Circe

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Circe

In Greek mythology

Greek mythology

Greek mythology is the body of myths and legends belonging to the Ancient Greece concerning their List of Greek mythological figures#Immortals and Greek hero cult, Cosmology#Metaphysical cosmology, and the origins and significance of their own cult and ritual practices....
, Circe (Greek

Greek language

Greek is an Indo-European languages native to the southern Balkan peninsula, the language of the Greek people. It forms an independent branch within Indo-European....
????? Kírke, falcon), is a Queen goddess

Goddess

A goddess is a female deity. Often deities are part of a polytheism system that includes several deities in a pantheon .Common associations of goddesses are the Earth goddess, the Mother Goddess, Love goddess, and the hearth goddess, reflecting historical gender roles....
(or sometimes a nymph

Nymph

In Greek mythology, a nymph is any member of a large class of mythological entities in human form. They were typically associated with a particular location or landform....
, witch, enchantress

Enchantress

Enchantress could refer to:*Enchantress, a female spellcaster or practitioner of magic*Enchantress, a beautiful and charismatic woman*The Enchantress, an opera by Tchaikovsky...
or sorceress

Sorceress

A sorceress is a woman who practices Magic , the female counterpart to a Magician . This word is a synonym for witchcraft. There are several kinds:...
) living on the island

Island

An island or isle is any piece of land that is surrounded by water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls are called islets....
of Aeaea

Aeaea

Aeaea was a possibly Greek mythology island said to be the home of the sorceress Circe.Though the somewhat inconsistent geography of the Odyssey is more mythic than literal, Aeaea was later identified by classical Roman writers with Mount Circeo on Cape Circeo on the western coast of Italy — about 100 kilometers south of Rome &md...
.

Circe's father was Helios

Helios

Helios is the god of sun.In Greek mythology the sun was personified as Helios . Homer often calls him simply Titan or Hyperion , while Hesiod and the Homeric Hymn separate him as a son of the Titans Hyperion and Theia or Euryphaessa and brother of the goddesses Selene, the moon, and Eos, the dawn....
(or Helius) , the god of the sun and the owner of the land where Odysseus

Odysseus

Odysseus or Ulysses , in Greek mythology , was a legendary Greeks king of Ithaca and the hero of Homer's Epic poetry, the Odyssey. Odysseus also plays a key role in Homer's Iliad and other works in the Epic Cycle....
' men ate cattle, and her mother was Hecate the goddess of magic and the moon ; she was sister of two kings of Colchis

Colchis

In ancient geography, Colchis or Kolkhis was an ancient Georgia , state monarchy and region in the Western Georgia , which played an important role in the ethnic and cultural formation of the Georgians and its subgroups....
, Aeetes

Aeëtes

In Greek mythology, Ae?tes was a son of the king-god Helios and the nymph Perseis , brother of Circe and Pasiphae, and father of Medea, Chalciope and Apsyrtus....
and Perses

Perses

Perses is an ancient Greek name given to:* Greek mythology people:*Perse...
, and of Pasiphaë

Pasiphaë

In Greek mythology, Pasipha? , "wide-shining" was the daughter of Helios, the Sun, by the eldest of the Oceanids, Perse; Like her doublet Europa, her origins were in the East, in her case at Colchis, the palace of the Sun; she was given in marriage to King Minos of Crete....
, mother of the Minotaur

Minotaur

In Greek mythology, the Minotaur was a creature that was part man and part Bull . It dwelt at the center of the Labyrinth, which was an elaborate maze-like construction built for King Minos of Crete and designed by the architect Daedalus and his son Icarus who were ordered to build it to hold the Minotaur....
. Circe transformed

Shapeshifting

Shapeshifting is a common theme in mythology and folklore, as well as in science fiction and fantasy. In its broadest sense, it is a :wikt:metamorphosis of a person or animal....
her enemies, or those who offended her, into animals through the use of magical potions.

