"Peace-bearing Mercury gave him a whitish flower growing out from a dark black root (gods call it moly). Protected by that plant and heaven's warnings, he entered Circe's home, where she asked him to take the poisoned cup. But when she tried to stroke his hair, he knocked away her wand, drew his sword, and terrified the goddess. She backed away. But then the two of them pledged their good faith by shaking their right hands, and Circe took Ulysses as her husband, welcoming him in bed. There he asked her, as a wedding gift, to give his comrades their old bodies back. So she sprinkled us with more wholesome juices of unknown herbs, reversed her wand, and tapped us on the head, while muttering some charms to neutralize the ones she used before. The more she spoke, the more we stood erect, moving upward from the ground."
- Metamorphoses, Book XIV 450-470
Ovid’s Odycirce,,











