Von Circe der sunnen tochter · Centre for Early Modern Visual Culture

Title: Von Circe der sunnen tochter
Period: 1450-1500;
Geographic: Italy; Aetheum
Description: This engraving depicts Circe, the daughter of the Sun, on the right side of the engraving. We know that this is Circe as her name is engraved beside her body. 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 (his name is engraved above his head). 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:17994
Source Name: Hyenach volget der kurcz syn von ettlichen frauen von denen johannes boccacius in latein beschriben hat und doctor heinricus stainhöwel geteütschet [Following the short stories of several women of which Giovanni Boccaccio wrote in Latin, and doctor Heinrich Steinhöwel translated]
Parent Collection: 1473 Augsburg; 1473 Augsburg
Image: mta_17994_OBJ.png
Collection: Early Modern Women
Subject: Important Women; Famous Women; Ulysses; Greek Mythology; Transformation; Circe