Circe

First appears: Apollodorus, Library 1.9

🌐 Also appears in: The Odyssey (as Circe) · The Metamorphoses of Ovid (as Circe)

Circe is described as a daughter of Perseis and Helios, and elsewhere as a daughter of Perse and the Sun. She is the sister of Aeetes and Pasiphae. In Hesiod’s account, she loved Odysseus and bore Agrius, Latinus, and Telegonus: “And Circe the daughter of Helius, Hyperion’s son, loved steadfast Odysseus and bare Agrius and Latinus who was faultless and strong: also she brought forth Telegonus by the will of golden Aphrodite.”

At the Aeaean isle, Odysseus approached Circe with moly given by Hermes, which protected him from her enchantment. After he drew his sword and would have killed her, she appeased his anger and restored his transformed comrades. Apollodorus also says that Odysseus shared her bed and that Telegonus was born to them.

Relationship record

Life events

• Circe bore Agrius, Latinus, and Telegonus to Odysseus.(Hesiod, Theogony 979-1021)
  • With: Odysseus Agrius Latinus Telegonus
  • “And Circe the daughter of Helius, Hyperion’s son, loved steadfast Odysseus and bare Agrius and Latinus who was faultless and strong: also she brought forth Telegonus by the will of golden Aphrodite.”
• Circe restored Odysseus’s transformed comrades after Hermes’s antidote protected him from her enchantment.(Apollodorus, Epitome 7 · 📍 Aeaean isle)
  • With: Odysseus Hermes
  • “And Ulysses went to Circe with moly, which he had received from Hermes, and throwing the moly among her enchantments, he drank and alone was not enchanted. Then drawing his sword, he would have killed her, but she appeased his wrath and restored his comrades.”

Apollodorus, Library 1.9

• siblings with Aeetes “Aeetes, son of the Sun and of Perseis, and brother of Circe and Pasiphae”
• siblings with Pasiphae “brother of Circe and Pasiphae”

Hesiod, Theogony 869-975

• parent: Perseis “bare to unwearying Helios Circe and Aeetes the king”
• parent: Helios “bare to unwearying Helios Circe and Aeetes the king”

Hesiod, Theogony 979-1021

• admired: Odysseus “And Circe the daughter of Helius, Hyperion’s son, loved steadfast Odysseus and bare Agrius and Latinus who was faultless and strong: also she brought forth Telegonus by the will of golden Aphrodite.”
• child: Agrius “loved steadfast Odysseus and bare Agrius and Latinus who was faultless and strong: also she brought forth Telegonus by the will of golden Aphrodite.”
• child: Latinus “loved steadfast Odysseus and bare Agrius and Latinus who was faultless and strong: also she brought forth Telegonus by the will of golden Aphrodite.”
• child: Telegonus “also she brought forth Telegonus by the will of golden Aphrodite.”
• parent: Helius “And Circe the daughter of Helius, Hyperion’s son, loved steadfast Odysseus and bare Agrius and Latinus who was faultless and strong: also she brought forth Telegonus by the will of golden Aphrodite.”
• courtship with Odysseus “And Circe the daughter of Helius, Hyperion’s son, loved steadfast Odysseus and bare Agrius and Latinus who was faultless and strong: also she brought forth Telegonus by the will of golden Aphrodite.”

Apollodorus, Epitome 7

• parent: Perse (parent->child) “Circe, a daughter of the Sun and of Perse, and a sister of Aeetes”
• with Odysseus (interaction) “Ulysses shared her bed, and a son, Telegonus, was born to him”

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Extracted from the original text of Greek Mythology. Made with Rho MD.