[212] ἀμφὶ δέ μιν. It is difficult to decide whether μιν refers to “δώματα” or to “Κίρκη”. There is no passage in Homer quite decisive for the use of “μιν” in the plural; for in Il.12. 285“μιν” refers not to “νιφάδες” (ib. 278), but to the general word “χιών”, as the number “κέχυται” (284) shows. Similarly, in Od.17. 268, often quoted in favour of the plural use, the words “οὐκ ἄν τίς μιν ἀνὴρ ὑπεροπλίσσαιτο” make no direct reference to “δώματα” (ib. 264), but rather to “αὐλή” (266). On the other hand, it does not appear from the picture given in the present passage that the beasts surrounded Circe, inasmuch as she was still within, and certainly we have “νιν” used in all numbers and genders, and in the Alexandrine writers “μιν” is undeniably used in the plural; e. g. Apoll. Rhod. Arg. 2. 8 “καὶ τότε δὴ προτὶ νῆα κιὼν, χρειώ μιν ἐρέσθαι”
“ναυτιλίης, οἵ τ᾽ εἶεν”, where “μιν” refers to the same subject as “οἵ”. Still, it seems better to give “μιν” a general reference to Circe, sc. ‘in attendance upon her,’ whether near her house or about her person. In Apoll. Rhod. Arg. 4. 672 foll. the beasts are described as following Circe, “ἠύτε μῆλα”“ἐκ σταθμῶν ἅλις εἶσιν ὀπηδεύοντα νομῆι”. With this account of Circe's sorcery should be compared the story of Beder and Giauhare in the ‘Arabian Nights,’ where King Beder as he lands on Queen Labe's shores is met by a troop of horses, camels, mules, asses, and cows, who try by every possible gesture to warn him away from the place. Beder learns by and by that they had once been princes and nobles, to whom Queen Labe had granted her shortlived favours, and when she had grown tired of her lovers she had changed them into beasts.
