text: [Themes: edutainment, historical]
  
  The scene you witness as you enter Circe's dining hall is... weird to say the least. The hall is magnificently decorated: the walls are covered with fresco's depicting pastoral scene, much like the ones that decorate the outside walls. The marble columns that support the roof are chiseled in a way that makes them look like they are revolving around their own axis, grape branches have winded themselves around their tops. A giant loom is tucked away in a corner. The dining tables are placed in a circle in the middle of the room, filled with delicacies from all over the known world: dates from the east, flamingo from Aegyptos, olives from Syracuse and more seafood than you can name, all served in Carthaginian glassware and Roman pottery. In the middle of the circle burns a great fire that fills the room with a warm glow.
  
  The strange thing, however, is that Circe is sitting all alone at one of the dinner tables, surrounded by a herd of pigs. Half emptied plates and spilled cups of wine diminish the otherwise superb setting. You approach her as if you are unaware of her malignant intentions. 'My graceful hostess, I hope I am not too late to attend to your dinner. I am feeling better after a quick rest and I would hate to leave without seeing you again. The rest of my men are tending to chores on board of my ship but they will join us in a while.'
  
  She looks at you suspiciously, trying to gauge your intention, but you manage to fool her. 'Very well my noble guest, please join me at my table. Your companions are resting upstairs, I'm afraid that they have eaten a little but too much. but who can blame them, the food is delicious. Please, try some, I'll fill a plate for you if it pleases you. But first, let us drink to your health.'
  
  She gives you a cup of wine. You accept it gracefully, acting as if you didn't catch her sly smile. As you raise your glass you proclaim: 'And to your health as well, fair hostess, that we may drink to your good intentions.'
  
  After these words you drain your cup. The wine is the sweetest, most delicious drink you have ever tasted. The honey that is made painstakingly by the smallest bees and is the sweetest thing known in the Greek world, and when one eats it one cannot but forget his troubles for a brief while. Even that cannot match the wine you are tasting right now. However, the sweetness of the wine cannot completely hide the taste of unknown herbs.
  
  Circe speaks to you with a sweet voice: 'Do you like the wine, my noble guest? Isn't it the sweetest thing you have ever tasted? I keep it specifically for my most valued guests. Too bad though that it bewitches the senses, making one unable to fight off the winged sleep. Unable to defend oneself.'
  
  She rises from her seat and walks towards you, holding a wooden wand in her hand. She taps your head gently with her wand and backs away, awaiting the effects of her magic powers. When nothing happens she raises her hands to the heavens and speaks to you in an astonished voice: 'How is this possible? Why are you still a human?' she suddenly stops speaking, you can see comprehension in her eyes,'of course I should have known, it's HIM all over again.'
  
  When you try to ask her who she means she interrupts you, paying no attention to your presence whatsoever she continues her furious contemplation: 'A whole year he and his men stayed at my house. A whole year he passed with me, but he had to leave because he missed his home and his wife! His MORTAL wife! I would have given him anything, I would have even made him immortal! But he left me, taking my heart with him.'
  
  When you once more try to ask who she is talking about she sneers at you: 'Like you don't know him: that Ithacan, who stranded here when he sailed from Troy. The one cursed by the earthshaking Poseidon.' She bursts into tears. 'But you remind me of him, yes, you even look a but like him.'
  
  She walks towards you, having a strange look in your eyes. You quickly stand up from your seat and walk away from her, keeping her inside your vision at all times. Circe extends her arms towards you. 'Please noble hero, please let me embrace you. I have just felt so lonely, all alone here on my island, with only these pigs to keep me company. Could you at least do me this honour? I promise I'll turn your men back to their human forms.'
  
  > What harm could a simple embrace do? You decide to grant her this one favour, also for the sake of your men.
  You feel Circe's hot tears falling upon your shoulders as you give her the embrace she desires. Between her sobs she speaks to you, still holding you captive in her embrace: 'You know, I really loved that man. But I realize that he won't come back. You are not him and you will never be able to replace him in my heart. At least he was clever, and you aren't. He would never have fallen for such a transparent trap.'
  
  You see bronze glimmering in the corner of your eye. As you realize what Circe is planning to do you try to wrestle free from her grip, but it is to no avail. The love-maddened goddess has taken of of the knives from the dining tables and makes sure you never leave her mansion again. The marble floor feel cold against your skin as your red life force is being drained from your body, the beautiful white floor turning slowly red.
  
  Before you trade in the mortal world for the underworld you see Circe playing with the bloody knife, muttering incomprehensibly to herself.