Circe's Tale
The legendary goddess, Circe, is portrayed to her fullest view in Olga Broumas's masterful poem "Circe." In Greek mythology, Circe is a masterful sorceress, who lived on the island of Aeaea, where with potions and incantations she was able to turn people into beasts. While Circe's magic did transform men into animals, she never did anything to alter the spirit or soul of a man; rather, she merely transformed his body into that of the animal that was closest to his true nature. Broumas's poem incorporates ideas and themes from Homer's Odyssey, to which she adds a feminist perspective. In the course of his wanderings the hero, Odysseus visited her island with his companions, whom she turned into swine. With the help of Hermes, Odysseus was able to resist Circe's enchantments and restore his men to their natural form. Through three stanzas -the Charm, the Anticipation, and the Bite - Olga Broumas displays a new view of the myth of Circe, as well as the outlook on women both past and present. Throughout the first stanza, the Charm, Broumas depicts Circe as a wanton woman - a woman that is touching the horizon of ecstasy. Sometimes considered a nymph, Circe is of a divine beauty that enables her to be a great lover capa
In the following verse, the Anticipation, Broumas illustrates Circe as a woman in waiting - waiting for men to flock to her as sheep would to a shepherd. On her island, in her palace - Circe waits for lost sailors, such as Odysseus's men, to come wandering to her door as supplicants. Normally, a traveler is treated as a special guest but with Circe, travelers are drugged and then turned into beasts. In Broumas's perspective "a woman waits motionless til she's wooed", and so is the case of Circe, but she isn't the one being "wooed" (Broumas 978). When fresh meat comes to her island she remains "spiderlike" until they are firmly caught in her web of deception (Broumas 978). When Odysseus's men come to her palace, Circe has "such power over them," but yet they remain under a spell of "their own" (Broumas 978). Broumas deems that men can never stand alone after they have had a woman meeting their every need; after all "who could release them" (Broumas 978)? In all of her roles of Greek mythology, Circe comes across as a woman not willing to give, unless she could partake. She controls the forces of nature and is wise as when to use her knowledge, power and skill in medicine, magic and human sensuality for the benefit of herself and others. There are numerous comparisons that could be made between Broumas and Circe, which perhaps is the reason she chose to write this pi
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Approximate Word count = 932
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)
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