Circe

Circe

Κίρκη

The home of Circe was said to have been upon the island of Aeaea, for Circe had been brought to the island by her father, Helios, upon the god’s golden chariot.

Aeaea though does not appear on any modern map, and in antiquity there was great debate about where Aeaea was to be found.

Locations were given for the island of Aeaea to be found both east and west of Italy, and Apollonius of Rhodes tells of it being south of Elba, but within sight of the Tyrrhenian coastline.

Circe had her own menagerie of animals, lions, bears and wolves, who though wild beast behaved as if they were domesticated animals.

Some tell of these animals having been tamed by Circe, but others tell of them being men who had been transformed into animals by the sorceress.

by Gustav Adolf Mossa

Fin-de-Siècle Museum

in the Royal Museums of Fine Arts