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In ancient literature

In Homer's Odyssey

In Homer

Homer

Homer is traditionally held to be the author of the ancient Greek language epic poems the Iliad and the Odyssey, as well as of the Homeric Hymns....
's Odyssey
Odyssey

The Odyssey is one of two major ancient Hellenic civilization epic poetrys attributed to Homer. It is, in part, a sequel to the Iliad, the other work traditionally ascribed to Homer....
, Circe is described as living in a mansion that stands in the middle of a clearing in a dense wood. Around the house prowled lions and wolves, the drugged victims of her magic; they were not dangerous, and fawned on all newcomers. Circe worked at a huge loom

Loom

A loom is a machine or device for weaving thread or yarn into textiles. Looms can range from very small hand-held frames, to large free-standing hand looms, to huge automatic mechanical devices....
. She invited Odysseus

Odysseus

Odysseus or Ulysses , in Greek mythology , was a legendary Greeks king of Ithaca and the hero of Homer's Epic poetry, the Odyssey. Odysseus also plays a key role in Homer's Iliad and other works in the Epic Cycle....
' crew to a feast, the food laced with one of her magical potions, and she turned them all into pig

Pig

Pigs, also called hogs or swine, are a genus of even-toed ungulates within the Family Suidae. The name pig, hog, or swine most commonly refers to the Domestic pig in everyday parlance, but technically encompasses several distinct species, including the Wild Boar....
s with a wand after they gorged themselves on it. Only Eurylochus, suspecting treachery from the outset, escaped to warn Odysseus and the others who had stayed behind at the ships. Odysseus

Odysseus

Odysseus or Ulysses , in Greek mythology , was a legendary Greeks king of Ithaca and the hero of Homer's Epic poetry, the Odyssey. Odysseus also plays a key role in Homer's Iliad and other works in the Epic Cycle....
set out to rescue his men, but was intercepted by Hermes

Hermes

Hermes is the messenger of the gods in Greek mythology. An Twelve Olympians, he is also the patron of boundaries and of the travelers who cross them, of shepherds and cowherds, of thieves and road travelers, of orators and wit, of literature and poets, of athletics, of weights and measures, of invention, of general commerce, and of the cunni...
, who told him to use the holy herb moly

Moly (herb)

Moly in is a magic herb in Greek mythology....
to protect himself from Circe's potion and, having resisted it, to draw his sword and act as if he were to attack Circe. From there, Circe would ask him to bed, but Hermes advised caution, for even there the goddess would be treacherous. She would take his manhood unless he had her swear by the names of the gods that she would not.

Odysseus heeded Hermes's advice, thus securing the transfigured freedom of his fellows. For five days, he and Circe were lovers. Odysseus and his men remained on the island for one year feasting and drinking wine. She later assisted him in his quest to reach his home.

According to Homer

Homer

Homer is traditionally held to be the author of the ancient Greek language epic poems the Iliad and the Odyssey, as well as of the Homeric Hymns....
, she suggested to Odysseus

Odysseus

toward the "Wandering Rocks" (possibly the pumiceous Lipari Islands; in the 13th-century Chinese
China

China is a Culture of China, an ancient civilization, and, depending on perspective, a national or multinational entity extending over a large area in East Asia....
travel notes of Chou Ju-kua they are called similarly ), where King Aeolus reigned.

to pass between the dangerous Scylla
Scylla

Scylla , also known as Scylle , was one of the two monsters in Greek mythology that lived on either side of a narrow channel of water. The two sides of the strait were within an arrow's range of each other?so close that sailors attempting to avoid Charybdis would pass too close to Scylla and vice versa....
and the whirlpool Charybdis
Charybdis

In Greek mythology, Kharybdis or Charybdis was a sea monster, once a beautiful naiad and the daughter of Poseidon and Gaia . She takes form as a huge bladder of a creature whose face was all mouth and whose arms and legs were flippers and swallows huge amounts of water three times a day before belching them back out again, creating whi...
, conventionally identified with the Strait of Messina
Strait of Messina

The Strait of Messina is the narrow section of water between the eastern tip of Sicily and the southern tip of Calabria in the south of Italy....
.

