A witch most renowned for her vast knowledge of potions and herbs. Through the use of magical potions and a wand or a staff, she transformed her enemies, or those who offended her, into animals. She is daughter of the sun god Helios and Sea Nymph Perse, the daughter of Okeanos. Between the 3 child of Helios and Perse, the other 2 being Aeetes and Pasiphae, she was the most unstable; strong willed and arrogant to an extreme degree.
She had been married to the prince of Colchis, whose Kingdom was located near the Black Sea. The prince, whose name hadn't even remembered in modern days, had no choice in the matter of marriage, as Aeetes, Circe's brother, was the king of Colchis and the one who arranged the marriage. Circe, on the other hand, was full of joy and and just couldn't wait for it. She was determined to love him as much as she can, but alas, the prince of Colchis simply does not love her. He hid it well, and treat her with as much respect as he can. But Circe knew that this marriage is fake, a fraud. Her revelation enraged her, and her joy and love turned into hate in a flash. With her mind snapped she poisoned the prince almost immediately after their marriage.
When the matter was out in the open to her father, Helios realizes that her daughter cannot be left alone, and, as her daughter was an immortal, decided to exile her to the solitary island of Aeaea, where the damage caused by her can be isolized.
Circe since then had been wishing for a man who will love her, completely and without reservation. Her wish turned into ambition, and later fell into a form of degrading love. She had been since then looking for her ideal man, the one who won't ever leave her and unconditionally love her.
In one occasion, when Odysseus and his men stranded in Aeaea, she was joyed to have male visitors. However, upon seeing the crewmen, she felt that none of them was worthy enough of her, and then proceeded on inviting Odysseus' crew to a feast of familiar food, a pottage of cheese and meal, sweetened with honey and laced with wine, but also laced with one of her magical potions, and drunk from an enchanted cup. Thus so she turned them all into swine with a wand after they gorged themselves on it, as she feel that those are the from most fitting of them all.
Only Eurylochus, suspecting treachery from the outset, escaped to warn Odysseus and the others who had stayed behind at the ships. Odysseus set out to rescue his men, but was intercepted by the messenger god, Hermes, who had been sent by Athena. Hermes told Odysseus to use the holy herb moly to protect himself from Circe's potion and, having resisted it, to draw his sword and act as if he were to attack Circe. From there, Circe would ask him to bed, but Hermes advised caution, for even there the goddess would be treacherous. She would take his manhood unless he had her swear by the names of the gods that she would not.
Odysseus’ actions totally surprised Circe, and she immediately surrendered to him. Then she released all twenty-two of his men, and went even further as to offer her home and hospitality to stay there for what is believed to have been for at least one year. During that year, having already sword to not hurt Odysseus and his man, Circe used the roundabout way to seduce Odyssey, giving him much needed advice, telling him that he needed to travel to the Underworld, and once there seek out Teiresias of Thebes, who would tell him exactly what he had to do in order to settle his problems with Poseidon.
However, even those one year was not enough to bend Odysseus. After that one year, he wished to finish his task and go home. Circe, unable to cross her own swear, could only let him go. when she said her final farewell to him, she even told him how to sail safely past the Island of the Sirens, and the six-headed Scylla who haunted the Straits of Messina in partnership with the monster whirlpool Charybdis.
It was the first time the witch experienced a full broken heart.
At another occasion, Circe met Glaucus, a mortal fishermen turned to god. She fell for him and decided to slowly tried to make Glaucus love her back. However, Glaucus fell in love with the beautiful nymph Scylla and wanted her for his wife, but she was appalled by his fish-like features and fled onto land when he tried to approach her. He asked the Circe for a potion to make Scylla fall in love with him. She was completely astounded, that he could even consider asking for her help, so that he might pursue another woman. She tried to win his heart with her most passionate and loving words, telling him to scorn Scylla and stay with her. But he replied that trees would grow on the ocean floor and seaweed would grow on the highest mountain before he would stop loving Scylla. In her anger to both Glaucus and Scylla, Circe decided to break them by poisoning the pool where Scylla bathed, which caused Scylla to transform into a monster with four eyes and six long necks equipped with grisly heads.
This action was a completely different action then the one that Circe used when she turned Odysseus’ men into swine. This time, she was consumed with jealousy, and it was because of that jealousy that she did, indeed, perform magecraft that would change a person’s soul.
Her end of life was blurry at best; it was never known in legend whether she found the man of her dream or not. Some records said that she was killed by Telemachus, son of Odysseus and Penelope. Later traditions tell of her leaving or even destroying the island and moving to Italy, where she was identified with Cape Circeo.