Circe goddess of ancient Greece. Circe is a sorceress goddess. Treaty of Odysseus and Circe

It is not surprising that Circe led a similar lifestyle, since she came from a very careless family. Her father was Helios, who spent the whole day driving the sun chariot of the god Apollo across the sky, which meant that his children did not see him often. He left for work when they were still sleeping, and came when they were already asleep. Circe's sister, Pasiphae, was the infamous queen who fell in love with a bull and climbed inside a stuffed cow to have sexual intercourse with him. The result of their perverted relationship was the Minotaur, a half-bull, half-man monster whom Pasiphae's hubby, King Minos, kept in a labyrinth under royal palace. You don't even have to ask what Pasiphae's profession was.

One day, an attractive young man, Glaucus, moored his boat to the shore of the island. The girl quickly becomes bored on the island in the company of toads and poisonous mushrooms, and Glaucus had the appearance of a Greek god. Circe glanced at the strong muscles playing under the young man’s tunic and exhaled: “Stay for lunch.”

She quickly prepared a modest five-course meal with two types of wine, and for dessert she changed into a more comfortable outfit, which in this case was identical to Eve's. Glaucus turned pale and began to stutter: “I am, um, truly flattered, Circe, and, um, in any other circumstance, yes, but, you see, I am in love with the nymph Scylla. She’s slimmer than you and has bigger breasts, so I came to you for a magic concoction that will make her love me.”

Circe managed to restrain herself. She took a deep breath and said, “It’s okay, ha, ha, I’m not offended that you reject me. As for your beloved Scylla, you would tell me where this young lady likes to swim, and I will pour some magic potion into the water.”

And she really did add something to the water, only this something turned Scylla into a terrible monster.

The next man to break Circe's heart was the minor god Pictus, who asked Circe for a means to gain the favor of the goddess Pomona. Circe treated him to a magic drink and turned him into a woodpecker. And suddenly she had an epiphany: “All men are animals,” she announced, “so I will turn them all into animals!”

After this, Circe tried her concoctions on all the unfortunate travelers whose ships washed up on her island. She showed exceptional hospitality: she generously treated travelers with dishes, followed by aromatic wine that turned men into lions, tigers and bears. Soon the island literally resembled a menagerie. One day, the Greek hero Odysseus landed on the island, returning with his companions from the Trojan War. As soon as the Greeks set foot on the island, they were surrounded by a whole flock of wild animals, which were supposed to be ferocious, but for some reason these animals rubbed against the legs of travelers, like ordinary domestic cats or dogs.

“Oh, I don’t like all this,” said Odysseus’s first mate, Eurylochus. “I think there’s some kind of witchcraft involved.”

“Nonsense,” Odysseus replied. - Don't be so suspicious. You know what: take some people and go explore the island, and I’ll stay here and guard the ship.”

Eurylochos and the other sailors soon reached marble palace Circe, and the sorceress herself came out to meet them in a beautiful short tunic and apron, with a wooden spoon in her hand. “Welcome to my humble island,” she said. “You must be hungry?”

All the travelers willingly entered the dining room, except for the suspicious Eurylochus, who remained outside and peered through the crack in the door. His companions, who were simple people and were not taught good manners, did not know how to use knives and forks. They grabbed delicious dishes with their hands and loudly slurped soup from golden bowls. Circe looked at them with disgust, thinking: “What pigs - what an idea!”

“Hurry, Odysseus,” he said breathlessly, “we are in trouble!” Some crazy woman turned all our friends into pigs!”

But Odysseus was a real man and could not tolerate a woman getting the better of him. He grabbed his sword and ran towards Circe's palace. Before she could ask, “Are you staying for dinner?” - He put the tip of the sword directly to her throat.

Circe

Circe was in some ways a masochist and had a weakness for men who knew how to seize power into their own hands. She exhaled: “My man!” - and threw off her tunic.

