CIRCE

a mythical sorceress, whom Homer calls a fair-locked goddess, a daughter of Helios by the oceanid Perse, and a sister of Aeetes. (Od. x. 135.)

She lived in the island of Aeaea and when Odysseus on his wanderings came to her island, Circe, after having changed several of his companions into pigs, became so much attached to the unfortunate hero, that he was induced to remain a whole year with her. At length, when he wished to leave her, she prevailed upon him to descend into the lower world to consult the seer Teiresias.

After his return from thence, she explained to him the dangers which he would yet have to encounter, and then dismissed him. Her des­cent is differently described by the poets, for some call her a daughter of Hyperion and Aerope (Orph. Argon. 1215), and others a daughter of Aeetes and Hecate.

According to The Theogony of Hesiod (1011) she became by Odysseus the mother of Agrius. The Latin poets too make great use of the story of Circe, the sorceress, who metamorphosed Scylla and Picus, king of the Ausonians. (Metamorphoses by Ovid xiv.)