Circe.
The daughter of Helios and Perse, Circe was a sorceress (or a goddess) living on the island of Aeaea, off the western coast of Italy. A powerful magician, she offered visitors wine with a potion that turned them into beasts. When Odysseus landed on her island, she turned half his men into swine, then restored them after he promised to become her lover. He remained with Circe for a year, after which she allowed him to resume his homeward journey.

     Circe is primarily associated with this episode from the Odyssey, but she figures in other myths as well. In some legends, she married Odysseus’s son Telemachus after his father’s death. According to the Argonautic tradition, after Jason and Medea killed Medea’s brother Apsyrtus in their flight from Colchis, they went to Circe to be purified of the crime. In still another story, Glaucus, a sea-god who was unsuccessfully pursuing the nymph Scylla, came to Circe to ask for a love potion. When Glaucus rejected her own advances, Circe poisoned the waters where Scylla bathed, turning her into a hideous monster. Circe also once loved Picus, son of Saturn, whom she transformed into a woodpecker for resisting her advances.



See also Glaucus; Jason, Golden Fleece; Odysseus, Circe; Telemachus.