Myth & LegendGreek → English
Circe
/ˈsɜːrsi/proper noun
The enchantress of Homer's Odyssey who turns men into animals, and by extension any dangerously charming woman.
The Greek roots
Κίρκη
Kírkē
name of disputed sense
Literally: “uncertain; perhaps hawk, perhaps ring”
Follow a root:Κίρκη1 word
The story of the word
Homer's witch on Aiaia turns Odysseus's crew into pigs with a drugged cup and a wand, and releases them only after Hermes supplies moly, the first named antidote in European literature. Her own name resists explanation: κίρκος, a kind of hawk, and κίρκος, a ring, have both been proposed, and neither holds up firmly. English kept the adjective circean for anything that charms and degrades at the same time.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Latin → English
In a sentence
Every retelling since the 1960s has given Circe more to say for herself.
The bar had a circean effect on the entire night shift.