In Greek mythology, Circe (, ; ) is a witch and goddess. In most accounts, Circe is described as a daughter of the sun god Helios and the Oceanid Perse. Circe was renowned for her vast knowledge of potions and herbs. Through the use of these and a magic wand or staff, she transformed her enemies, or those who offended her, into animals. Some sources call her a nymph.Tripp, s.v. Circe, pp. 164–165.
The best known of her legends is told in Homer's Odyssey when Odysseus visits her island of Aeaea on the way back from the Trojan War and she changes most of his crew into swine. He manages to persuade her to return them to human shape, lives with her for a year and has sons by her, including Latinus and Telegonus. Her ability to change others into animals is further highlighted by the story of Picus, an Italian king whom she turns into a woodpecker for resisting her advances. Another story tells of her falling in love with the sea-god Glaucus, who prefers the nymph Scylla to her. In revenge, Circe poisoned the water where her rival bathed and turned her into a dreadful monster.
Depictions, even in Classical times, diverged from the detail in Homer's narrative, which was later to be reinterpreted morally as a cautionary story against drunkenness. Early philosophical questions were also raised about whether the change from being a human endowed with reason to being an unreasoning beast might not be preferable after all, and the resulting debate was to have a powerful impact during the Renaissance. Circe was also taken as the archetype of the predatory female. In the eyes of those from a later age, this behaviour made her notorious both as a magician and as a type of sexually free woman. She has been frequently depicted as such in all the arts from the Renaissance down to modern times.
Western paintings established a visual iconography for the figure, but also went for inspiration to other stories concerning Circe that appear in Ovid's Metamorphoses. The episodes of Scylla and Picus added the vice of violent jealousy to her bad qualities and made her a figure of fear as well as of desire.
Classical literature Family and attributes By most accounts, she was the daughter of the sun god Helios and Perse, one of the three thousand Oceanid nymphs.Homer, Odyssey 10.135; Hesiod, Theogony 956; Apollonius of Rhodes, Argonautica 4.591; Apollodorus, Library 1.9.1; Hyginus, Fabulae preface; Cicero, De Natura Deorum 48.4 In Orphic Argonautica, her mother is called Asterope instead.Orphic Argonautica Her brother was Aeëtes, keeper of the Golden Fleece and father of Medea, and some late sources add also Perses, who is sometimes only her brother on her mother's side.Valerius Flaccus, Argonautica 5.259 Pasiphaë, the wife of King Minos and mother of the Minotaur, is sometimes listed as her half or full sister.Apollodorus, Library 1.9.1; Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica . Other accounts by Dionysius Scytobrachion and Diodorus Siculus make her and Medea the daughters of Hecate, by Aeëtes.Dionysius Scytobrachion F1a and F1b [= Scholia ad Apollonius Rhodius, 3.200 and 242]; Diodorus Siculus, 4.45.1 However, both authors were attempting to rationalise Greek myth by removing supernatural elements and attributing them to mere misunderstandings; thus although they have Hecate as Circe's mother, both characterise Hecate as a mortal woman who discovered drugs and their properties with no relation to actual magic, instead of an immortal goddess. Circe was often confused with Calypso, due to her shifts in behavior and personality, and the association that both of them had with Odysseus.
According to Greek legend, Circe lived on the island of Aeaea. Although Homer is vague when it comes to the island's whereabouts, the early 3rd BC author Apollonius of Rhodes's epic poem Argonautica locates Aeaea somewhere south of Aethalia (Elba), within view of the Tyrrhenian shore (that is, the western coast of Italy).William H. Race, Apollonius Rhodius: Argonautica, Loeb Classical Library (2008), 4.654–661 In the same poem, Circe's brother Aeëtes describes how Circe was transferred to Aeaea: "I noted it once after taking a ride in my father Helios' chariot, when he was taking my sister Circe to the western land and we came to the coast of the Tyrrhenian mainland, where she dwells to this day, very far from the Colchian land."Argonautica 3.309–313, translation by W.H. Race, Apollonius Rhodius: Argonautica, Loeb Classical Library (2008), p.241 A scholiast on Apollonius Rhodius claims that Apollonius is following Hesiod's tradition in making Circe arrive in Aeaea on Helios' chariot,Hesiod, Catalogue of Women frag 46 while Valerius Flaccus writes that Circe was borne away by winged dragons.Valerius Flaccus, Argonautica 7.120 Roman poets associated her with the most ancient traditions of Latium, and made her home to be on the promontory of Circeo.Virgil, Aeneid 7. 10
Homer describes Circe as "a dreadful goddess with lovely hair and human speech".Homer, Odyssey 10.135 Apollonius writes that she (just like every other descendant of Helios) had flashing golden eyes that shot out rays of light,Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica 4.727 with the author of Argonautica Orphica noting that she had hair like fiery rays.Argonautica Orphica Ovid's The Cure for Love implies that Circe might have been taught the knowledge of herbs and potions from her mother Perse, who seems to have had similar skills.Ovid, The Cure for Love 4.15
