Season Of The Witch: A Comprehensive Breakdown of Circeās progeny
Circe is a major topic of discussion now, largely because of her recent media appearances. Sadly, sheās also a major subject of misinformation, with her children often at the center of these discourses. I aim to create a sort of guide to Circeās offspring and the ancient texts in which they appear.
Fragmentary vase depicting Telegonus and Circe (~400 B.C) (LIMC Telegonos)
Telegonus, name meaning āborn from afarā, is the most well-attested child of Circe by a wide margin. His earliest appearance comes in Hesiodās Theogony, roughly dated to 730-700 B.C.
āCirce, the daughter of Helius son of Hyperion, through the love of stout-hearted Odysseus bore Agrius and Latinus, excellent and strong. And because of golden Aphrodite she bore Telegonus. Very far away in the innermost part of holy islands these sons were ruling over the famous Tyrrhenians.ā (trans. Jessica Lightfoot, Cambridge University)
[Thereās an entire debate about this passage. Iām not including it here because itās not relevant to this topic, go to the end of the post if you care]*
Since this poem is mostly concerned with genealogy, we donāt get details about Telegonusā personality or story ā just his family tree and position, i.e., King of the Tyrrhenians (that is, the Etruscans).
Telegonus was also an important part of the Epic Cycle. He was mentioned in the Nostoi, a chapter set between the Iliad and the Odyssey that narrated the heroesā return home. We can presume that this mention would have been an allusion to the future. He also had his own epic poem, the Telegony. This poem is attributed to Eugammon of Cyrene, though that claim is controversial, and some scholars speculate that the poet Musaeus might have written it instead. This led to Telegonus maintaining a relatively popular role in antiquity: Sophocles wrote a play about the unintentional patricide, Odysseus Wounded; Aristotle, Ovid, Statius, Plutarch, Apollodorus, and Hyginus all mention him. If youāre curious about the specific excerpts, Iāve made a post about this.
Telegonus was also regarded as a real historical figure. The Mamilii dynasty claimed to be descended from him through his daughter Mamilia. Since he was considered the founder of Tusculum and Palestrina, his heroic status lent credence to his supposed existence.
In contrast to Telegonus, Agrius is the least documented of Circeās children. He has exactly one mention in extant textsāthe aforementioned Theogony passage. We know his parentage and that he ruled Etruria with his mother and siblings, yet he fades into obscurity after the stanza ends.
In Hesiod: Theogony. Edited with Prolegomena and Commentary, M. L. West cites a theory that Agrius was āan eponym of the Thracian Agrianes, assuming a considerable geographical ignorance on the part of the poet.ā He argues that āsuch an assumption is indeed not altogether arbitrary; the poet seems to have no conception of the distance separating Epirus and Latium (see on 1015).ā
West also claims that the most attractive theory is āthat of K. Müllenhoff, Deutsche Altertumskunde (1870), i. 54, and F. Altheim, Rƶm. Religionsgesch. ii. 84ā87, according to which Agrios is Faunus (agrestis, Ov. F. 2. 193, etc.), whom Nonnus makes a son of Poseidon and Circe (D. 13. 328ā32; cf. 37. 57 f. Ī¦į¾¶Ī½ĪæĻ į¼ĻημονĻĪ¼ĪæĻ Ī¤ĻĪ·ĻĪÆĪ½Ī¹ĪæĻ Ī±į½Ļį½øĻ į¼ĻĪæĻĻĪ·Ļ | į½”Ļ Ļį¾¶Ļ į¼Ī³ĻĪæĻĪĻĪ·Ļ Ī“ĪµĪ“ĪæĪ¼Ī·Ī¼ĪĪ½ĪæĻ į¼Ļγα ĻεκοĻĻĪ·Ļ).ā I do not want to question a scholar, but this feels like nonsense to me. Agrius and Faunus have nothing in common besides being sons of Circe who appear in only one text. If I had to guess Hesiodās intentions, I would put my money on the theory of Agrius as a poorly mapped eponym, much like his brother Latinus.
Latinus, the last of Circeās Theogony sons, is a curious figure. He appears frequently in ancient literature, yet authors never seemed able to agree on who his parents were. Chronologically, his earliest parentage is Circe and Odysseus, but he was also presented as the son of Zeus and Pandora, daughter of Deucalion (Pseudo-Hesiodās Catalogue of Women); Odysseus and Calypso (Apollodorusā Bibliotheca); Faunus and Marica (Virgilās Aeneidāthis Faunus is a different figure); Heracles (Dionysius of Halicarnassus); and probably others.
