doing after some opposition from the terrified Eurylochus,
who has not yet gotten over his scare. Sorely did the companions need
this rest and recuperation after their many sufferings on land and sea;
"weak and spiritless they were, always thinking of the bitter
wandering." But now in the palace of Circe "they feasted every day for
a whole year," eating and drinking without being turned into swine.
Even Eurylochus follows after, "for he feared my terrible threat."

Thus we catch the sweep of this grand experience of and with Circe; if
she governs, she bestializes man; if she serves, she refreshes and
restores. Her complete subordination is witnessed; from transforming
people into swine, she is herself transformed into their helper, and
she becomes an important factor in the great Return to home and
country. But it is time to think of this Return again; the period of
repose and enjoyment must come to an end.

III. Here, then, we behold a new phase of Circe, that of the seeress
into the Beyond. Ulysses says to her at the end of the year: "Now make
your promise good, send us home, for which we long." Stunning is the
answer after that period of relaxation: "Ye must go another way, ye
must pass into the Houses of Hades." It is indeed a terrible response.
But for what purpose? "To consult the soul of the blind Theban seer
Tiresias, whose mind is still unimpaired; to him alone of the dead
Proserpine gave a mind to know." Clearly this means the pure
intelligence without body; Ulysses must now reach forth to the
incorporeal spirit, to the very Idea beyond the senses, beyond life.

The first question which arises in this connection is, How can Circe,
the enchantress of the senses, be made the prophetess of the
supersensible world? If we watch her development through the two
preceding stages, we shall see that she not only can, but must point to
what is beyond, to spirit. In the second stage she experiences a great
change, no longer transforming into the lower, but herself transformed
into the higher; she becomes a moral being, subordinating the sensuous
to the spiritual; she has, therefore, spirit in her life and manifests
it in her actions, when she is the willing means of subjecting appetite
to reason.

The same transformation we may note on her artistic side, for she
remains always beautiful. The first Circe is that alluring seductive
beauty which destroys by catering to the senses; she is that kind of
art, which debauches