Circe was dumbfounded. “Wife and son? - she sobbed. “You didn’t tell me anything about them!” And she wanted to immediately turn him into a pig, but Odysseus was too cunning to drink the sorceress’s decoction. He even managed to convince her to load the ship with provisions (but no wine!) and provide them with a good map.

Circe was the daughter of a god, so she apparently still lives on her island, experimenting with new magical spells while waiting for the next traveler to try the magic potion on. She doesn't touch women, but if you're a man vacationing in the Mediterranean, you're advised to be wary!

Circe(Latinized form of the Greek name Kirk, ancient Greek. Κίρκη ) - in Greek mythology, the daughter of Helios and the Oceanid Perseids (or Persians). According to some, the daughter of Apollo and Ephea.

Witch. Related to Hecate, the goddess of the moon and, like Hecate and Medea, a representative of sorcery.
She lived on the island of Aeaia (Aiaia, the location of the island in the tales of Circe is geographically indeterminable). Either from the island of Enaria, or the island of Maeonia. Circe's residence was later moved from Far East to the west, to Tyrrhenian coast: a cape on the Italian coast (in Latium) was named after her. Lived at Tyrrhenian Sea, arrived on the island in the chariot of Helios. She purified the Argonauts after killing Apsyrtus.
According to Diodorus, she was the daughter of Aeetes and Hecate. Kirka married the king of the Sarmatians and poisoned her husband with potions. Having become queen, she committed cruelty against the courtiers, which is why she lost royal power. She fled to the vastness of the Ocean and settled on an island with the women accompanying her; or in Italy on Cape Kerkey.
There are also two legends about Circe’s hopeless love for the sea god Glaucus, on whom Circe took revenge by turning his beloved Scylla into a monster with the power of her spell, and for the king of Ausonia, the son of Saturn Picus, who was turned into a woodpecker by the goddess.

Kirk and Odysseus

Odysseus's companions, whom Kirka turned into pigs

Odysseus was brought to her island during his wanderings on the sea. When some of the latter’s companions, who went to explore the island, were turned into pigs by Pickaxe, Odysseus went alone to the sorceress’s house and with the help of the wonderful plant given to him by Hermes, he defeated the spell of the goddess, who, recognizing Odysseus as a brave guest, invited him to stay with her on the island and share her love.

Alessandro Allori - Circe. Hermes warns Odysseus

Odysseus bowed to the goddess's proposal, but first made her swear that she was not plotting anything bad against him, and return the human image to his companions, who had been turned into pigs. Having lived for a year on the island in bliss and contentment, Odysseus, at the insistence of his comrades, began to ask Kirk to let them go home and, having received the consent of the goddess, he first went, on her advice, to the region of Hades to learn from the soothsayer Tiresias about the trials ahead of him.

According to Homer's description, she had four nymph maids, daughters of streams (they evoke associations with the four rivers of paradise). According to Apollonius of Rhodes, her animals are the first fruits of the evolution described by Empedocles.
Having received the desired information from Tiresias, Odysseus returned to the island of Kirke and, warned by her about the dangers that awaited him at the island of Sirens, in the strait where Scylla and Charybdis live, and on the island of Trinacria, he set off on further voyages. She taught Odysseus how to make knots.
According to Hesiod, Odysseus gave birth to Kirke's sons Agrius and Latinus (Homer does not mention this). According to another version, she gave birth to a son, Telegon (or Nausithos and Telegon), from Odysseus.
Circa later married Telemachus, but was killed by him when he fell in love with her daughter Cassifona.

In later tradition

The tomb of Kirka was shown on the islet of Pharmacussa near Attica. It was claimed that the Italic tribe of Marsi descended from Kirka, which was therefore protected from snake bites. Mount Kirkey in Latsia is a hunting place. On Mount Kirkei there was a temple of Kirkei, where the cup of Odysseus was shown. Kirkei Hill was in Colchis.
Actor Aeschylus's satyr drama "The Pickaxe" (fr. 309-311 Radt) and a number of comedies. Presumably Odysseus and Kirk are depicted on the Kypselus casket.
According to the interpretation, she was a heterosexual and charmed the guests.

