Circe. Circe is a goddess of magic or sometimes a nymph, enchantress or sorceress in Greek mythology. She is a daughter of the god Helios and either the Oceanid nymph Perse or the goddess Hecate. Circe was renowned for her vast knowledge of potions and herbs. Through the use of these and a magic wand or staff, she would transform her enemies, or those who offended her, into animals. The best known of her legends is told in Homer's Odyssey when Odysseus visits her island of Aeaea on the way back from the Trojan War and she changes most of his crew into swine. He forces her to return them to human shape, lives with her for a year and has sons by her, including Latinus and Telegonus. Her ability to change others into animals is further highlighted by the story of Picus, an Italian king whom she turns into a woodpecker for resisting her advances. Another story makes her fall in love with the sea-god Glaucus, who prefers the nymph Scylla to her. In revenge, Circe poisoned the water where her rival bathed and turned her into a dreadful monster. Depictions, even in Classical times, wandered away from the detail in Homer's narrative, which was later to be reinterpreted morally as a cautionary story against drunkenness. Early philosophical questions were also raised whether the change from a reasoning being to a beast was not preferable after all, and this paradox was to have a powerful impact during the Renaissance. Circe was also taken as the archetype of the predatory female. In the eyes of those from a later age, this behaviour made her notorious both as a magician and as a type of the sexually free woman. As such she has been frequently depicted in all the arts from the Renaissance down to modern times. Western paintings established a visual iconography for the figure, but also went for inspiration to other stories concerning Circe that appear in Ovid's Metamorphoses. The episodes of Scylla and Picus added the vice of violent jealousy to her bad qualities and made her a figure of fear as well as of desire. By most accounts, she was the daughter of Helios, the Titan sun god, and Perse, one of the three thousand Oceanid nymphs. Her brothers were Aeetes, keeper of the Golden Fleece, and Perses. Her sister was Pasiphae, the wife of King Minos and mother of the Minotaur. Other accounts make her the daughter of Hecate, the goddess of witchcraft. She was often confused with Calypso, due to her shifts in behavior and personality, and the association that both of them had with Odysseus. In Homer's Odyssey, an 8th-century BCE sequel to his Trojan War epic Iliad, Circe is initially described as an enchantress living in an isolated palace that stands in the middle of a clearing in a dense wood on her island of Aeaea. Around her home prowls strangely docile lions and wolves fawned on all newcomers as she drugged them with her sorcery Her gentle facade of lovely singing and working at an enormous loom. She invited the hero Odysseus' crew to a feast of familiar food, a pottage of cheese and meal, sweetened with honey and laced with wine, lures in Odysseus' crew. Upon entering her home, she provides a feast of familiar foods: a pottage of cheese and meal sweetened with honey and laced with wine, but also laced with one of her magical potions. She also had the crew drink out of an enchanted cup. With this trickery, Circe's magic turned them all into swine. Only Eurylochus, who suspected treachery behind the eerily peaceful and overly-welcoming palace facade and never went in, escaped to warn Odysseus and the others who had remained with the ship. Before Odysseus reached Circe's palace, Hermes, the messenger god sent by Athena, intercepted him. Hermes acted as a mouthpiece for the gods as he delineated to Odysseus how exactly to execute his predetermined fate of defeating Circe to free his crew. Hermes provided Odysseus with the moly, that would protect him from Circe's magic. He also told Odysseus that once he resisted the magic, he must draw his sword and act as if he were going to attack her. From there, as Hermes foretold, Circe would ask Odysseus to bed, but Hermes advised caution, for the goddess would remain treacherous. Hermes describes how dangerous Circe could still take Odysseus' manhood unless he had her swear by the names of the gods that she would not do so. Odysseus followed Hermes' advice and was therefore able to free his men. They all then remain on the island for one year, feasting and drinking wine. According to Homer, Circe even advised Odysseus and his crew on how to return home, going so far as to suggest two alternative routes.