Circe in popular culture

Circe has appeared many times in popular culture.

Uses

• In the second book of the epic poem The Faerie Queene, Edmund Spenser based Sir Guyon's antagonist Acrasia on Circe, both being witches who change the form of their victims into lower animals such as swine.

• Nathaniel Hawthorne retold the story of Circe in his Tanglewood Tales.^[1]

• The Victorian poet Augusta Webster (1837–1894) wrote a blank verse dramatic monologue titled "Circe" (1870), in which the sorceress anticipates her meeting with Ulysses and his men. She insists that she does not turn men into pigs—she merely takes away the disguise that makes them seem human.

• In James Joyce's Ulysses, the fifteenth chapter, known as the "Circe" episode, offers as Circe's equivalent the brothel madam, Bella Cohen.

• In Ernest Hemingway's early novel The Sun Also Rises, Robert Cohn refers to the Lady Ashley as Circe, saying she "turns men into swine."

• In John Myers Myers's 1949 novel Silverlock, Circe turns the main character into a pig due to his proclivity for food and fornication.

• In 2000, British poet Carol Ann Duffy wrote a poem entitled Circe.

• American choreographer Martha Graham created a 1963 ballet entitled Circe, with score by Alan Hovhaness

• Circe is also mentioned in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, as a famous witch, and in A Great and Terrible Beauty (Libba Bray) as one of the characters.

• Circe appeared in the cartoon Ulysses 31 where she attempted to build a tower that would house all the knowledge of the universe, thus making her more powerful than the gods.

• In DC Comics, Circe is a constant and deadly foe of Wonder Woman who is in league with the witchcraft goddess Hecate, while in Marvel Comics, the immortal Eternal superheroine Sersi is said to be the basis for Homer's Circe in the Marvel Universe and to have transformed the men into pigs for not behaving at one of her parties.

• In Rick Riordan's novel The Sea of Monsters Circe runs an island health spa and turns Percy Jackson into a guinea pig (she says that they are "much more convenient" than real pigs), and his friend Annabeth Chase uses magical multivitamins (the equivalent of moly) to restore Percy to his true form. It is revealed she turned Blackbeard and some of his crew into Guinea pigs, once they turn back they wreck the place.

• A variation of the theme of Odysseus and Circe is also to be found in Philip K. Dick's short story "Beyond Lies the Wub", with the protagonist explicitly referring to the Odysseus myth.
• In the Hayao Miyazaki film Spirited Away, when Chihiro's parents eat the feast of Yubaba, they are transformed into pigs.

• The 2003 Radio Tales drama "Homer's Odyssey: Voyage to the Underworld" is a dramatic retelling of the portion of Homer's epic poem featuring Circe, followed by the voyage to Hades to consult with the prophet Teiresias.

• In the fantasy series A Song of Ice and Fire, Cersei, one of the main characters, appears to have much in common with Circe.

• In the novel The Crows of Bedu by Nye Joell Hardy (2010) where Circe creates a giant Tree House to ensnare her adorants.

• Circe appeared in Bookworm Adventures as a boss who later shows Lex the secret portal into the Underworld.

• In John C. Wright's Titans of Chaos, Circe is the sister of the narrator Amelia/Phaethusa and the source of the information on how the children can defeat the gods' destinies.

• In L. Jagi Lamplighter's Prospero Lost, Logistilla, who works transformation magic, is warned to beware of Circe's fate.

• In Poul Anderson's A Midsummer Tempest, Rupert hypothesizes that Prospero's island might have been Calypso's, or Circe's.

• In the novel Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison, the main character goes in search of his family history. Key information is provided by an almost impossibly old ex-slave named Circe, who lives in the rotting mansion of her former owners. Like her namesake, this Circe lives surrounded by animals, in this case mangy dogs.

• In the 1983 film Hercules, Circe is played by Mirella D'Angelo.

• In the short story and graphic novel The Laughter of Witches, Circe is presented as an all-powerful being (though 'less than a god', as she describes herself) who dwells on an island surrounded by a menagerie of animals ranging from wolves and dogs to toucans and raptors. When Odysseus, shown here as a coward whose success is owed to dumb luck, approaches her, she mentally attacks him with magic and sends him running back to his men. The soldiers laugh and mock Odysseus' fear and drag him screaming back to Circe, who's laid out a feast with beautiful women attending. The men become drunk and rowdy, and three of them attempt to rape Circe before she turns them all into wild pigs, and her maidens into vicious dogs. Odysseus is turned into a goat and tries to attack Circe, but she counters by transforming into a savage panther and chasing him back into the sea, where Scylla tosses him into a whirlpool (presumably Charybdis) to the underworld.

• A monster known as Dora Circe appears in Episode 8 of the Japanese TV show, Kyoryu Sentai Zyuranger. However, instead of being presented as a witch, Circe is a pig-like creature with a Roman helmet. The Zyurangers defeat Dora Circe by tricking him into eating a sandwich with a piece of moly tucked inside.

References

1. ^ "Circe's Palace"