Circe in the ancient sources

Ancient Sources / Figures / Circe

27 passages from 11 ancient authors that tell of Circe, in the original with English translation, author by author in the order the Greeks read them. Circe was a minor goddess of magic in Greek mythology, daughter of the Titans Helios, god of the sun, and Perse, an Oceanid. She had two brothers, Aee... For the story in one place, read our article on Circe.

Hesiod (1)

Hesiod, Theogony 960–1022Goddesses and mortal men; the end of the poem (960-1022)The Muses are asked to sing of the goddesses who lay with mortal men. Demeter bears Plutus to Iasion, Harmonia bears Ino, Semele, Agave, Autonoe and Polydorus to Cadmus, and Callirrhoe bears Geryon. The list continues with Eos and Tithonus, Aphrodite and Anchises, Thetis and Peleus, and ends with Circe and Calypso bearing sons to Odysseus before the poet turns to the company of women.

Homer (11)

Homer, Odyssey 10.333–465Circe frees the men; a year with CirceCirce invites him to her bed, and Odysseus makes her swear the oath, and her maids prepare a bath and a meal, but he cannot eat while his men are swine. She anoints them with another drug and they become men again, younger and taller than before, and Odysseus brings the rest of the crew from the ship. They stay a full year feasting, until the men urge him to think of home.
Homer, Odyssey 10.274–332Hermes and the molyOn the way Hermes meets Odysseus and gives him the herb moly, black at the root and milk-white in the flower, to protect him against Circe's drugs. He tells him to draw his sword when she strikes him with her wand, and to make her swear a great oath that she will do him no harm. Odysseus does so, and Circe, amazed that her drugs have failed, recognises him as the man whom Hermes had foretold.
Homer, Odyssey 10.466–574Circe's instructions; the death of ElpenorAfter a year the men urge Odysseus to think of home, and Circe tells him that before he goes he must visit the house of Hades and consult the ghost of Teiresias. She tells him how to make the offerings and where to land. Odysseus rouses his men, but the youngest, Elpenor, who had gone to sleep on the roof, falls from it and breaks his neck. The men weep at the news of the journey they must make, and Circe passes unseen to leave a ram and a black ewe by the ship.
Homer, Odyssey 10.210–273Circe turns the men to swineEurylochus' men find Circe's house in a clearing, with wolves and lions that fawn on them. Circe invites them in, gives them a mixture of cheese, barley and honey with a drug, and turns them into swine with a touch of her wand. Eurylochus, who stayed outside, runs back and tells Odysseus, who sets out alone for the house.
Homer, Odyssey 11.1–89The voyage to the land of the deadThey launch the ship, put the sheep aboard, and sail from Circe's island to the edge of the world, where the Cimmerians dwell in mist and darkness. Odysseus digs a pit, pours libations to the dead and cuts the throats of the sheep so that their blood flows into it. The ghosts come up, and he draws his sword and keeps them from the blood. Elpenor's ghost, first of all, begs for burial, and Odysseus sees his own mother among the ghosts but will not let her near the blood before he has questioned Teiresias.
Homer, Odyssey 12.1–141Circe's counselAfter they leave the river of Ocean and return to Aeaea, Odysseus buries Elpenor, and Circe comes to them with food and wine. She tells him in private of the dangers ahead: the Sirens, whom they must pass with their ears stopped with wax, and the wandering rocks. She describes Scylla and Charybdis, and tells him to choose Scylla's side, and to leave the cattle of the Sun untouched.
Homer, Odyssey 12.260–328The cattle of the SunHaving escaped the rocks, Charybdis and Scylla, they come to the island of the Sun. From the ship Odysseus hears the cattle and the sheep, and recalls the warnings of Teiresias and Circe, and wants to sail past the island. Eurylochus objects, and the men land and swear not to touch the herds, but a south wind blows for a month, and their stores give out.
Homer, Odyssey 10.133–209Circe's island; the stagThey come to the island of Aeaea, where the goddess Circe lives, and Odysseus lands and kills a great stag, which the men carry down to the ship for a meal. The men weep, remembering the Cyclops and the Laestrygonians, and Odysseus divides them into two companies, led by himself and by Eurylochus, and the lot falls to Eurylochus to go inland.
Homer, Odyssey 8.370–453The dance; gifts for the strangerHalius and Laodamas dance a ball dance, and Odysseus praises their skill. Alcinous bids the twelve kings of the Phaeacians each give a cloak, a tunic and a talent of gold, and Euryalus offers a bronze sword with a silver hilt by way of apology, which Odysseus accepts. Arete has a chest brought, and Odysseus ties the lid with a knot that Circe once taught him, and then goes to the bath.
Homer, Odyssey 12.142–200The SirensOdysseus tells his men of the Sirens, and has them stop their ears with wax and tie him to the mast, so that he alone may hear them. As the ship comes near, the wind drops and the sea is calm, and the Sirens sing of the Trojan war and of all that happens on the earth. Odysseus begs to be set free, but his men row on and bind him tighter.
Homer, Odyssey 23.288–372Odysseus tells his tale; the dawnThey go to bed, and Odysseus tells Penelope the story of his wanderings, the Cicones, the Lotus-eaters, the Cyclops, Aeolus, the Laestrygonians, Circe, Hades, the Sirens, Scylla, Charybdis, the cattle of the Sun, Calypso and the Phaeacians. At dawn he tells Penelope to stay in her room and goes out to the country with Telemachus and the two herdsmen, to see his father, with Athena casting night about them.

