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Circe (/ˈsɜːrsiː/; Ancient Greek: Κίρκη : Kírkē, pronounced[kírkɛː]) is an enchantress and a minor goddess in ancient Greek mythology and religion.[1] In most accounts, Circe is described as the daughter of the sun god Helios and the Oceanid nymph Perse. Circe was renowned for her vast knowledge of potions and herbs. Through the use of these and a magic wand or staff, she would transform her enemies, or those who offended her, into animals.
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.
Circe (/ˈsɜːrsiː/; Ancient Greek: Κίρκη : Kírkē, pronounced [kírkɛː]) is an enchantress and a minor goddess in ancient Greek mythology and religion. In...
Circe Invidiosa is a painting by John William Waterhouse completed in 1892. It is his second depiction, after Circe Offering the Cup to Ulysses (1891)...
Circe chess (or just Circe) is a chess variant in which captured pieces are reborn on their starting positions as soon as they are captured. The game was...
1978) is an American novelist, author of The Song of Achilles (2011) and Circe (2018). Miller spent ten years writing The Song of Achilles while she worked...
Commons has media related to Araneus circe. Wikispecies has information related to Araneus circe. "Araneus circe". World Spider Catalog. Retrieved 26...
Circe, an enchantress and minor goddess in Greek mythology, appears often in 20th and 21st century popular culture, either under her own name or as a...
Circe, after the Greek goddess Circe. The first HMS Circe (1785) was a 28-gun sixth rate launched in 1785 and wrecked in 1803. The second HMS Circe (1804)...
The Devil and Circe (German: Teufel und Circe) is a 1921 German silent drama film directed by Adolf Gärtner and starring Sascha Gura, Eduard von Winterstein...
of the United States Navy have been named Circe, after Circe, the sorceress in Homer's Odyssey. USS Circe only carried that name from 15 June to 10 August...
Circe Offering the Cup to Ulysses is an oil painting in the Pre-Raphaelite style by John William Waterhouse that was created in 1891. It is now in Gallery...
Madeline Miller's Circe (2018) revisits the relationship between Odysseus and Circe on Aeaea. As a reader, Miller was frustrated by Circe's lack of motivation...
himself was also loved by the goddess sorceress Circe. While Scylla was bathing in the sea, the jealous Circe poured a baleful potion into the sea water which...
gathered around Penelope. According to later tradition, Telemachus married Circe (or Calypso) after Odysseus’ death. The first four books of the Odyssey...
the witch-goddess Circe. She turns half of his men into swine after feeding them cheese and wine. Hermes warns Odysseus about Circe and gives him a drug...
Circe Sturm is a professor in the Department of Anthropology, University of Texas, Austin. She is also an actress, appearing mainly in films and commercials...
The Continent of Circe is a 1965 book of essays written by Indian author Nirad C. Chaudhuri that was winner of the Duff Cooper Prize for 1966. In this...
Circe, minor planet designation 34 Circe, is a large, very dark main-belt asteroid. It was discovered by French astronomer J. Chacornac on April 6, 1855...
Circe Maia, (born June 29, 1932, in Montevideo), is a Uruguayan poet, essayist, translator, and teacher. Circe Maia was born in Montevideo, Uruguay, in...
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