Aeolus bottled the winds for Odysseus' homeward sail — until curious comrades opened the bag and drove the fleet back to exile; Laestrygonian giants destroyed all but one ship before Circe on Aeaea turned scouts to swine, until Hermes' moly and a year of feasting sent them on toward Hades.1
The keeper of the winds
On the floating isle of Aeolus Hippotades, whom the gods made steward of the winds, Odysseus was entertained a month. The king bound all the storm-blasts in an ox-hide bag and set the west wind free to drive the fleet toward Ithaca — until, within sight of home, Odysseus' comrades opened the bag thinking it held gold, and the released winds hurled them back to Aeolus, who refused them aid a second time.2
The Laestrygonian harbour
At Telepylus in the land of the Laestrygonians a friendly maiden led Odysseus' scout to the king's house — but the queen was a giantess, and the king speared the Ithacan and devoured him. From the cliffs the Laestrygonians destroyed eleven ships with boulders; only Odysseus' vessel, moored outside the harbour, escaped.3
Circe's swine
On Aeaea the witch Circe, daughter of Helios, mixed a potion and struck Odysseus' scouting party with her wand until they had the heads and voices of swine. Eurylochus alone fled back to the ship. Odysseus went to rescue them, armed with the herb moly Hermes gave him on the way — white-flowered, black-rooted, hard for mortal men to dig.4
The oath on Aeaea
Immune to the drug, Odysseus drew his sword until Circe swore a great oath not to harm him. She restored his men, feasted them, and lay with the hero — Apollodorus says she bore Telegonus in this year. When the company wished to sail, Circe told them they must first descend to the house of Hades and consult Tiresias; Elpenor fell drunk from the roof and was left unburied when they departed for Oceanus.5
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How the centuries saw it
The Laestrygonians Hurl Rocks at the Fleet (Odyssey Landscapes)
Roman fresco painter, Esquiline, c. 50–40 BC
From the oldest surviving painted cycle of the Odyssey, dug from a house on the Esquiline: the giants tear boulders from the cliffs while the ships below are speared like fish.
Circe Offering the Cup to Ulysses
John William Waterhouse, 1891
Enthroned between drugged swine and scattered herbs, the goddess lifts cup and wand at once — and in the bronze mirror behind her, small and armed, stands the man the drug will not touch.
Circe Invidiosa
John William Waterhouse, 1892
Waterhouse's Circe Invidiosa — the sorceress poisoning the sea, the Aeaean queen who turns Odysseus' men to swine.
Circe
John Collier, 1885
Collier's Circe — the island hostess with cup and wand, Odyssey 10's most painted enchantress.
Odysseus Receives from Aeolus the Bag of Contrary Winds
Unknown (Dutch print; works of Odysseus series), 17th century
Odysseus receives Aeolus' bag of contrary winds — the gift that nearly ends the voyage when the crew unties it in sight of Ithaca.
On screen
Ulysses
Mario Camerini
Camerini's peplum keeps Aeolus' bag and Circe's cup — the opened winds and the men turned to swine.
The Odyssey
Andrei Konchalovsky
The miniseries gives Circe her year on Aeaea — Hermes' moly, the swine, and the road to the underworld.
In play
Circe
Madeline Miller
Miller retells Aeaea from the witch's side — the cup, the exile, and Odysseus as one visitor among many.
Odyssey
Book X — Aeolus' bag opened, the Laestrygonian harbour, and Circe's island before the Nekuia.
Circe
The daughter of Helios who turns sailors to beasts — and then points the way to the dead.