Also called Kirke, the Witch of Aeaea.
The tale
Homer's Circe lived on the island of Aeaea in a stone hall among tame wolves and lions, weaving at her loom and singing. When Odysseus's men arrived, she gave them a drink laced with drugs and struck them with her wand, turning them into swine. Hermes met Odysseus on the way and gave him the herb moly to protect him, so her magic failed on him, and she swore not to harm him and turned his men back into humans, younger and handsomer than before. He stayed a year with her, and when he left she told him how to reach the land of the dead to seek the prophet Teiresias.
When they are met
- when working with herbs
- before a journey
- at times of great change
Staying on their good side
- herbs grown and dried with care
- honest words and respect
- courage to face her
Honouring them, or keeping safe
- Keep a small herb garden or a jar of home-dried kitchen herbs, and learn which are safe to use.
- Read book ten of the Odyssey on a quiet evening.
- Think carefully about what you accept from others, as the tale warns.
- Treat guests kindly, since hospitality and its betrayal lie at the heart of her story.
What their tales teach
- herb lore
- personal transformation
- seeing through deceit
- finding the way forward
Symbols
- a wand
- a cup of drugged wine
- swine
- tame lions and wolves
- the herb moly
Homer calls her a goddess, daughter of Helios, but later tradition made her the archetypal witch; Madeline Miller's novel Circe is a modern retelling.
More Greek folklore
- The Nymphs The spirits of spring, tree and mountain
- Medusa The Gorgon whose gaze turns flesh to stone
- The Sirens The singers of the deadly shore
- Satyrs The wild revellers of Dionysus
- Kallikantzaroi The goblins of the Twelve Days
- The Neraides Fairy women of springs and hills
- Vrykolakas The restless dead of Greek villages
- The Lamia of folk tales The glutton ogress of Greek tales