Depictions of Circe Throughout the Ages

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When deciding about what figure I was going to do my research project on, Circe immediately came to mind. A super powerful sorceress that lives on her own island and turns any man who lands on the island into an animal? Sounds like my dream future! However, as I delved into my research, Cicre became a much more complicated figure than I expected. So many different depictions of her throughout the years shows the specific creator’s interpretation of her. One of my first depictions that sparked my original interest in the character was in the video game, Assassin’s Creed Odyssey. The game has a section when the main character is sent to Elysium and has a quest where they meet Circe. Circe is shown to be the same height as your character, showing her as a human as the gods and goddesses in this game are depicted as much taller than mortal characters. She is tanned, blonde and adorned in fancy clothes and jewelry. Oh and how could I forget, the smear of blood that surrounds her mouth because when you meet her she’s chowing down on the carcass of a pig, raw. Circe’s quest, Wine for the Swine, involves the main character trying to find the bracelet of their friend’s wife, the trail leading towards Circe. When in Circe’s home, she very politely offers you some of her wine with absolutely no strings attached. When you go to fetch it, you have the ability to find moly which your character claims is a natural antidote for poison. You can take it with you, wondering if this has anything to do with the bloody woman who wants to have a drink with someone she just met. This is where the story endings split off based on the choices that the player makes. You can choose to not drink the wine and just kill her, you can drink the wine without the antidote and almost get fed to Circe’s boar, and then kill her. You can drink the wine with the moly, and then you have the option to kill her, spare her or ask her to join your crew. Whichever you choose, you pretty much never see her again unless she’s helping you fight on your ship. Her character is based off of Homer’s Odyssey, however her character is significantly more brutal and one dimensional than Homer’s depiction.

Circe In Assassin’s Creed Odyssey

“Wine for the Swine.” Assassin’s Creed Wiki, assassinscreed.fandom.com/wiki/Wine_for_the_Swine. (Wikimedia Commons)

Circe has many different titles that are used to describe her. “Witch”, “Sorceress”, “Goddess”, “evil”, “cunning”, “kind” and “wrathful”. She can be beautiful or ugly. Or even somewhere in between. There is no set depiction of her, changing with each iteration of her. However the connection between the Circes is always there, even between Ancient Greek and Roman literature and modern day retellings, bringing up questions as to why Circe has changed from another warning tale in Greek and Roman mythology to a character that is free for artists, writers and video game developers to explore and create new twists and turns in her tale.

Circe in Homer’s Odyssey

One of Circe’s most famous depictions is in Book Ten of Homer’s Odyssey, the story of a man who wants to get home to his family more than anything but keeps getting distracted by hot and powerful women who fall madly in love with him, epic beasts that Odysseus is too smart for and lots of other divine intervention. Totally realistic, right? I have personally never met Odysseus so I cannot tell you if he lives up to the hype, however Circe had. Circe meets Odysseus when he rudely lands on her island with his crew. Apparently they did not see the no trespassing sign and just walked right into her house, watching her weaving and singing, like men do. The description that Homer gives Circe would honestly make anyone want to stare. She is described as a “goddess with glorious hair”(Homer, 10,169, 220), a “sweet voice” (10, 169, 221) and her weaving is “glorious” (10, 169, 223). Overall, she sounds like a wonderful woman to have a drink with. Although she is mentioned to be a goddess, Odysseus’ crew are not 100% sure if she is a goddess or a woman.

