small
white flower, which is medicinal against charms, blights, mildews, and
damps.--"Take this in thy hand," said Mercury, "and with it boldly
enter her gates: when she shall strike thee with her rod, thinking to
change thee, as she has changed thy friends, boldly rush in upon her
with thy sword, and extort from her the dreadful oath of the gods,
that she will use no enchantments against thee: then force her to
restore thy abused companions." He gave Ulysses the little white
flower, and instructing him how to use it, vanished.

When the god was departed, Ulysses with loud knockings beat at the
gate of the palace. The shining gates were opened, as before, and
great Circe with hospitable cheer invited in her guest. She placed him
on a throne with more distinction than she had used to his fellows,
she mingled wine in a costly bowl, and he drank of it, mixed with
those poisonous drugs. When he had drunk, she struck him with her
charming-rod, and "To your sty," she cried, "out, swine; mingle with
your companions." But those powerful words were not proof against
the preservative which Mercury had given to Ulysses; he remained
unchanged, and as the god had directed him, boldly charged the witch
with his sword, as if he meant to take her life: which when she saw,
and perceived that her charms were weak against the antidote which
Ulysses bore about him, she cried out and bent her knees beneath his
sword, embracing his, and said, "Who or what manner of man art thou?
Never drank any man before thee of this cup, but he repented it in
some brute's form. Thy shape remains unaltered as thy mind. Thou canst
be none other than Ulysses, renowned above all the world for wisdom,
whom the fates have long since decreed that I must love. This haughty
bosom bends to thee. O Ithacan, a goddess woos thee to her bed."

"O Circe," he replied, "how canst thou treat of love or marriage with
one whose friends thou hast turned into beasts? and now offerest him
thy hand in wedlock, only that thou mightest have him in thy power, to
live the life of a beast with thee, naked, effeminate, subject to thy
will, perhaps to be advanced in time to the honour of a place in thy
sty. What pleasure canst thou promise, which may tempt the soul of a
reasonable man? thy meats, spiced with poison; or thy wines, drugged
with death? Thou must swear to me, that thou wilt never attempt
against me the treasons which thou hast practised upon my friends."
The enchantress,