For the sake of completeness, I will quote here texts in which he is portrayed as Circeās child, though he appears scattered throughout this post (excluding the passage from the Theogony, so as not to repeat myself):
āBeyond lie the sea islands Kyrnos (Corsica) and Sardo (Sardinia), which is said to be the largest island after Sicily. They used to be called the Siren islands and isle of Circe. The Umbrians are above the Pelasgians [...] whom Latinus settled, who was born of Circe and Odysseus, and the Ausonians have the interior.ā- Pseudo-Scymnus, Circuit of the Earth (roughly C2nd B.C)
ā[ā¦] Telemachus married Circe. From Circe and Telemachus Latinus was born, who gave his name to the Latin language [ā¦]ā- Hyginus, Fabulae (C2nd A.D)¹
āThe Italic city of Praeneste was named after Praenestos, the son of Latinus, who was the son of Circe and Odysseusā- Stephanus of Byzantium, Ethnika (C6th A.D)
āAnd they say that the famous Latinus, Telegonusā brother, Circeās son, and Aeneasā father-in-law, when he was founding the āacropolisā of Rome before the coming of Aeneas, found a laurel tree [daphnĆŖ] by chance at the spot, and thus allowed it to remain there. For this reason, here too they designate the Palatium as āDaphneāā- John The Lydian, De mensibus (C6th A.D)
āPalatium was named daphne (a laurel) after the name of the laurel tree in Rome. Some say that Latinus, Telegonosās brother, Circeās son, Aeneasās father-in-law, founding the acropolis before the coming of Aeneas, found a laurel there.ā- Cassianus Bassus, Geoponica (C6th A.D) [Here heās elaborating on the paragraph quoted above]
āRome is a region in Latium, and the Latins took their names after Latinus, son of Circe and Odysseus.ā- Eustathius of Thessalonica, Commentary on Dionysius Periegetes (C12th A.D)
Even the Aeneid, which presents Latinus as the son of Faunus and Marica, connects him genealogically to Circe:
"Meanwhile the kings drove out: Latinus in a four-horsed chariot of massive size (twelve golden rays circling his shining brow, emblems of his ancestor, the Sun) [ā¦]" - Virgil, Aeneid 12.162ā164 (C1st B.C)
¹ As far as I know, this is the only text that gives Circe a child with Telemachus
4, 5, & 6) Rhomos, Antias, and Ardias
More eponyms connected to Italy! You may start to sense a pattern here
āXenagoras, the historian, writes that Odysseus and Circe had three sons, Romus, Anteias and Ardeias, who built three cities and called them after their own namesā- Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Antiquitates Romanae (~7 B.C)
The writer being quoted, Xenagoras, is very obscure but we can tentatively date him to mid 4th century B.C. The cities meant here are Rome, Antium, and Ardea, respectively; they are all located in Latium, very close to each other. Roughly contemporary to Dionysius, we have this account:
āSome tell us that it was Romanus, a son of Odysseus and Circe, who colonized the city.ā - Plutarch, Life of Romulus (C1st-2nd A.D)
The name is slightly different, but the story and geography are clearly the same. Notice how Romus/Romanus starts emerging as the most important of the triad. To my knowledge, the following mention of them comes from the medieval period:
āAntea, Italic city under the rule of the Romans, took its name from the son of Circe. There were three sons of Odysseus and Circe: Romus, Anteias and Ardeias.ā- Stephanus of Byzantium, Ethnika (C6th A.D)
Nothing to add there. Georgius Syncellusā Ecloga chronographica page 227 has a slightly different version of this trinity: [This text isnāt available translated online, so I had to use an app. You can search the pdf to read the original if you want]
āTo these matters also Callias in his deeds of Agathocles writes that a woman named RomÄ, of Trojan race, came with the Trojans into Italy. When the Latins reigned in Italy, she bore three sons: Romos, Romylos, and Telegonos. But others say otherwise: that Romos and Romylos were sons of Latinus, and that RomÄ was the mother who gave her name to the city Rome, and that Romylos and Telegonos together founded it. Still others say that Latinus was the son of Odysseus and Circe, and that he, with his brothers, built the city and called it Rome.ā (8th century)
This author describes Latinus, Telegonos and Romylus (eponym of Rome, the variation doesnāt matter) as the sons of Circe. The three of them are credited with building the city.
My view, after researching this section, is that this legend seems to have originated in the classical period, with Romus proving the most enduring of the children in the trio. Anteis and Ardeias largely faded into obscurity, likely because the cities they represented were less relevant.
The Greeks used the exonym āAusonesā for the inhabitants of central and southern Italy. The earliest explicit reference linking Circe to this region that I could find appears in Apolloniusā Argonautica:
ā[ā¦] it [Zeus through the Oracle of Dodona] bade Polydeukes and Kastor pray the immortal gods to grant them a safe passage through to Ausonian waters, where they would reach Kirke, daughter of Perse and the Sun.ā (C3rd B.C)
A considerable time later, we get the first extant mention of Auson as a son of Circe
āThere was in Italy a certain Circe, notable for her birth and remarkable for her beauty, who fell in love with Odysseus when he was wandering in Italy with Diomedes; after being united with him, she bore him Auson, who later took power over the entire territory, and from who[se name] the western [land] was called Ausonia. At any rate, this Circe boasted that she was the daughter of Helios on account of her exceedingly great beauty, and in honour of her own father, I suppose, she was the first in Italy to celebrate a chariot race, which indeed was named circus after her.ā-John The Lydian, De mensibus (C6th A.D)
Itās worth noting that Auson is also recorded as the son of Odysseus and Calypso (Ps.-Scymn., Orbis Descr.; Suda, s.v. āAusoniansā). This isnāt uncommon, Circe and Calypso were often confused, to the point of being given one anotherās characteristics. Regardless, all of the texts I could find that connect Auson to Circe are medieval. Whether one considers medieval Greek mythology to be āvalidā is a matter of personal opinion.