* The novel “The Hour of the Bull” by Ivan Efremov provides a rational explanation of the myth:
Circe is a magnificent myth from time immemorial, which arose from matriarchal deities, about the sexual magic of the goddess depending on the level of erotic aspiration: either downwards - to swinishness, or upwards - to the goddess. It was almost always misinterpreted. The beauty and desire of women evoke disgust only in the psyche of those who have not risen above animals in their sexual feelings. Women in earlier times only very rarely understood the ways of combating the sexual savagery of a man, and those who knew this were considered Circes. The meeting with Circe was a touchstone for every man to find out whether he is a man in Eros. Sexual magic only works on low level perception of Beauty and Eros."

Circe- daughter of Helios and the oceanid Persians, a moon goddess related to Hecate and a representative of sorcery. She lived on the island of Eya, where Odysseus was brought during his wanderings across the sea. Odysseus sent half of his men on reconnaissance; they came to a palace where wolves and lions wagged their tails in a friendly manner.

Circe lured them ashore with magical singing and turned them into animals.

Soon, the mistress of the palace came out to Odysseus’s companions and gave them wine with a potion mixed into it. Thus, some of Odesseus’s companions, who went to explore the island, were turned into pigs by Circe.

Heads, hair, voice and their entire appearance
They became pigs. Only the mind remained as before.
Weeping, Circe drove them into the stable and threw them into food.
They have acorns and simple and edible and woody berries -
Food that is thrown in the mud to sleeping pigs.
(Homer "Odyssey", canto 10)

Only one of Odysseus’s companions did not drink wine and watched what was happening from afar; he returned to Odysseus and told about what he saw. Odysseus went to save his comrades and on the way to Circe’s palace he met God and told him how to save himself from becoming a pig:

I will tell you everything that Circe is craftily preparing.
He will mix a drink in your cup and add some potions to you.
However, it will not bewitch you. He won't allow that to happen
The healing remedy that I will give you. Remember in detail:
Only Circe will strike you with her long rod,
Rip out your copper-edged sword immediately from its sheath at your hip,
Rush with your sword at Circe, as if you were going to kill her.
She, frightened, will offer you a bed to share with her.
Don’t you dare think of refusing the goddess’s bed,
If you want to save your comrades and be her guest.
Let her only swear by the great oath of the blessed,
That he doesn’t plan any other misfortune for you,
So that you, undressed, do not become defenseless and lose your strength.

Odysseus, coming to Circe, followed the advice of Hermes. When Odysseus rushed at Circe with a sword, the sorceress was frightened and fell to her knees in front of Odysseus, guessing who was in front of her:

Who are you, where are you from? What kind of parents are you? Where were you born?
I am amazed: my poison had no effect on you at all!

Odysseus, with the help of the wonderful plant given to him by Hermes, defeated the spell of the goddess, who, recognizing Odysseus as a brave guest, invited him to stay with her on the island and share her love. Odysseus bowed to the goddess's proposal, but first made her swear that she was not plotting anything bad against him, and return the human image to his companions, who were turned into pigs. Having lived for a year on the island in bliss and contentment, Odysseus, at the insistence of his comrades, began to ask Circe to let them go home and, having received the consent of the goddess, first, on her advice, went to the region of Hades to learn from the soothsayer Tiresias about the trials ahead of him. Having received the desired information from Tiresias, Odysseus returned to the island of Circe and, warned by her about the dangers that awaited him at the island of Sirens, in the strait where Scylla and Charybdis live, and on the island of Trinacria, he set off on further voyages. From Odysseus, Circe had a son, Agrius (according to another legend - Latinus). According to other sources, from the relationship of Circe and Odysseus, a son was born, Telegonus (“far-born”), who many years later accidentally killed his father.

