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Circe

Mythology
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

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The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

A powerful enchantress in the Odyssey who transforms Odysseus’s men into swine, symbolizing temptation and loss of reason.

Detailed Definition
Circe is a powerful sorceress who lived on the island of Aeaea and transformed Odysseus’s crew into pigs before becoming his lover and advisor. She embodies the duality of feminine power—seductive yet dangerous, nurturing yet controlling. Poets invoke Circe to explore themes of transformation, temptation, and the ambiguity of magic.
Example
Example in poetry:
In Homer’s "Odyssey," Circe transforms men into swine, symbolizing the dangers of unchecked desire; In Ovid’s "Metamorphoses," Circe’s magic reflects the fluidity of identity; In James Joyce’s "Ulysses" (poetic prose), Circe appears in a hallucinatory brothel episode; In H.D.’s “Circe,” the sorceress reclaims power as a wise woman; In Louise Glück’s “Circe’s Power,” the goddess asserts agency over transformation; In modern feminist poetry, Circe often represents female knowledge feared as witchcraft.
Additional Notes
Circe, the enchantress who turns Odysseus’s men into swine, represents transformative magic, female power, and the dangers of indulgence; poets use her to explore themes of temptation, metamorphosis, and the ambiguity of hospitality—her island (Aeaea) becomes a space of delay and self-discovery, and she often symbolizes the poet’s own power to reshape reality through language.
Also Known As
Enchantress of Aeaea Mistress of Transformation Sorceress of Swine
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