Circe

Odysseus sent Eurylochus to explore Circe’s island with twenty-two companions. Circe invited them into her house and gave each man a cup containing cheese, honey, barleymeal, wine, and a drug. After they drank, she touched them with her wand and changed them into animals. Eurylochus had stayed outside. He saw what happened and fled to the ship to tell Odysseus. In another telling, the changed men were kept in a sty and fed acorns, while their minds remained human and they knew their condition.

Odysseus went alone to rescue his companions. On the way, Hermes met him and gave him the herb moly, which protected him from Circe’s enchantment. Odysseus accepted her drink, but the drug did not affect him. He drew his sword and threatened her. Circe calmed his anger and agreed to restore the men. Odysseus still refused food and drink until he had seen his companions returned to human form.

Circe opened the sty and touched each man with her wand. She then applied a second drug. Their animal forms disappeared, and they became men again. She had them washed and anointed with olive oil, and gave them woollen cloaks and shirts. When Odysseus and the restored men recognised one another, they wept with joy. Circe invited them to remain on the island, eat, and regain their strength after their hardships at sea.

Circe fell in love with Odysseus, and he became her lover. Odysseus and his crew stayed with her on Aeaea for a year. During that time, Circe told him what he needed to do to return home safely. One account says that she and Odysseus had a son, Telegonus. Other accounts name two sons, Agrius and Latinus.

Glaucus spread his catch on a green meadow beside the sea and counted the fish. They began to stir, moved across the grass, and slipped back into the water. He picked some of the grass and ate it. An irresistible longing for the sea seized him, so he ran into the waves. The sea gods received him and called on Ocean and Tethys to remove his mortal nature. A hundred rivers poured their waters over him. When he recovered, he had become a sea god with green hair and a body ending in a fish’s tail.

One day Glaucus saw Scylla, a beautiful maiden and favourite of the water nymphs, walking along the shore. She entered a sheltered place to bathe. Glaucus rose from the water and spoke to her, but Scylla fled until she reached a cliff above the sea. There she turned to look at him. Glaucus told her that he was neither monster nor sea animal, but a god of the waters. He explained that he had once been mortal and had become a sea god. Scylla watched him with wonder, then turned inland and disappeared.

Glaucus loved her and went to Circe, the enchantress, asking for herbs or spells that would make Scylla return his love. Circe instead declared her own love for him and urged him to pursue someone willing to receive him. Glaucus rejected her. He said that trees would cover the sea floor and seaweed the mountain tops before he stopped loving Scylla. Circe became furious, directing her anger at Scylla rather than at Glaucus.

Circe prepared a powerful poison from baleful herbs and went to the bay where Scylla bathed. One account says that she also uttered a dark charm over the water. When Scylla entered the pool, the poison changed her into a monster. Barking dogs appeared around her hindquarters. Scylla tried to escape them and angrily drove them off, but they remained part of her body.

Circe’s house stood among the trees on Aeaea, built of cut stone and visible from far off. Wild wolves and lions prowled around it. They had been bewitched and drugged into submission, so they fawned on Odysseus’s men instead of attacking them. From inside, Circe sang as she worked at her loom. Polites, whom Odysseus trusted, urged the men to call to her. All went in except Eurylochus, who suspected a trap.

Circe seated the men on couches and chairs. She mixed Pramnian wine with cheese, barley, honey, and a dangerous potion that made them forget their homeland. After they had drunk, she struck each man with her wand and shut them in the sty. They became swine in head, body, voice, and bristles, though their minds remained human. They understood their condition and wailed. Circe gave them acorns, dogwood fruit, and other food eaten by pigs.

Eurylochus returned to the ship and told Odysseus what had happened. Odysseus went alone towards Circe’s house, determined to free his companions. On the way, Hermes met him in the form of a young man. Hermes told him about Circe’s powers and gave him the herb moly, which would protect him from her sorcery. He instructed Odysseus how to face her.

Circe welcomed Odysseus and offered him the same kind of drink. Protected by Hermes’ herb, he ate and drank without falling under her spell. When she struck him with her wand, he was unchanged. He drew his sword and confronted her. Circe recognised that he was Odysseus and swore that she would not harm him. Odysseus refused to eat or drink until she freed his men and brought them before him. Circe opened the sty with her wand. She anointed each transformed man with another charm, and the bristles fell away. They became men again, younger, taller, and more handsome, and clung to Odysseus while they wept.

Medea and Jason fled from Colchis with the Golden Fleece, while Aietes pursued them. When Medea saw her father’s ship drawing near, she killed her brother Apsyrtus, cut up his body, and threw the pieces into the sea. Aietes stopped to gather and bury the remains, which allowed the Argo to escape. The burial place was called Tomoi.

The murder brought blood-guilt upon Medea and Jason. In one account, the magic bough fixed to the Argo declared that Zeus was angry because a cruel crime had made the sacred ship foul with blood. Some of the heroes wanted to throw Medea into the sea, but the bough forbade this. It said that she must live and guide them to her sister Circe, who lived among the islands of the West and would cleanse them of their guilt.

The Argonauts therefore continued their difficult return journey and reached Aeaea, Circe’s island. Circe recognised the blood-guilt that had brought Jason and Medea to her. She performed a ritual purification for them, cleansing them of the murder of Apsyrtus. After this purification, Jason and Medea continued their return journey, and they later married.