won our battle-hardened spirits over.
And there we sat at ease,
day in, day out, till a year had run its course,

Circe —
how could any man in his right mind endure
the taste of food and drink before he’d freed
his comrades-in-arms and looked them in the eyes?
If you, you really want me to eat and drink,
set them free, all my beloved comrades —
let me feast my eyes.

She pressed me to eat. I had no taste for food.
I just sat there, mind wandering, far away . . .
lost in grim forebodings.