In Hesiod's Theogony

Towards the end of Hesiod

Hesiod

Hesiod was a Greek language oral poet, his date is uncertain but leading scholars agree that Hesiod lived in the latter half of the Eighth-century BCE....
's Theogony
Theogony

The Theogony is a poem by Hesiod describing the origins and genealogy of the polytheism of the ancient Greeks, composed circa 700 BC....
(1011f) we find that Circe bore of Odysseus three sons: Agrius (otherwise unknown), Latinus

Latinus

Latinus or Latinos was a figure in both Greek mythology and Roman mythology mythology....
, and Telegonus

Telegonus

In Greek mythology, Telegonus was the youngest son of Circe and Odysseus.When Telegonus grew up, Circe sent him to find Odysseus, who by this time had finally returned to Ithaca from the Trojan War....
who ruled over the Tyrsenoi, that is the Etruscans.

Other

Later poets Dionysius of Halicarnassus

Dionysius of Halicarnassus

Dionysius of Halicarnassus was a Greeks historian and teacher of rhetoric, who flourished during the reign of Caesar Augustus....
(1.72.5) cites Xenagoras the historian as claiming that Odysseus

Odysseus

Odysseus or Ulysses , in Greek mythology , was a legendary Greeks king of Ithaca and the hero of Homer's Epic poetry, the Odyssey. Odysseus also plays a key role in Homer's Iliad and other works in the Epic Cycle....
and Circe had three sons: Romus, Anteias, and Ardeias who respectively founded three cities called by their names: Rome

Rome

Rome is the capital city of Italy and Lazio, and is Italy's largest and most populous city, with 2,724,347 residents in an urban area of some ....
, Antium, and Ardea

Ardea (RM)

Ardea, an ancient town and comune in the province of Rome, 35 km south of Rome and about 4 km from today's Mediterranean coast.The economy is mostly based on agriculture, although, starting from the 1970s, industry has had an increasingly important role....
.

That Circe also purified the Argonauts

Argonauts

In Greek mythology, the Argonauts were a band of heroes who, in the years before the Trojan War, accompanied Jason to Colchis in his quest to find the Golden Fleece....
for the death of Apsyrtus may be early tradition.

In later tales Circe turned Picus

Picus

In Greek mythology and Roman mythology mythology, Picus was a man turned into a woodpecker by Circe for scorning her love. His wife was Canens , a nymph, who killed herself after he was transformed....
into a woodpecker

Woodpecker

Woodpeckers are near passerine birds of the order Piciformes. They are one subfamily in the family Picidae, which also includes the piculets and wrynecks....
for refusing her love, and Scylla

Scylla

Scylla , also known as Scylle , was one of the two monsters in Greek mythology that lived on either side of a narrow channel of water. The two sides of the strait were within an arrow's range of each other?so close that sailors attempting to avoid Charybdis would pass too close to Scylla and vice versa....
into a monstrous creature with six dogs' heads when Glaucus

Glaucus

In Greek mythology, Glaucus was the name of several different figures, including one god . These figures are sometimes referred to as Glaukos or Glacus....
(another object of Circe's affection) declared his undying love for her. She had one daughter: Aega, who was born from the ocean in a shield of ice.

Modern interpretations

Medical historians have speculated that the transformation to pigs was not intended literally but refers to anticholinergic

Anticholinergic

An anticholinergic agent is a substance that blocks the neurotransmitter acetylcholine in the central nervous system and the peripheral nervous system....
intoxication. Symptoms include amnesia

Amnèsia

Amn?sia is an Italian language drama film directed by Gabriele Salvatores in 2002 in film.External links...
, hallucinations, and delusions. The description of "moly" fits the snowdrop

Snowdrop

Snowdrop is the common name for members of the genus Galanthus, a small genus of about 20 species in the family Amaryllidaceae; snowdrops are among the first bulbs to bloom in spring, although certain species flower in late autumn and winter....
, a flower

Flower

A flower, sometimes known as a bloom or blossom, is the reproduction structure found in flowering plants . The biological function of a flower is to mediate the union of male sperm with female ovum in order to produce seeds....
of the region that produces secondary metabolites that can counteract anticholinergics.

