Circe solis filia · Centre for Early Modern Visual Culture · Center for Early Modern Visual Culture

Title: Circe solis filia
Period: 1450-1500;
Geographic: Italy; Aetheum
Description: This engraving depicts Circe, the daughter of the Sun, on the left side of the engraving. Boccaccio explains that Circe was skilled in the art of magic and would often turn people who landed on her shores into animals. When Ulysses and his men happened upon Circe, she transformed Ulysses’ companions into beasts. They are depicted in the engraving with their bodies still in human form, while their heads are changed into animals such as lions and pigs. Ulysses is the one man among them that is still in human form. Ulysses threatens Circe with his sword, and she eventually changes his companions back into their original forms.
Image Creator: Anonymous (Engraver)
Type: Text; Woodcut Engraving
Identifier: mta:18156
Language: lat
Source Name: Iohannis Bocacij in librum de claris mulieribus
Parent Collection: 1487 Leuven; 1487 Leuven
Image: mta_18156_OBJ.png
Collection: Early Modern Women
Subject: Important Women; Famous Women; Ulysses; Greek Mythology; Transformation; Magic; Circe