“Now Polites leader of men, who was the best and dearest to me of my friends, began the discussion: “Friends, someone inside going up and down a great piece of weaving is singing sweetly, and the whole place murmurs to the echo of it, whether she is woman or goddess. Come, let us call her.””
Homer, 10, 169, 224-228

This line is meant to be the “Shouting at your screen because the character is about to do something very dumb and probably die” moment, the men being lured in despite the danger that they could be falling into. If Circe is just a woman, then congrats, the whole crew is stuck on an island with a really hot lady. If Circe is a goddess however (and we know she is), the mortal peril that these men have walked into could have them cursed, tortured or killed (or all three depending on who you run into). It’s Circe’s lovely and innocent appearance that draws Odysseus’ crew into Circe’s trap, her turning them all into pigs with her magic wand. Odysseus is not one of the pigs though, as Hermes warns him and gives him advice on how to defeat her. His great and heroic deed that Odysseus must slave through to get past this evil enchantress? Have sex with her. Poor guy, it must be so hard on him. He also uses the herb moly in order to drink from her wine without being cursed, that event being depicted in Circe’s quest in Assassin’s Creed Odyssey. Odysseus and Hermes plan works and the goddess swears an oath to not harm him and agrees to transform his crew back into their human forms. They all party it up for a year, drinking and feasting until they remember what they were doing in the first place and ask Circe to help them complete their journey, which she does, giving them information which they would not have been able to complete their journey without.

Overall, in Homer’s Odyssey, Circe was a small year long pit stop that helped them continue on their journey to travel back home. Her personality is shown to be deceitful, cruel, powerful and in the end, tameable. Although Circe is a mighty powerful goddess that to the unknowing mortal is one of the scariest women that you could happen upon, she is no match for Odysseus’ cunning wit and the divine intervention of Hermes. Circe is shown to be beatable, powerless when bested, able to be tricked into serving Odysseus for his every desire. Her witchlike image now fades and is replaced as an aid to Odysseus, telling him exactly what he needs to do next in his story (Warner). The evil witch now tamed by our great male hero, her weakness being her need for a great man to love her, curing her of her cruelty. As a woman myself, not a big fan of this version. It’s filled with the patriarchal ideas of Homer’s time. A woman, even a goddess with incredible power can be defeated by one really smart dude. Circe is depicted weaving when we first meet her, Homer telling the reader that Circe is the same as every other woman, not special in anyway. She fills her men-less days with weaving to fill the emptiness inside her heart (Pantelia, 498,1993)). Sure Circe hates men, but if you rush at her like you’re going to attack her she will be so scared she will have to have sex with you? Sounds like every woman’s dream. Make she’ll help you leave after hosting you for a year because you have your perfect wife and family to get back to? Who wouldn’t say yes to that? In Homer, Circe is cruel and evil by nature, but is able to be tamed and helpful when having sex with a man.

Circe In Ovid’s Metamorphoses: Book Thirteen & Fourteen

Scylla, Red-Figure Vase, Marie-Lan Nguyen (Public Domain)

If you’re looking for a happy story about Circe being a nice person, this is not the one for you. Ovid, a Roman poet, writing a few CE’s in the future, wrote Metamorphoses, a narrative poem series that tells stories of transformation. In Book Thirteen and Book Fourteen, Circe is depicted as a jealous and vengeful deity that transforms the nymph Scylla into a monster because Glaucus, whom she falls in love with, asks her for a love potion to make Scylla fall in love with him. The act is depicted as deliberate and cruel towards Scylla who wants nothing to do with Glaucus and becomes another tale of nymphs who are tragically punished for calling the attention of the gods to them. If you’re looking for Circe to be the feminist icon for our modern world, this is one of the worst stories for Circe’s evil nature. At first, Circe seems to be on the right track. She encourages Glaucus to love someone who should love him in return, refusing to craft him the love potion. It would have been great if she ended it there, but she does not. Instead she encourages Glaucus to fall in love with her instead and warns him of revenge if he rejects her. So close.