Eponyms

The phrase "Circean poison" has been used to refer to intoxicating things, such as applause.

The "Circe effect", coined by the enzymologist William P. Jencks, refers to a scenario where an enzyme

Enzyme

Enzymes are biomolecules that catalysis chemical reactions. Almost all enzymes are proteins. In enzymatic reactions, the molecules at the beginning of the process are called Substrate , and the enzyme converts them into different molecules, the products....
lures its substrate

Substrate (biochemistry)

In biochemistry, a substrate is a molecule upon which an enzyme acts. Enzymes catalysis chemical reactions involving the substrate. The substrate binds with the enzyme active site, and an enzyme-substrate complex is formed....
towards it through electrostatic forces exhibited by the enzyme molecule before transforming it into product

Product

Product may mean:*Product , an item that ideally satisfies a market's want or need**Product breakdown structure, a deliverable or set of deliverables that contribute to a business solution...
. Where this takes place, the catalytic velocity (rate of reaction) of the enzyme may be significantly faster than that of others.

Derivatives

In Dan Simmons
Dan Simmons

Dan Simmons is an United States author most widely known for his Hugo Award-winning science fiction series, known as the Hyperion Cantos, and for his Locus-winning Ilium/Olympos cycle....
' science-fiction novel Olympos
Olympos (novel)

Olympos, Dan Simmons' novel published in 2005, is the sequel to Ilium and final part of Ilium/Olympus duology. Like its predecessor it is a work of science fiction, and contains many literary references: it blends together Homer's epics the Iliad and the Odyssey, Shakespeare's The Tempest, and has frequent smaller ref...
, both Odysseus and Circe appear as themselves in a plot line of narrative fiction that draws upon The Odyssey.
In the second book of the epic poem The Faerie Queene
The Faerie Queene

The Faerie Queene is an English Epic poetry by Edmund Spenser, published first in three books in 1590, and later in six books in 1596. The Faerie Queene is notable for its form: it was the first work written in Spenserian stanza....
, Edmund Spenser
Edmund Spenser

Edmund Spenser was an important England poet best known for The Faerie Queene, an epic poem celebrating, through fantastical allegory, the Tudor dynasty and Elizabeth I....
based Sir Guyon
Sir Guyon

Sir Guyon is a knight in Edmund Spenser's Faerie Queene, the personification of temperance and self-control; he subdued the sorceress Acrasia , and was the destroyer of her "Bower of Bliss."...
's antagonist Acrasia on Circe, both being witches who change the form of their victims into lower animals such as swine.
Nathaniel Hawthorne
Nathaniel Hawthorne

Nathaniel Hawthorne was an American novelist and short story writer.Nathaniel Hathorne was born in 1804 in the city of Salem, Massachusetts to Nathaniel Hathorne and Elizabeth Clarke Manning Hathorne....
retold the story of Circe in his Tanglewood Tales
Tanglewood Tales

Tanglewood Tales for Boys and Girls is a book by American author Nathaniel Hawthorne, a sequel to A Wonder-Book for Girls and Boys. It is a re-writing of some of the most famous of the ancient Greek myths in a volume for children....
.
The Victorian poet Augusta Webster (1837-1894) wrote a blank verse dramatic monologue titled "Circe" (1870), in which the sorceress anticipates her meeting with Ulysses and his men. She insists that she does not turn men into pigs--she merely takes away the disguise that makes them seem human.
In James Joyce
James Joyce