Apollodorus (2)

Apollodorus, The Library (Bibliotheca), with the Epitome E.7.1–40The wanderings of Odysseus, the suitors and his deathOdysseus leaves Troy and meets the Cicones, the Lotus-eaters and Polyphemus the Cyclops, then Aeolus, the Laestrygonians and Circe. After the visit to Hades, the Sirens, Scylla and Charybdis and the cattle of the Sun, he reaches Calypso and then the Phaeacians and Ithaca, where the suitors are named and killed. The section ends with his later life among the Thesprotians and the variant accounts of his death at the hands of Telegonus, and of Penelope's fate.
Apollodorus, The Library (Bibliotheca), with the Epitome 1.9.23–28Jason and Medea: the Golden Fleece, the return and CorinthAt Colchis Aeetes sets Jason the tasks of yoking the fire-breathing bulls and sowing dragon's teeth, and Medea's drugs bring him through; she then helps him take the fleece. Medea kills her brother Apsyrtus to delay pursuit, and the Argo sails on to Circe, the Sirens, the Phaeacians, Crete (where Talos is killed) and Iolcus. Medea tricks the daughters of Pelias into boiling him, and when Jason marries Glauce at Corinth she destroys the bride and her father and kills her own sons. She flees to Athens and marries Aegeus, bears Medus, and finally returns to Colchis to restore Aeetes.

Euripides (1)

Euripides, Trojan Women 406–461First episode: Cassandra foretells the wanderings of OdysseusThe Chorus says that Cassandra smiles at her own sad lot, and Talthybius says that if Apollo had not turned her wits he would not let her send the chiefs off with such ill omens. Cassandra mocks heralds as the hated servants of rulers, and, asked about Hecuba's fate, says that Hecuba will die at Troy and that Odysseus, who does not know what awaits him, will wander ten years beyond the Trojan ones, past Charybdis, the Cyclops and Circe, and descend alive to Hades, before she is led away.

Apollonius Rhodius (2)

Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica 4.552–684Zeus' anger and the voyage to Circe's islandZeus is angry at the murder, and the speaking beam of Argo says that Circe must cleanse them. Argo sails up the Eridanus, where Phaethon fell, and through the Rhodanus, with Hera guiding them, past the Stoechades to the Tyrrhenian coast. They come to Aeaea and see Circe washing her hair.
Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica 4.685–782Circe purifies Jason and MedeaAt Aeaea Circe, daughter of Helios, purifies Jason and Medea of the murder. When she learns the whole story she drives them from her house with reproaches. Hera sends Iris to fetch Thetis and to ask Hephaestus and Aeolus to help Argo.

Aristophanes (1)

Aristophanes, Plutus 253–321Parodos: Cario summons the farmersCario calls in his master's old farm-friends, and the Chorus complain that they are too old to hurry and curious to know why they are wanted. Cario teases them with a tale of a bald, toothless old man, then tells them that the god of wealth himself has been captured and that they will all be rich. In a mock song Cario plays the Cyclops and then Circe, threatening to turn the Chorus into swine, and the Chorus threaten him in return, until Cario goes in to find something to eat.