“‘You would do better to chase after someone whose wishes and purposes were yours, and who was captured by equal desire. Besides, you were worth courting (and certainly could be courted), and if you offer any hope, believe me you will be too. If you doubt it, and have no faith in your attractions, well, I, though I am a goddess, daughter of shining Sol, though I possess such powers of herbs and charms, I promise to be yours. Spurn the spurner, repay the admirer, and, in one act, be twice revenged.’”
Ovid, Book Fourteen, 13-16

Glaucus, not understanding the very clear warning he has been given, rejects Circe, stating that “‘Sooner than my love will change, Scylla unchanged, leaves will grow on the waters, and sea-weed will grow on the hills.’” (Book Fourteen, 17-18). We get the point Glaucus but being harsh to the magical Titaness that has feelings for you is not the smart choice here. Circe is obviously enraged and not being able to take her anger out on Glaucus (either because of his divinity or her love for him), decides to punish Scylla, the innocent nymph whose only crime was attracting the wrong kind of attention from the wrong man, a theme present in many Roman stories, like the story of Lucretia, who just wanted to make some clothes. The transformation is awful, Scylla having dogs spring from her legs and remaining stuck like that for the rest of her life, becoming the monster in stories like Homer’s Odyssey. This depiction of Circe is limited but harsh. She is described in Metamorphoses as a Titaness and a daughter of the Sun. The Sun, Helios, was a Titan of great power, making Circe apart of a powerful lineage. She is surrounded by transformed beasts all around her, her power being obvious to us as soon as we meet her. Her power is clear, but the ways in which she uses it are cruel and wicked. Circe behaves much more like an evil witch in fairy tales which most people in the modern world know. Jealous of the beauty that Scylla possess that gives her power over Glaucus, Circe tries to rob her of the power with a potion made of horrible herbs and dark incantations.

In the end, Glaucus is sad that his love is a monster, Circe is rejected yet again and Scylla is now a problem for sailors. A lose, lose, lose scenario. Circe’s cruelty comes from a place of revenge. She wishes to hurt both Glaucus, who so coldly rejected her, and Scylla, who Circe sees as the obstacle between her and Glaucus falling in love with her. She uses her power in anger and wrath, causing a curse that is never undone. Unlike in Homer’s Odyssey, Glaucus does not trick Circe or agree to sleep with her, he refuses her advances based on his love for Scylla, which causes Circe’s powers to be untamed and let loose in their most brutal form. This poem also communicates the dangers of the untamed women, like in Homer’s Odyssey. With no man to tame her, Circe creates chaos, the idea of being rejected by a man she wants enraging her, her evil nature being exposed when no one is there to stop her. In Ovid’s Metamorphoses, Circe’s true self is shown to be cruel, vengeful and powerful, a danger to those who cross her. This story does not sit right with me. After all, not every powerful woman has to be a love-sick monster.

Circe In Madeline Miller’s ‘Circe’

The first piece of literature in this post whose release date does not end in BC, this modern adaption of Circe’s tale retells many of the stories in antiquity. Homer’s Odyssey and Ovid’s Metamorphoses are two of the tales that Miller explores with Circe as the main character, Circe’s story being told to us by her, through her eyes. The retelling is pretty accurate to the originals, hitting the same key plot points that we all know and love. The biggest difference is the humanity that Circe expresses and what events have happened to her that lead her to these points and why she made those choices. In Miller’s ‘Circe’, Circe is described as unattractive by the gods and goddesses that she has grown up around. Her name means “Hawk” because her eyes are a “golden” colour that many other deities, such as her siblings and her mother, make fun of for being ugly and her voice for being frail like a mortal (Miller, 9, 2020). This unattractiveness, as well as her perceived lack of power, makes Circe less desirable to her father, Helios and many of the other gods, making Circe feel lonely and isolated among the divines that she was raised around. Gone are the comments of “glorious hair” and “sweet voice” from Homer’s Odyssey, making Circe feel as though she is not apart of the Titans and Gods that surround her early life. She is small among divinity, making her feel lonely and powerless for most of her life. None of the divinity treats her as an equal, largely ignoring her for most of her life. Circe’s heartbreaking backstory is enough to get the reader to sympathize almost automatically with Circe. She’s unwanted, unloved, is bullied constantly by those around her and is very lonely. These very human emotions make her feel separated from her family of Titans, Gods and nymphs, who all seem to relish in the uncaring and cruel nature that their immortality provides them. Circe connects more to the reader in this way, forcing us to imagine how we would feel if we were in a similar situation. Circe is also shown to have a kind and caring personality, wanting to help those around her, even mortals which the divinity around her seem to not care for in the slightest, many divines even going out of their way to harm them. Circe chooses to be kind to those around her, caring for Prometheus when he was being punished and transforming Glaucus into a divine because of her love for him. However, as you read on in the story, Circe becomes more jaded to those around her after many heartbreaking events happen in her life and Circe makes choices that could be portrayed as cruel and wicked, but with Circe’s backstory making everything understandable.

