Circe and Valentine's Day: Desire, Discernment, and the Art of Refusal Circe and Valentine's Day: Desire, Discernment, and the Art of Refusal Valentine's Day is saturated with sweetness. Hearts, vows, promises of fusion. It celebrates attraction as inevitability and devotion as virtue.   Circe does not recognize this script.   In Greek myth, Circe is not the patroness of romantic surrender. She is the sorceress of discernment. Desire passes through her island and reveals its