Aeaea (Isle of Circe)
placeThe mythical island home of the enchantress Circe, where Odysseus's men were transformed into swine and the hero spent a year of enchanted captivity.
The Myth
Aeaea was the island of Circe, daughter of Helios the sun god and the Oceanid Perse, making her a divine sorceress of Titan lineage. When Odysseus and his crew landed after their disastrous encounter with the Laestrygonians, Circe invited them to feast. She mixed a potion of cheese, barley, honey, and Pramnian wine laced with her drugs, then struck the men with her wand, transforming them into swine. Hermes appeared to Odysseus and gave him the herb moly — a plant with a black root and white flower — that made him immune to her magic. When Circe's spells failed, she recognised Odysseus as the hero Hermes had prophesied. They became lovers, and Odysseus stayed a year. Circe then guided him to the Underworld to consult the shade of Tiresias for the route home to Ithaca. She also warned him about the Sirens, Scylla and Charybdis, and the cattle of Helios on Thrinacia.
Parents
Helios, Perse
Symbols
Fun Fact
Cape Circeo on the Italian coast south of Rome has been identified with Aeaea since antiquity — the promontory looks like an island from the sea, matching Homer's description. The herb moly that Hermes gave Odysseus has been identified by ethnobotanists as snowdrop (Galanthus nivalis), which contains galantamine, a compound now used to treat Alzheimer's disease. Homer may have encoded real pharmacological knowledge in his enchantress narrative.
Words We Inherited
English words and phrases that trace back to this myth:
Explore Further
Aeaea
placeAeaea was the mythical island home of Circe, the divine sorceress who transformed Odysseus's men...
Circe
godA powerful sorceress who lived on the island of Aeaea. Circe transformed Odysseus's men into swine...
Circe (Sorceress)
godDaughter of Helios and powerful sorceress who transformed Odysseus's men into pigs on the island of...
Telegonus
heroSon of Odysseus and Circe who unknowingly killed his own father, fulfilling a prophecy that death...
Cape Sounion
placeThe dramatic headland at the southern tip of Attica crowned by the Temple of Poseidon, where Aegeus...
Thrinacia
placeThe mythical island where the sacred cattle of Helios grazed, whose slaughter by Odysseus's...
Underworld
placeThe Underworld was the vast subterranean realm where all mortal souls went after death — a...
Cape Taenarum
placeCape Taenarum (modern Cape Matapan) at the southern tip of the Peloponnese was one of the most...
Ithaca
placeA small, rocky island in the Ionian Sea that was the homeland of Odysseus. His desperate longing to...
Apsyrtides
placeIslands in the Adriatic Sea said to have formed where Medea scattered the dismembered parts of her...
Charybdis
creatureA massive whirlpool monster that swallowed and regurgitated the sea three times daily, destroying...
Helios
godThe Titan who drove the sun chariot across the sky each day, providing light to the world. Helios...