Circe
In Greek mythology, Circe (Κίρκη / Kírkē) is a sorceress who lives on the island of Aeaea.
His parents were Helios, the pre-Olympian Titan god of the Sun, and the oceanid Perseis. As brothers, she had Perses, Aeetes and Pasiphae.
By using magical potions Circe made her enemies forget their home and with a wand transformed those who offended her into animals (Odyssey, Canto X, 229), and was famous for her knowledge of witchcraft, herbalism and medicine.
In the Odyssey Circe's palace is described as a stone mansion that stood in the center of the island of Aeaea, in the middle of a valley and in a clearing in a dense forest. Around the palace prowled lions and wolves, who were really just the victims of her magic: they were not dangerous and they fawned on all strangers. Circe spent her time working on a large loom.
When he arrived at the island of Aeaea, Odysseus ordered half the crew to disembark and he stayed in the ships with the rest. Circe invited the sailors to a banquet, enchanted the food with one of her potions, and then, when they had gorged themselves, she used her magic staff or staff to transform them into pigs. Only the drunk Eurylochus managed to escape, who from the beginning suspected treason, and who warned Odysseus and the others who had remained on the ship.
Odysseus set out alone to rescue his men. On the way, Hermes crossed him, who showed him the moly plant (μῶλυ), which would serve to protect him from enchantment.
When Circe was unable to turn him into an animal, Odysseus forced her to return his men to human form. Circe would fall in love with Odysseus and help him on his journey back to her land after he and her crew spent a year with her on her island.
Circe suggested to Odysseus two alternative routes to return to Ithaca after skirting the island of the sirens: either head towards the "wandering rocks" (the two Symplegades rocks, similarly named in the Chou Ju travel notes -kua in the 13th century) or pass between the dangerous Scylla and the whirlpool of Charybdis (an area normally identified with the Strait of Messina).
Near the end of his Theogony (1011f), Hesiod recounts that Circe had three sons by Odysseus: Agrio (otherwise unknown), Latinus, and Telegonus, who ruled the Tyrsenians, that is,, the Etruscans.
Later authors usually name as their son only the latter, who, when he reached adulthood, was sent by Circe to find his father, who had returned home long before; but upon arrival, Telegonus killed Odysseus by accident, and carried his body back to Aeaea along with the widow, Penelope, and his son, Telemachus. Circe made them immortal, and married Telemachus; Telegonus married Penelope.
Dionysius of Halicarnassus cites that Xenagoras the historian claimed that Odysseus and Circe had three children: Romo, Antias, and Ardeas, eponyms of the cities of Rome, Anzio, and Ardea, respectively.
Circe is said to have also purified the Argonauts by the death of Apsyrtus, which may be an archaic tradition.
In later stories Circe underwent other transformations. In one she turned Pico into a woodpecker for rejecting her in love. In another she loved Glaucus and he swore eternal love to Scylla, who was turned by the sorceress goddess into a monstrous creature with twelve enormous legs, six serpentine heads, and a waist surrounded by dog heads. In the Odyssey , Circe warns Odysseus of the danger that this Scylla poses to him and her men.
Cultural influence
Circe in the narrative
- In the novel The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobebelonging to the saga of The Chronicles of Narnia C. S. Lewis, the White Witch appears as Circe archetype.
In a letter Lewis wrote that "of course, the White Witch is Circe... because it is... the same archetype we found in many fairy tales." Circe is the mythical original of a tempter that transformed men into animals by giving them a magical potion.Fragment of Guide El León, the witch and the closet Leland Ryken and Marjorie Lamp Mead.
Circe in science
- In enzymology, the term "Efecto Circe" has been coined.