James Augustine Aloysius Joyce was an Ireland expatriate author of the 20th century. He is best known for his landmark novel Ulysses and its controversial successor Finnegans Wake , as well as the short story collection Dubliners and the semi-autobiographical novel A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man ....
's Ulysses
Ulysses (novel)

Ulysses is a novel by James Joyce, first serialized in parts in the American journal The Little Review from March 1918 to December 1920, then published in its entirety by Sylvia Beach on February 2, 1922, in Paris....
, the fifteenth chapter, known as the "Circe" episode, offers as Circe's equivalent the brothel madam, Bella Cohen
Bella Cohen

Bella Cohen is a character in chapter 15 of the novel Ulysses by James Joyce. She is a brothel keeper who represents the figure of Circe....
.
In Ernest Hemingway
Ernest Hemingway

Ernest Miller Hemingway was an American novelist, short story author, and journalist. He was part of the 1920s expatriate community in Paris, France, and one of the veterans of World War I later known as "the Lost Generation"....
's early novel The Sun Also Rises
The Sun Also Rises

The Sun Also Rises is the first major novel by Ernest Hemingway. Published in 1926 in literature, the Plot centers on a group of expatriate United States in Europe during the 1920s....
, Robert Cohn refers to the Lady Ashley as Circe, saying she "turns men into swine."
In John Myers Myers
John Myers Myers

John Myer Myers was an American author best known for his fantasy novel, Silverlock. He lived in Tempe, Arizona....
's 1949 novel Silverlock
Silverlock

Silverlock is a novel by John Myers Myers published in 1949. It recounts the adventures of A. Clarence Shandon as he takes a trip through the land of great literature....
, Circe turns the main character into a pig due to his proclivity for food and fornication.
In 2000, British poet Carol Ann Duffy
Carol Ann Duffy

Carol Ann Duffy is a United Kingdom poet, playwright and freelance writer born in Glasgow, Scotland. She grew up in Staffordshire and graduated in philosophy from University of Liverpool in 1977....
wrote a poem entitled Circe.
American choreographer Martha Graham
Martha Graham

Martha Graham was an American dancer and choreographer regarded as one of the foremost pioneers of modern dance, whose influence on dance can be compared to the influence Igor Stravinsky had on music, Pablo Picasso had on the visual arts, or Frank Lloyd Wright had on architecture....
created a 1963 ballet entitled Circe, with score by Alan Hovhaness
Alan Hovhaness

Alan Hovhaness was an United States composer of Armenian-American and Scottish American ancestry, but the inspiration for his mature work was as much Eastern as Western....
Circe is also mentioned in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone

Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone is the first novel in the Harry Potter series written by J. K. Rowling and featuring Harry Potter , a young Wizarding world....
, as a famous witch, and in A Great and Terrible Beauty
A Great and Terrible Beauty

A Great and Terrible Beauty is the first novel in the Gemma Doyle Trilogy by Libba Bray. It is told from the perspective of Gemma Doyle, a girl in the late 1800s....
(Libba Bray
Libba Bray

Libba Bray is an author of young adult novels, including the books A Great and Terrible Beauty, Rebel Angels and The Sweet Far Thing....
) as one of the characters.
Circe appeared in the cartoon Ulysses 31
Ulysses 31

is a France-Japanese anime series that updates the Greek Mythology and Roman Mythology mythology of Odysseus to the 31st century. The show comprises 26 half-hour episodes and was produced by DIC Entertainment in conjunction with Tokyo Movie Shinsha....
where she attempted to build a tower that would house all the knowledge of the universe, thus making her more powerful than the gods.
In DC Comics, Circe
Circe (comics)

Circe is a fictional character, a villainous sorceress and major adversary of Wonder Woman appearing in DC Comics publications and related media....
is a constant and deadly foe of Wonder Woman
Wonder Woman

Wonder Woman is a Character , a DC Comics Superhero#Superheroines created by William Moulton Marston. First appearing in All Star Comics #8 , she is one of three characters to have been continuously published by DC Comics since the company's 1944 inception ....
, while in Marvel Comics, the immortal Eternal
Eternals