Ovid (4)

Ovid, Metamorphoses 14.1–74Scylla and CirceGlaucus comes to the island of Circe and begs her for a charm to make Scylla love him. Circe, who loves him herself, tries to turn him from Scylla and, in jealousy, poisons the pool where Scylla bathes. Scylla finds her lower body changed into a ring of barking monsters, and in her hatred of Circe she robs Odysseus (Ulysses) of his men. She is at last changed into a rock that still frightens sailors.
Ovid, Metamorphoses 14.221–319Macareus and CirceAchaemenides asks Macareus to tell of his own adventures, and Macareus tells of Aeolus and the Laestrygonians, and how the Greeks came to the island of Circe, and how she changed many of his shipmates into animals with her drugs. Odysseus (Ulysses), protected by a charm from Hermes (Mercury), forced her to restore his men, and they lived with her for a year. Circe shows Macareus a woodpecker and a statue of Picus, and tells him its story.
Ovid, Metamorphoses 14.320–439Picus and CanensCirce tells the story of Picus, once king of Latium, who loved horses and war and whom she fell in love with. Picus, who was faithful to his wife Canens, rejected her, and Circe turned him into a woodpecker, and his companions into wild beasts. Canens, after searching for him for six days, wasted away with grief, and became a voice in the air. Macareus ends by telling how Circe sent the Greeks on their way after a year.
Ovid, Metamorphoses 13.900–968GlaucusScylla returns to a lonely bay, where the sea god Glaucus appears and tells her how, once a fisherman, he laid his catch on a bank of grass, and the fish revived and plunged into the sea. He ate some of the grass himself and was seized by the same longing, and was received among the sea gods. He pleads for Scylla's love, but she flees, and Glaucus goes in anger to the court of Circe.

Pausanias (1)

Pausanias, Description of Greece 5.19.1–10Olympia: the Chest of Cypselus, fourth and fifth fieldsPausanias describes the fourth field, including Boreas and Orithyia, Hercules and Geryon, the fight of Achilles and Memnon, the Dioscuri rescuing Helen, scenes from the Trojan war, the judgment of Paris and the sons of Oedipus. He then gives his readings of the unlabelled uppermost field, such as Ulysses and Circe, and guesses that the verses are by Eumelus of Corinth.

Nonnus of Panopolis (2)

Nonnus of Panopolis, Dionysiaca 13.309–392Book 13: Sicilians and Libyans; Psyllos and the windsAchates leads the Sicilians, with Phaunos, a son of Circe. The poet tells how Cadmos and Harmonia once lived in Libya and defended it against the Maurians. The Libyans come under Crataigonos, after Psyllos, who made war on the south wind, was drowned with his fleet.
Nonnus of Panopolis, Dionysiaca 37.0–102Book 37: The burial of the Indian deadDuring the truce the Indians bury their dead, and Dionysos has wood cut to burn Opheltes. Opheltes is cremated on a great pyre with sacrifices and offerings of hair, Phaunos kindles the fire and the Wind fans it, and the Corybants raise a tomb with an epitaph.

Epic Cycle (1)

Epic Cycle, Summaries and Fragments 9.1–10.2Returns and TelegonyProclus' summary of the Returns begins with Athena causing a quarrel between Agamemnon and Menelaus about the voyage from Troy. The fragments mention Medea and Aeson, Heracles at Themiscyra, and Telemachus marrying Circe. The Telegony, in two books, has Odysseus sailing to Elis after the suitors are buried, and the author says that Odysseus had a son Telegonus by Calypso.

Parthenius of Nicaea (1)

Parthenius of Nicaea, Love Romances 11.1–13.5Caunus and Byblis; Calchus and Circe; Clymenus and HarpalyceTwo versions are given of Caunus and Byblis: in one Caunus loves his sister and leaves home to found a city, in the other Byblis loves her brother and hangs herself, and the teller adds his own verses on her. Calchus the Daunian loves Circe, who loves Odysseus; she feeds him drugged food and drives him mad into the pig-styes, and frees him only after he swears never to return. Clymenus loves his daughter Harpalyce and takes her back from her husband; she serves him the flesh of her younger brother and is turned into a bird, and he kills himself.