Previous
Kronos
Tethys is a Titan goddess of water and is Oceanos’s wife, which makes her Circe’s grandmother. Tethys helps Circe when she begs her to send Glaucos good fishing, as Circe herself does not have the power. Tethys does agree to help, but she warns Circe that she should require that Glaucos give her something in return, or else he “will forget to be grateful.” Glaucos is grateful, however—until he becomes a god, which indicates that the problem of ingratitude is actually a problem among immortals. Tethys is also the one who tells Helios that Circe experimented with pharmaka after Tethys had ordered her to never “speak of that wickedness again.” Tethys, like the other gods, is afraid of the threat to her power that witchcraft poses; she has no problem selling out her granddaughter so long as she maintains her power.
Tethys Quotes in Circe
The Circe quotes below are all either spoken by Tethys or refer to Tethys. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 4
Quotes
I was too wild to feel any shame. It was true. I would not just uproot the world, but tear it, burn it, do any evil I could to keep Glaucos by my side. But what stayed most in my mind was the look on my grandmother’s face when I’d said that word, pharmaka. It was not a look I knew well, among the gods. But I had seen Glaucos when he spoke of the levy and empty nets and his father. I had begun to know what fear was. What could make a god afraid? I knew that answer too.
A power greater than their own.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Get the entire Circe LitChart as a printable PDF.
Tethys Quotes in Circe
The Circe quotes below are all either spoken by Tethys or refer to Tethys. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 4
Quotes
I was too wild to feel any shame. It was true. I would not just uproot the world, but tear it, burn it, do any evil I could to keep Glaucos by my side. But what stayed most in my mind was the look on my grandmother’s face when I’d said that word, pharmaka. It was not a look I knew well, among the gods. But I had seen Glaucos when he spoke of the levy and empty nets and his father. I had begun to know what fear was. What could make a god afraid? I knew that answer too.
A power greater than their own.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
