Circe

The novel's climax unfolds after Circe's son Telegonus, grown restless on Aiaia, sails to Ithaca to finally meet his father, Odysseus. Odysseus, not recognizing him and fearing an attack, confronts him, and in the ensuing struggle Telegonus kills him with the spear tipped in the poison of the sea god Trygon—the very weapon Circe had given him for protection. Devastated by what he's done, Telegonus returns to Aiaia, bringing with him Odysseus's widow Penelope and son Telemachus, unsure what else to do with the wreckage he's caused.

On the island, the goddess Athena, who had long favored Odysseus and his bloodline, arrives to offer her patronage to Telemachus so that he might carry on a heroic destiny. Telemachus, weary of gods and their schemes, refuses her outright. Telegonus, eager and still drawn to glory, accepts her offer instead and sets off to pursue his own path as a hero, leaving Aiaia behind.

With her son gone, Circe turns to settling old scores and old fears. She summons her father Helios and forces his hand by threatening to reveal his secret dealings with Prometheus, information that could ignite conflict between Titans and Olympians. Under this pressure, Helios agrees to intercede with Zeus, and Circe's endless exile is effectively lifted. With Telemachus, who has stayed behind and with whom she has fallen in love, she uses the poisoned spear to turn her old rival Scylla to stone, ending the monster's centuries of terrorizing sailors.

In the book's final movement, Circe gathers the same enchanted flowers—grown from soil soaked in the Titan Kronos's blood—that she once used to transform the fisherman Glaucos into a god and, out of jealousy, Scylla into a monster. This time she turns the magic on herself, intending to shed her immortality and become mortal. The novel closes on this act of self-transformation, as Circe chooses a mortal life and a future with Telemachus over her divine inheritance, finally settling the question of where she belongs.