Glaucus and Scylla by Bartholomaus (Wikimedia Commons)

In Ovid’s Metamorphoses, Circe punishes Scylla for petty and cruel reasons, being depicted as a harsh witch. In Miller’s Circe, the events are like Ovid’s, but Miller shows that Circe transformed Scylla for different reasons. For starters, Circe was in love with Glaucus when he was a mortal and transformed him so that they could be together in immortality forever. Glaucus turns into not just a God however, but also a major ass, who ditches Circe as soon as he realizes that Circe is below his level of divinity, and chooses the most beautiful nymph, Scylla, to marry instead of Circe (Miller, Chapter 4, Chapter 5, 36-56). Circe is still in love with Glaucus and instead of being enraged, is instead heartbroken. It does not help that Scylla is cruel to Circe, teasing her about her love for Glaucus. Circe decides to transform the Scylla’s beautiful outer looks to her nasty insides in the hopes that Glaucus will realize that Scylla’s beauty is not worth his love and Circe’s is. While a selfish action, it is not cruel. Circe does not wish to punish Scylla for attracting Glaucus, or for her cruelty towards Circe. In fact, punishment seems to be the last thing that Circe has in mind, wanting to prove to Glaucus that Scylla’s appearance is the only thing that he loves about Scylla. Circe’s actions are understandable when we know her story. Even after the transformation, Glaucus sees Scylla’s transformation as a shame and looks to marry another beautiful nymph, not Circe (Chapter 5, 60). Circe is racked with guilt and turns herself in for punishment, being banished to her island. Circe’s guilt over harming Scylla follows her throughout the novel and becomes the main reason as to why Circe does not wish to become like the divinity around her. While much of the story is still the same from Metamorphoses, Circe’s character is much more three dimensional and sympathetic in Miller’s Circe, Circe’s reasoning not just boiling down to the “if I cannot have him no one can” mentality that caused her to be so cruel. Circe is shown to have made a mistake that she feels remorse for and wishes she could take back, a rarity that those around Circe do not possess.

Circe’s later time with Odysseus is shown to be different from Homer’s Odyssey, Circe even commenting on how the stories that were written about the event depicted her incorrectly, her being undone by the male hero and falling at his mercy.

“Humbling women seems to me a chief pastime of poets. As if there can be no story unless we crawl and weep.”
Miller, 206

Circe on a 490–480 BC oil jar, Athens-National Archaeological Museum (Wikimedia Commons)

Circe turns all of the men to pigs, not to hold her power over them and show her lack of care for mortals like the rest of the gods and goddesses portray, but as a means of protection because she was raped several years earlier by men who came on the island who she showed kindness to. Odysseus’s use of the herb moly is not seen as Odysseus besting Circe and then being rewarded for it with sex and comfort, it is seen as intriguing to Circe and she chooses to have sex with him because she finds him interesting. Again seeing the story through Circe’s eyes and knowing her backstory, her evil intentions turn to understandable choices that the reader can empathize with. Circe falls in love with Odysseus, making her time with him a happy time that the reader can rejoice in after so much sadness. The patriarchal ideals that Homer pushes, the woman untamed, are combated here. Even just by giving Circe the ability to tell her own story, her actions are no longer evil and her time with Odysseus is now happy instead of a defeat against the great hero. Circe’s actions after Odysseus and her meet, are no longer the result of being tamed, but out of love and care for Odysseus. Odysseus no longer becomes a defeat, he becomes a victory that shows Circe that not everybody will treat her the way she has become used to.

