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See also:CIRCE (Gr. Kiprcrl)
, in See also:Greek See also:legend, a famous sorceress, the daughter of Helios and the ocean nymph Perse
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Having murdered her See also:husband, the See also:prince of See also:Colchis, she was expelled by her subjects and placed by her See also:father on the solitary See also:island of Aeaea on the See also:coast of See also:Italy
.
She was able by means of drugs and incantations to See also:change human beings into the forms of wolves or lions, and with these beings her See also:palace was surrounded
.
Here she was found by See also:Odysseus and his companions; the latter she changed into See also:swine, but the See also:hero, protected by the See also:herb See also:moly (q.v.), which he had received from See also:Hermes, not only forced her to restore them to their See also:original shape, but also gained her love
.
For a See also:year he relinquished himself to her endearments, and when he determined to leave, she instructed him how to See also:sail to the See also:land of shades which See also:lay on the See also:verge of the ocean stream, in See also:order to learn his See also:fate from the See also:prophet See also:Teiresias
.
Upon his return she also gave him directions for avoiding the dangers of the See also:journey See also:home (See also:Homer, Odyssey, x.–xii.; See also:Hyginus, Fab
.
125)
.
The See also:Roman poets associated her with the most See also:ancient traditions of See also:Latium, and assigned her a home on the promontory of Circei (See also:Virgil, Aeneid, vii. ro)
.
The metamorphoses of Scylla and of See also:Picus, See also: E . See also:Harrison, Myths of the Odyssey (1882) ; C . Seeliger in W . H . See also:Roscher's Lexikon der Mythologie . |
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