The Eternals may refer to:* Eternals , Marvel Comics characters created by Jack Kirby in 1976* Eternal , a race of cosmic beings from the BBC series Doctor Who, introduced in 1983...
superhero
Superhero

A superhero is a Character "of unprecedented physical prowess dedicated to act of derring-do in the public interest". Since the debut of the prototype superhero Superman in 1938, stories of superheroes?ranging from brief episodic adventures to continuing years-long sagas?have dominated American comic books and crossed over into other mass...
ine Sersi
Sersi

Sersi is a fictional character, a Marvel Comics superhero#superheroinesine created by Jack Kirby. The character is an Eternals and first appeared in Eternals #3 , and was subsequently revealed as the character Circe who first appeared in Strange Tales Vol....
is said to be the basis for Homer's Circe in the Marvel Universe
Marvel Universe

The Marvel Universe is the universe where the stories published by Marvel Comics take place.The Marvel Universe actually exists within a Multiverse consisting of thousands of separate universes, all of which are the creations of Marvel Comics and all of which are, in a sense, "Marvel universes"....
.
In Rick Riordan
Rick Riordan

Rick Riordan author from Texas of the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series. He also wrote the Tres Navarre mystery series for adults and helped to edit Demigods and Monsters, a collection of essays on the topic of his Percy Jackson series....
's novel The Sea of Monsters Circe lures Percy and his friend into a magical trap, and Hermes rescues them.
A variation of the theme of Odysseus and Circe is also to be found in Philip K. Dick
Philip K. Dick

Philip Kindred Dick was an United States science fiction novelist, short story writer, and essayist. Dick explored sociological, political and metaphysics themes in novels dominated by monopoly corporations, Authoritarianism, and altered states of consciousness....
's short story "Beyond Lies the Wub", with the protagonist explicitly referring to the Odysseus myth.
In the Hayao Miyazaki
Hayao Miyazaki

is a prominent filmmaker of many popular animated feature films. He is also the co-founder of Studio Ghibli, an animation studio and production company....
film Spirited Away
Spirited Away

is a 2001 in film Japanese anime written and directed by famed animator Hayao Miyazaki and produced by Studio Ghibli. The film sees a sullen ten-year-old girl in the middle of her family's move to the suburbs wander into a world ruled by gods, witches, and monsters; where humans are changed into animals; and a bathhouse for these creatures....
, when Chihiro
Chihiro

Chihiro is a Japanese given name mostly used by females....
's parents eat the feast of Yubaba, they are transformed into pigs.
The 2003 Radio Tales
Radio Tales

Radio Tales is an United States drama anthology radio series produced by Generations Productions LLC. This award-winning anthology series adapted classic works of American and world literature, and was a recipient of funding from the National Endowment for the Arts....
drama "Homer's Odyssey: Voyage to the Underworld" is a dramatic retelling of the portion of Homer's epic poem featuring Circe, followed by the voyage to Hades to consult with the prophet Teiresias.
There is a short story by Julio Cortazar titled "Circe" in his collection Bestiario from the 1950s.
One episode of the animated series, Duck Tales, has the cast being thrown back in time and accompany Homer
Homer

Homer is traditionally held to be the author of the ancient Greek language epic poems the Iliad and the Odyssey, as well as of the Homeric Hymns....
on his Odyssey
Odyssey

The Odyssey is one of two major ancient Hellenic civilization epic poetrys attributed to Homer. It is, in part, a sequel to the Iliad, the other work traditionally ascribed to Homer....
. Penultimate to the conclusion, they encounter and defeat Circe, who turns men (and anthropomorphic Ducks) into swine.

Footnotes

Ancient source references

Servius, In Aeneida vii.190
Ovid, Metamorphoses xiv.248-308
Lactantius Placidus, Commentarii in Statii Thebaida