One of the things that Madeline Miller’s Circe highlights is that Circe is “a stop along the way”, staying still in her immortality until others arrive on the island. This highlights the patriarchal views in Homer’s Odyssey, Circe remaining idle until he arrives, having no distinctions of their until you are put in their POV (Macmillan, 36, 2020). The Odyssey was either written in the 7th or 8th century BC, Madeline Miller’s ‘Circe’ written in 2020 AD. Ovid’s Metamorphoses was written 8 AD in Rome, during the rule of Emperor Augustus, who had the opinion that women had to be dominated by their husbands. Circe fits in as just another woman in Homer while in Ovid stands out as everything a woman should not be, unmarried, domineering and having power over a man. This modern interpretation of Circe has given Circe the opportunity for the story of what these patriarchal views might have on this powerful goddess. The patriarchy present in Circe reflects the ideas of the time that The Odyssey and Ovid’s Metamorphoses were written in. Thankfully though, the modern AD’s that we live in allow for stories that are critical of these ideas that were once normal. Circe is excellent at doing this, placing the reader in the shoes of a powerful female goddess but the patriarchal society that she lives in making her feel small, devalued and worthless unless she has something to provide. Something far too relatable to many women even today.

Who is Circe Really?

With all these versions swirling around in your head, each one a little different from the previous, it can hard to really pin point who Circe is. Is she a cautionary tale, an example of good triumphing over evil, a horribly powerful witch or a goddess who can be reasoned with. Is she none of those things and simply just a person who has her reasons for what she did just as much as anyone else. The truth is that she is all of those things. She is whatever idea the writer is trying to communicate to us, she is every lesson that the reader takes away from these tales. There is no one version of Circe. She can be cruel or kind, powerful or weak, dangerous or helpful. With every new tale that comes forth about her, she changes and twists into a different version of herself, fitting whatever mold she is placed in. Maybe the tale that sticks is the one thats told first, maybe it’s the most dramatic one, maybe it’s the one that helps you relate to Circe the most. No matter how many depictions of Circe there are, there is always going to be one that sticks. I just hope the one that sticks is the version where she’s seen as a feminist icon who challenged patriarchal views of the time and was a more powerful figure than most men could ever hope to be. But thats just me.

“Circea” in B occaccio‘s c. 1365 D e Claris Mulieribus, a catalogue of famous women, from a 1474 edition

Sources

Homer. (1965). Book X. In R. Lattimore (Ed.), The Odyssey of Homer (pp. 163–179). essay, HaperCollins e-books.

Macmillan. (2019). The Witch(ES) of Aiaia: Gender, Immortality and the Chronotope in Madeline Miller’s Circe. Gender Studies (Timişoara), 18(1), 27–38. https://doi.org/10.2478/genst-2020-0002

McClymont. (2008). The character of Circe in the Odyssey. Akroterion, 53(1), 21–29. https://doi.org/10.7445/53-0-37

Miller, M. (2020). Circe: A Novel. Back Bay Books / Little, Brown and Company.

Ovid, & Dryden, J. (n.d.). The Internet Classics Archive: Metamorphoses by Ovid. The Internet Classics Archive | Metamorphoses by Ovid. Retrieved March 1, 2023, from http://classics.mit.edu/Ovid/metam.13.thirteenth.html 

Pantelia. (1993). Spinning and Weaving: Ideas of Domestic Order in Homer. American Journal of Philology, 114(4), 493–501. https://doi.org/10.2307/295422

Warner. (1997). The Enchantments of Circe. Raritan, 17(1), 1–.

“Wine for the Swine.” Assassin’s Creed Wiki, assassinscreed.fandom.com/wiki/Wine_for_the_Swine.

Zalewska-Jura. (2018). Circe and Rome. The Origin of the Legend. Studia Ceranea, 8(8), 77–87. https://doi.org/10.18778/2084-140X.08.04