Another interpretation of an ancient Greek myth

Circe

In ancient Greece, very loving women did not have support groups, and this is bad, because the sorceress Circe (or Kirk) could have put together such a group. She was definitely devoted to love, but she always chose the wrong object. But if she was abandoned, she was instantly cured of love for the unworthy.
It is not surprising that Circe led a similar lifestyle, since she came from a very careless family. Her father was Helios, who spent the whole day driving the sun chariot of the god Apollo across the sky, which meant that his children did not see him often. He left for work when they were still sleeping, and came when they were already asleep. Circe's sister, Pasiphae, was the infamous queen who fell in love with a bull and climbed inside a stuffed cow to have sexual intercourse with him. The result of their perverse affair was the Minotaur, a half-bull, half-man monster that Pasiphae's hubby, King Minos, kept in a labyrinth beneath the royal palace. You don't even have to ask what Pasiphae's profession was.

Circe was also a queen, but when her husband, the king, died under suspicious circumstances, she moved to Aeaea, a small island in the Mediterranean Sea, to avoid accusations of poisoning her husband. Here she built herself a modest little palace in the depths of the island and spent her days in the kitchen, stirring concoctions in a huge cast-iron cauldron. This lady loved to cook!
One day, an attractive young man, Glaucus, moored his boat to the shore of the island. The girl quickly becomes bored on the island in the company of toads and poisonous mushrooms, and Glaucus had the appearance of a Greek god. Circe glanced at the strong muscles playing under the young man’s tunic and exhaled: “Stay for lunch.”
She quickly prepared a modest five-course meal with two types of wine, and for dessert she changed into a more comfortable outfit, which in this case was identical to Eve's. Glaucus turned pale and began to stutter: “I am, um, truly flattered, Circe, and, um, in any other circumstance, yes, but, you see, I am in love with the nymph Scylla. She’s slimmer than you and has bigger breasts, so I came to you for a magic concoction that will make her love me.”
Circe managed to restrain herself. She took a deep breath and said, “It’s okay, ha, ha, I’m not offended that you reject me. As for your beloved Scylla, you would tell me where this young lady likes to swim, and I will pour some magic potion into the water.”
And she really did add something to the water, only this something turned Scylla into a terrible monster.
The next man to break Circe's heart was the minor god Pictus, who asked Circe for a means to gain the favor of the goddess Pomona. Circe treated him to a magic drink and turned him into a woodpecker. And suddenly she had an epiphany: “All men are animals,” she announced, “so I will turn them all into animals!”
After this, Circe tried her concoctions on all the unfortunate travelers whose ships washed up on her island. She showed exceptional hospitality: she generously treated travelers with dishes, followed by aromatic wine that turned men into lions, tigers and bears. Soon the island literally resembled a menagerie. One day, the Greek hero Odysseus landed on the island, returning with his companions from the Trojan War. As soon as the Greeks set foot on the island, they were surrounded by a whole flock of wild animals, which were supposed to be ferocious, but for some reason these animals rubbed against the legs of travelers, like ordinary domestic cats or dogs.

Cerce prepares a poisonous potion

“Oh, I don’t like all this,” said Odysseus’s first mate, Eurylochus. “I think there’s some kind of witchcraft involved.”
“Nonsense,” replied Odysseus. - Don't be so suspicious. You know what: take some people and go explore the island, and I’ll stay here and guard the ship.”
Eurylochus and the other sailors soon reached Circe's marble palace, and the sorceress herself came out to meet them in a beautiful short tunic and apron, with a wooden spoon in her hand. “Welcome to my humble island,” she said. “You must be hungry?”
All the travelers willingly entered the dining room, except for the suspicious Eurylochus, who remained outside and peered through the crack in the door. His companions, who were simple people and were not taught good manners, did not know how to use knives and forks. They grabbed delicious dishes with their hands and loudly slurped soup from golden bowls. Circe looked at them with disgust, thinking: “What pigs - what an idea!”

