Circe

A sorceress. Circe was the daughter of Helius and Perseïs (Pereis) or Perse. Circe was also sister of Aeëtes (Aeetes) and Pasiphaë (Pasiphae). Her name means "Hawk", a bird of prey that hunts during the day. The hawk symbolised the sun.

She was a beautiful and immortal (goddess?) living on the island of Aeaea. She was served by maidens and her island was guarded by men who she had turned into wild animals.

When a minor sea-god Glaucus rejected her love, she turned a maiden, Scylla, whom Glaucus was attracted to, into a six-headed monster.

When Jason and the Argonauts fled from Colchis, Circe welcomed her niece Medea and purified them of murder, until she found out that Medea had murdered her own brother and that it was Circe's own brother who pursued her niece. She demanded or forced them to leave her island.

When Odysseus arrived on her island in one ship, she turned some of the hero's men into swine. Hermes helped Odysseus counter her sorcery. Circe gave several pieces of advice to Odysseus when he left her island. See the Odyssey. She had Odysseus as her lover for 3 years and bore him three sons - Agrius, Latinus and Telegonus. When her son Telegonus killed his father (Odysseus), Penelope and Telemachus forgave Telegonus and went to Circe's island with him. There Circe made them immortal, and then she married Telemachus and Penelope became Telegonus' wife.

Though most writers say that Medea was Circe's niece, in Diodorus' account about Jason and the Argonauts, Medea was actually her sister. Not only that, Diodorus says that Circe was not a daughter of the sun god Helios. Diodorus had confusingly said that Helios had two sons, Aeetes and Perses. Perses had a daughter named Hecate, who became the wife of her uncle Aeëtes. So Hecate was the mother of the two sorceresses.

Circe married the king of the Scythians, whom she later poisoned. Circe seized power and ruled until the Scythians deposed her, because of her cruelty and oppression towards her subjects. Circe fled or was banished to a deserted island called Circaeum (possibly in Italy), where she only had women or nymphs to attend her needs.