Transformations of Circe: The History of an Enchantress

By Judith Yarnall

Book Overview

Beginning with a detailed study of Homer's balance of negative and positive elements in the Circe-Odysseus myth, Judith Yarnall employs text and illustrations to demonstrate how Homer's Circe is connected with age-old traditions of goddess worship. She then examines how the image of a one-sided "witch," who first appeared in the commentary of Homer's allegorical interpreters, proved remarkably persistent, influencing Virgil and Ovid. Yarnall concludes with a discussion of work by Margaret Atwood and Eudora Welty in which the enchantress at last speaks in her own voice: that of a woman isolated by, but unashamed of, her power.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0252063562
• ISBN13: 9780252063565
• Release Date: February 1994
• Publisher: University of Illinois Press
• Length: 256 Pages
• Weight: 0.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.4" x 9.1"