Michael VII (or Konstantinos X) had asked Psellos to examine and interpret a carved stone with an inscription. Psellos gave one classical and and one "magic" interpretation: in the first, he identified the scene as the armed Odysseus resisting Circe and holding moly, quoting lines of Homer and describing the stone in some detail, recording preserved letters. His alternative "magical" interpretation would be typical of Basileios the "magician": Psellos was surprised he had not so far expresed an opinion on the stone. In that, what he had called Circe's throne might be an altar containing an animal to be sacrificed by a priest in honour of peace. He ended with a wish for peace for the emperor