Pre-Odyssey In the Argonautica, Apollonius relates that Circe purified the Argonauts for the murder of Medea's brother Absyrtus,"They escaped neither the vast sea's hardships nor vexatious tempests till Kirké should wash them clean of the pitiless murder of Apsyrtos" (Apollonius of Rhodes, Argonautica, iv. 586–588, in Peter Grean's translation). possibly reflecting an early tradition.See the ancient concept of miasma, a Peter Green's commentary on iv. 705–717, The Argonautika Apollonios Rhodios, (1997, 2007) p. 322. In this poem, the Argonauts find Circe bathing in salt water; the animals that surround her are not former lovers transformed but primeval "beasts, not resembling the beasts of the wild, nor yet like men in body, but with a medley of limbs." Circe invites Jason, Medea and their crew into her mansion; uttering no words, they show her the still bloody sword they used to cut Absyrtus down, and Circe immediately realizes they have visited her to be purified of murder. She purifies them by slitting the throat of a suckling pig and letting the blood drip on them. Afterwards, Medea tells Circe their tale in great detail, albeit omitting the part of Absyrtus' murder; nevertheless, Circe is not fooled, and greatly disapproves of their actions. However, out of pity for the girl, and on account of their kinship, she promises not to be an obstacle on their way, and orders Jason and Medea to leave her island immediately.Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica 4.662–752
The sea-god Glaucus was in love with a beautiful maiden, Scylla, but she spurned his affections no matter how he tried to win her heart. Glaucus went to Circe, and asked her for a magic potion to make Scylla fall in love with him too. But Circe was smitten by Glaucus herself, and fell in love with him. Glaucus did not love her back, and turned down her offer of marriage. Enraged, Circe used her knowledge of herbs and plants to take her revenge; she found the spot where Scylla usually took her bath, and poisoned the water. When Scylla went down to it to bathe, dogs sprang from her thighs and she was transformed into the familiar monster from the Odyssey.Ovid, Metamorphoses 14.01–74Hyginus, Fabulae 199 In another, similar story, Picus was a Latian king whom Circe turned into a woodpecker.Virgil, Aeneid 7.186 He was the son of Saturn, and a king of Latium. He fell in love and married a nymph, Canens, to whom he was utterly devoted. One day as he was hunting boars, he came upon Circe, who was gathering herbs in the woods. Circe fell immediately in love with him; but Picus, just like Glaucus before him, spurned her and declared that he would remain forever faithful to Canens. Circe, furious, turned Picus into a woodpecker.Ovid, Metamorphoses 14.320–396 His wife Canens eventually wasted away in her mourning.Ovid, Metamorphoses 14.397–434
During the war between the gods and the giants, one of the giants, Picolous, fled the battle against the gods and came to Aeaea, Circe's island. He attempted to chase Circe away, only to be killed by Helios, Circe's ally and father.Eustathius, Ad Odysseam 10.305 "Alexander of Paphos reports the following tale: Picoloos, one of the Giants, by fleeing from the war led against Zeus, reached Circe’s island and tried to chase her away. Her father Helios killed him, protecting his daughter with his shield; from the blood which flowed on the earth a plant was born, and it was called μῶλυ because of the μῶλος or the battle in which the Giant aforementioned was killed." From the blood of the slain giant, a herb came into existence; moly, named thus from the battle (malos) and with a white-coloured flower, either for the white Sun who had killed Picolous or the terrified Circe who turned white;Ptolemy Hephaestion, New History 4 "The plant “moly” of which Homer speaks; this plant had, it is said, grown from the blood of the giant killed in the isle of Circe; it has a white flower; the ally of Circe who killed the giant was Helios; the combat was hard (mâlos) from which the name of this plant."Rahner, Hugo. Greek Myths and Christian Mystery New York. Biblo & Tannen Publishers. 1971. pg. 204 the very plant, which mortals are unable to pluck from the ground, that Hermes would later give to Odysseus in order to defeat Circe.Homer, Odyssey 10.302–306
Homer's Odyssey
In Homer's Odyssey, an 8th-century BC sequel to his Trojan War epic Iliad, Circe is initially described as a beautiful goddess living in a palace isolated in the midst of a dense wood on her island of Aeaea. Around her home prowl strangely docile lions and wolves. She lures any who land on the island to her home with her lovely singing while weaving on an enormous loom, but later drugs them so that they change shape.Homer, Odyssey 10.212ff. One of her Homeric epithets is polypharmakos, "knowing many drugs or charms".LSJ s. v. πολυ-φάρμα^κος; Homer, Odyssey, 10.276.
Circe invites the hero Odysseus's crew to a feast of familiar food, a pottage of cheese and meal, sweetened with honey and laced with wine, but also mixed with one of her magical potions that turns them into swine. Only Eurylochus, who suspects treachery, does not go in. He escapes to warn Odysseus and the others who have remained with the ship. Before Odysseus reaches Circe's palace, Hermes, the messenger god sent by the goddess of wisdom Athena, intercepts him and reveals how he might defeat Circe in order to free his crew from their enchantment. Hermes provides Odysseus with moly to protect him from Circe's magic. He also tells Odysseus that he must then draw his sword and act as if he were going to attack her. From there, as Hermes foretold, Circe would ask Odysseus to bed, but Hermes advises caution, for the treacherous goddess could still "unman" him unless he has her swear by the names of the gods that she will not take any further action against him. Following this advice, Odysseus is able to free his men.
After they have all remained on the island for a year, Circe advises Odysseus that he must first visit the Underworld, something a mortal has never yet done,Homer, Odyssey 10.475–541. in order to gain knowledge about how to appease the gods, return home safely and recover his kingdom. Circe also advises him on how this might be achieved and furnishes him with the protections he will need and the means to communicate with the dead. On his return, she further advises him about two possible routes home, warning him, however, that both carry great danger.
Post-Odyssey