Circe: The Dread Goddess

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Circe KIR kee
The Dread Goddess
Circe or (Kirke) is the daughter of Helios (The Sun) and Perseis (the daughter of Okeanos).
On her island... in her palace... Circe waits for lost sailors to come wandering to her door as supplicants. Normally, a traveler is treated as a special guest but with Circe, travelers are drugged and then served as dinner.
Odysseus and his desperate crew went ashore on the island of Aiaia hoping to find food and water. Odysseus sent twenty three men to explore the island but only one returned. As the men walked from the beach they could hear sweet singing from Circe’s home in a forest glen. Wild lions and wolves (drugged by Circe) came, wagging their tails, to greet the strangers. They were charmed by her beauty and drank the potions she offered as refreshment. As Circe’s vile drugs took effect, the once valiant men began to change shape and were soon fully transformed into swine. Circe herded them into pens and threw pig food on the ground before them.
The sole survivor, Eurylochos, ran back to Odysseus and urged that they set sail immediately. He told the story of the evil goddess and how they would all be turned into swine if they dared to stay on that dangerous island (his warnings unfortunately took on the aire of cowardice... Odysseus almost killed him for it). Odysseus was not afraid. He would not leave his men as swine and he would not risk any of the other men in a fight with Circe. Odysseus went to Circe’s palace alone.
Along the trail, Odysseus met Hermes in the guise of a young man. Hermes told Odysseus that he could entrap Circe and free his companions if he obeyed the gods orders. Hermes reached down and pulled a plant called ’moly’ from the ground and explained that mere mortals found it difficult to dig-up but he, as a god, could do all things. Odysseus took the ’good medicine’ and went boldly into Circe’s house. She welcomed him as another victim and gave him her vile potions but the ’good medicine’ gave Odysseus protection. When Circe thought the drugs had taken effect, she struck Odysseus with her wand. The wand was supposed to complete the transformation process but Odysseus drew his sword and sprang upon her. The astonished Circe surrendered instantly. She released the twenty two pig-men and ceremoniously anointed them with another one of her potions.

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