xperience.

2. He does as the God (and his own valor) directed, and Circe cowers
down subdued. She is not supreme, there is something higher and she
knows it. At once she recognizes who it is: "Art thou that wily Ulysses
whose coming hither from Troy in his black ship has often been foretold
to me?" Such a prophecy she must have known and felt, she had mind and
was aware of a power above her, which would some day put her down,
after the Trojan time. In like manner Polyphemus, the man of nature,
has heard of a coming conqueror, and actually named him.

This one kind of subjection, however, is not enough, it must be made
universal. Every kind of subordination of the sensuous, not merely in
the matter of eating and drinking, is necessary. The next thing to be
guarded against is carnal indulgence, which may "make me cowardly and
unmanly." Hence Circe has "to swear the great oath, not to plot against
me any harm." Thus in the two chief forms of human appetite, that of
eating and drinking and that of sexual indulgence, she is subjected.

Ulysses is beginning to have some claims to being a moral hero, still
he is not by any means an ascetic. He has the Greek notion of morality;
we have a right to enjoy, but enjoyment must not make us bestial;
rational moderation is the law. He drinks of Circe's cup, but does not
let it turn him into a swine; he shares in all her pleasures, but never
suffers his head to get dizzy with her blandishments. Every seductive
delicacy she sets before him, mingled with the most charming flattery;
"I did not like the feast." Why? This leads us to the next and higher
point.

3. Lofty is the response of Ulysses: "O Circe, what right-minded man
would endure to touch food and drink before seeing his companions
released?" At once she goes to the sty and sets them free, restoring
their shapes, "and they became younger, larger, and more beautiful than
they were before." A great advantage is this to any man; it is worth
the hard experience to come out with such a gain, especially as the
companions must have been getting a little old, stooped and wrinkled,
having gone through so many years of hardship at Troy and on the sea.

4. Thus Ulysses has transformed Circe into an instrument for restoring
his fallen comrades; surely a noble act. Next she of her own accord
asks Ulysses to go to the sea-shore for the rest of his men and to
bring them to her palace for refreshment and entertainment. This he
succeeds in