Transformations of Circe

The History of an Enchantress

• Author(s): Judith Yarnall,
• Publisher: University of Illinois Press
• Pages: 245
• ISBN_10: 0252063562
  ISBN_13: 9780252063565
  
• Language: en
• Categories: Literary Criticism / General , Literary Criticism / Fairy Tales, Folk Tales, Legends & Mythology , Social Science / Women's Studies ,

Description:... 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.