Cirec and Her Desire
A group of men had appeared on my Island. They wandered to my door upon the shore, and I let them in.
I offered them food and wine, but I slipped something into their wine that would turn them into something other.
They transformed into pigs, their proper form for a man.
I was tending to my pigs when a man came to my doorstep.
I welcome him into my home.
I offered him wine and food as I did with the previous men.
But he did not turn into a pig like the others.
Hermes the Giant Slayer, that rascal.
How dare he interfere.
And then it dawned upon me that it was Odysseus, the man Hermes had warned me of a millennia ago.
Hestalkss toward me.
As if he were the lion hunting his prey.
I darted towards the table, where I then cower in fear. I previously had bad encounters with men, which is why I had turned them into pigs. I was concerned about what this man might do to me.
I crouched under the table.
He tried to pull me out from underneath the table, where I was trembling in fear.
I lunge toward his knees to beg him to let me live.
He is looking at me with a puzzled expression.
He asks me where his men are.
Instead of telling him where his men are, I lie to him.
"There are no men on my Island that I have seen other than you," I responded.
He gives me a knowing look. He knows I have his men.
The gods must have told him just to spite me.
I sigh in submission. "They're pigs," I say.
He laughs, to my surprise.
Before his amusement turns to anger, I ask him to come to bed with me.
Odysseus looks at me like I have sprouted snakes from my head like Medusa.
He agrees under one condition: I cannot hurt him in any shape or form.
I ask him why he thinks I will harm him. I have given him no reason to believe such a thing other than turning his men into pigs.
His only response to my question is a quizzical look.
I sigh and agree to his terms.
As we lie in bed, I tell him a bit about myself.
This man intrigues me; I do not know why.
I am Cirec, daughter of Helios, the sun god.
I was banished to this island because I fell in love with a mortal man and turned him into a god.
I was banished to this island because I had power unknown to the other gods.
Zeus is so paranoid.
I am brought back from my thoughts when I hear him hum.
Then he decides to introduce himself as well; he is Odysseus, king of Ithaca and sacker of Troy, and has faced many tragedies on his journey home.
He spends a year on my Island, but his men remind him to return to Ithaca, to my chagrin.
But before he can return to his homeland, he has to journey to the underworld to the blind prophet.
When he returns, I intend to make him realize this is his home and that he belongs with me.
I tell him what he must do on his journey and watch him as he leaves on the wine-dark sea.
He's back! He's back!
Calm came over me. He is back. I can make him stay with me forever.
I love him, but he must return to his rocky mountain land.
But he is my lion heart, so brave, strong, and invincible.
Alas, this heroic man cannot be mine.
He must sail home to Ithaca to save his wife and son from those virulent suitors.
I pull him aside and tell him what he shall face on his way home.
Then he leaves me; I am alone again on my island with no one to converse with.
Well, I will not be alone for long.
Soon, I will get to hold my baby, the last gift from Odysseus.
Many years later, when my son is grown, he goes to find his father and returns with his half-brother and stepmother.
His father is dead.
