OdysseusCirce1.0093

OdysseusCirce1.0093_Waterhouse

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ClCv241

Mastery

MythMatters

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OGCMA s.v. "Odysseus and Circe"

John William Waterhouse, "Circe Offering the Cup to Ulysses"," 1891. Oil on canvas. Oldham Art Gallery, England.

Hobson 1980 no. 90 pl. 48

Wood 1983, p. 228

Kestner, J.A. 1989. Mythology and Misogyny: the social discourse of nineteenth-century British classical subject painting. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press. p. 297, pl 5.35

A woman on a throne, holding cups and a wand, with a reflection of a man and a pig's head nearby

Kestner, whose thesis is that Waterhouse especially feared the femme fatale, points out that this dangerous mankiller has already transformed at least two of Odysseus' comrades into swine. As he (or at least his reflection) nears the witch's most intimate anatomy, he is falling under the power of her wand.

Cf. also Waterhouse's other treatments of Circe — "Circe Invidiosa" (1892)=Glaucus1.0026_Waterhouse.

OGCMA slides are designed by Roger T. Macfarlane for use in Classical Civilization 241 courses at Brigham Young University.
The present resource contains information assembled for The Oxford Guide to Classical Mythology in the Arts, 1300 - 1990's, edited by J. Davidson Reid (Oxford 1994), and it is used with express permission from Oxford University press.
Address concerns or inquiries to macfarlane@byu.edu.