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John William Waterhouse (6 April 1849 — 10 February 1917)
Circe Offering the Cup to Ulysses
Oil on canvas, 1891
149 cm × 92 cm (59 in × 36 in)
Oldham Art Gallery, Oldham, United Kingdom
The painting depicts a scene Greek mythology, the sorceress Circe offering Ulysses a cup containing a potion with which she seeks to bring him under her spell as she has his crew. In Greek mythology, Circe is a minor goddess of magic (or sometimes a nymph, witch, enchantress or sorceress) living on the island of Aeaea, famous for her part in the adventures of Odysseus in Homer's Odyssey.
By most accounts, Circe was the daughter of Helios, the god of the sun, and Perse, an Oceanid, and the sister of Aeetes, the keeper of the Golden Fleece, and Pasiphaë, the Wife of King Minos and mother of the Minotaur. Other accounts make her the daughter of Hecate.
Circe transformed her enemies, or those who offended her, into animals through the use of magical potions. She was renowned for her knowledge of drugs and herbs.
That Circe also purified the Argonauts for the death of Apsyrtus, as related in Argonautica, may reflect early tradition.
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