“Odysseus’s knowledge of nature does not go beyond the knowledge of man in general. It does not protect him against the possibility that if he sleeps with Circe she may unman him (anēnōr). A difference seems to be implied between the intelligible eidos¹ of human being (anthrōpos) and the visible species (eidos)² of man (anēr³) and woman (gunē⁴). […] There is in man some capacity to resist, a strength of soul or whatever we choose to call it, that can be lost or diminished regardless of knowledge. It seems to comprehend more than the shame and the weakness that, in the case of men, might be thought to accompany sex: as a goddess and a daughter of the sun, Circe has nothing to lose and nothing to hide. […] Since Proteus is who he is when asleep and that state seems to be opposed to nature as awake in the togetherness of shape and mind, the possible unmanning of Odysseus might have to do with sleep rather than sex.” (Seth Benardete, The Bow and the Lyre: A Platonic Reading of the Odyssey, pages 88 (main text) and 164 (note).)
- “Form”.
- Both Lat. speciēs and Gk. eidos literally mean “visible shape”.
- Genitive case andros.
- Latinization gynā.
(Proteus is a shapeshifter when he’s awake, and only is who he is when asleep. So what Benardete suggests there is that the god Proteus is the opposite of the man Odysseus in that regard.)
The possible unmanning of “Odysseus” has to do with sleep rather than sex because it’s caused by the “dream” that another “man”, usually of the opposite sex, actually be one’s God(dess), one’s Idea(l), one’s integrated Self:
“[T]here is an ever-present archetype of wholeness which may easily disappear from the purview of consciousness or may never be perceived at all until a consciousness illuminated by conversion recognizes it in the figure of [e.g.] Christ. As a result of this 'anamnesis’⁵ the original state of oneness with the God-image is restored. It brings about an integration, a bridging of the split in the personality caused by the instincts striving apart in different and mutually contradictory directions.” (Jung, Aion , “Christ, a Symbol of the Self”.)
- “Unforgetting”.