Circe turns Odysseus's companions into pigs

And after drinking magic wine for dessert, the men felt how their noses turned into pig snouts, their hands became front legs, and their screams of horror sounded like pig grunts. They all turned into pigs! Eurylochus, who had seen everything through the door, hurried back to the ship.
“Hurry, Odysseus,” he said breathlessly, “we are in trouble!” Some crazy woman turned all our friends into pigs!”
But Odysseus was a real man and could not tolerate a woman getting the better of him. He grabbed his sword and ran towards Circe's palace. Before she could ask, “Are you staying for dinner?” - He put the tip of the sword directly to her throat.
Circe was in some ways a masochist and had a weakness for men who knew how to seize power into their own hands. She exhaled: “My man!” - and threw off her tunic.

Dosso Dossi - Circe and her favorites

Circe returned Odysseus's companions to their former appearance, and she lived with Odysseus for a whole year, spending most of the time cooking French dishes for her beloved and his comrades. Then, one day, Odysseus said to her: “Listen, this has been colossal, but it’s time for me to return to my wife and son.”
Circe was dumbfounded. “Wife and son? - she sobbed. “You didn’t tell me anything about them!” And she wanted to immediately turn him into a pig, but Odysseus was too cunning to drink the sorceress’s decoction. He even managed to convince her to load the ship with provisions (but no wine!) and provide them with a good map.

Dosso Dossi - Melissa (Circe)

The sorceress’s heart was broken, but she did not give up hope for the return of her lover and for a good six months she walked along the shore and looked into the distance to see if Odysseus’s ship was sailing. Finally she had to come to terms with the bitter truth. “He doesn’t come and doesn’t write,” she exclaimed sadly. “This is what I deserve for all my beauty and love.”
Circe was the daughter of a god, so she apparently still lives on her island, experimenting with new magical spells while waiting for the next traveler to try the magic potion on. She doesn't touch women, but if you're a man vacationing in the Mediterranean, you're advised to be wary!

When men act like animals

Circe wasn't the only one who turned men into animals when they deserved it. The Mabinogian, a collection of ancient Welsh legends, contains one story about Mat Mathonwy, a sorcerer, and his beautiful maid Gawyn. Mat's nephew, Gilfathwy, became infatuated with Gavin and, with the help of his brother Gwydion, raped the girl. Having learned about this, Mat first saved the girl’s reputation by taking her as his wife, and then punished the brothers in an unusual way.
They acted like unbridled animals, so he struck them with his magic staff and turned them into deer, male and female, driving them into the forest for a whole year. Then they returned with the fawn. Mat turned the fawn into a boy and adopted him. As for the brothers, he turned them into wild boars and changed their gender: the one who was previously a female became a hog, and vice versa. A year later they returned with a small pig. Mat turned him back into a boy and adopted him.
And for the third time he changed the appearance of the brothers. This time the sow became a wolf, and the former hog became a wolf, and again they returned a year later with a wolf cub, which Mat turned into a boy and joined with the rest of his adopted sons. Finally, Mat hit the brothers for the last time with a magic staff, and they turned into men again, but now each of them knew well what it was to be a woman and what it was like to scour the forests in the form of animals.

Circe

Circe(Kirka) - daughter Perseids And Helios, sun god, powerful sorceress, nymph of the island of Eya.

Far from the domain of the first sorcerers, on the forested island of Eya in the Adriatic Sea lived a sorceress Circe.

Her companions were tamed animals that had once been sailors. Always malicious, Circe lured them ashore with magical singing and turned them into animals with the help of spells.

Circe and Scylla Scylla (Skilla) - nymph, daughter of the goddess Hecates

and Forkis. Turned into a monster by Circe, she lived in a cave opposite the Charybdis whirlpool and devoured the sailors passing between them.
The sailors were not its only victims. Another victim was the charming nymph Scylla, who had become in the habit of swimming off the coast of the island. She attracted the attention of the sorceress thanks to her lover, a shepherd whom Circe desired. Circe went one night through
Pine forest
to the place where Scylla bathed in the morning. The sorceress sat down on a rock and raised high the crystal vessel that she had brought with her.
She poured a liquid green as an emerald into the sea. Circe watched for some time as the enchanted bubbles danced and dissolved on the water surface. Then she disappeared.

At dawn, a sweet-voiced nymph, singing, appeared on the shore.