āThe Italians are Ausones, the Italian is Ausonitis from Auson, the child of Odysseus and Circe.ā- Tzetzes, Ad Lycophronem (C12th)
āAusonia takes its name from the Ausonians, who in turn take theirs from Ausonus, son of Odysseus, according to some. For Odysseus had Telegonus and Ausonus and Casiphone with the legendary Circe, as every truth-respecting historian writes.ā- Tzetzes, Chiliades
āThis is also clearly different among many others, that both the Latinus of history and AusĆ“n are sons from Odysseus and KirkĆŖ according to some. They each held power over their eponymous lands; and the tribes there were named from them.ā- Eustathius, Comment. Ad Od. 1.1. (C12th)
This one is easy. Phaunos only appears in one document: Nonnusā Dionysiaca. Heās the immortal son of Circe and Poseidon, and later an ally of Dionysus. Heās also the only child of Circe who has his own Theoi page, where you can read all of the relevant quotes.
Cassiphone, name meaning ābrother killerā, is the only daughter fathered by Odysseus (or is she? letās put a pin on that); the first extant reference to her comes from Lycophronās Alexandra:
āPerge, the Tyrrhenian mountain in Gortynaian territory, will receive him when dead and cremated, as he breathes out his life, lamenting the fate of his son, and of his wife, whom her husband kills and then follows her on the path to Hades, his throat slit by a sister's slaughter, the cousin of Glaukos and of Apsyrtos. And he, seeing such a heap of ills, will enter Hades for the second time, with no return, never having beheld a peaceful day in his life. Wretch! It would have been better for you to stay in your fatherland driving the oxen, and to join the lustful working donkey to the oxen under the yoke, goaded by a pretended device of madness, than to endure the test of such great ills.ā (C3rd B.C)
Lycophronās work is very puzzling and vague. This excerpt comes at the end of the section where he narrates Odysseusā life; just before this quote, he describes Odysseusā death at the hands of Telegonus. Essentially, the passage says that Odysseus was brought back to life by Circe after being taken to her land (ā[he] will enter Hades for the second time, with no returnā). Telemachus then kills Circe, his wife (ālamenting the fate of his son, and of his wife, whom her husband killsā), and is in turn killed by his sister Cassiphone (āhis throat slit by a sisterās slaughter, the cousin of Glaukos and of Apsyrtosā). The passage ends with a reference to Odysseus feigning madness to escape the Trojan Warāessentially, the beginning of his story.
Thankfully, the 12th century scholar John Tzetzes wrote a scholia clearing up this mess
āAietes, Circe, and Pasiphae are the children of Helios and Perse, the daughter of Oceanus. Medea and Absyrtus are the children of Aietes and Eidyia. Telegonus and Cassiphone are the children of Circe and Odysseus. Ariadne, Phaedra, and Glaucos, are the children of Pasiphae and Minos.ā
ā[ā¦] a myth is told that after Telegonus killed him, Circe raised him with potions and married Cassiphone to Telemachus and Penelope to Telegonus in the islands of the Blessed.ā
āTelemachus married Cassiphone, the daughter of Circe. Telemachus kills Circe, not wanting to bear her commands, and he himself is killed by Cassiphone, his wife, avenging her mother. What he says is this: Odysseus will die seeing the sufferings of Circe being killed by Telemachus, and him by Cassiphone, his own daughter.ā
Though there is a discrepancy, Tzetzes presents Cassiphone as the wife of Telemachus, whereas Lycophron was referring to Circe. In Lykophron Alexandra: Greek Text, Translation, Commentary, and Introduction, the author explains it as follows: ā808. The son (of Odysseus) is Telemachos, and the wife (first of Odysseus, then of Telemachos, see FGrHist 382 Lysimachos F 15) is Kirke, whom Telemachos killed. Telemachos was in turn killed by Kassiphone, who was the daughter of Kirke and Odysseus, and thus Telemachosā own (half-)sister.ā
Doing research for this post, I found something curious. A quote by Servius the grammarian:
"Clinias reports that the daughter of Telemachus, Rome by name, was married to Aeneas, from which word Rome got its name. *** says that Latinus, the child of Ulysses and Circe, called the state Rome after the name of his deceased sister." (C4th A.D)
[translation courtesy of ļ¼ lionofchaeronea]
Though not laid out as clearly as Hesiodās genealogies, itās clear that Rome is the daughter of Circe and Odysseus. The obscurity of this work explains why many scholars claim that Cassiphone is the only daughter attributed to the couple.
Rome serves the same function as Romus, being an eponym for the city and giving it a heroic connection. Not sure what the narrative purpose of killing her off was, though.
There are still more threads to pull on this topic. For example, I didnāt include Nausithous in the list because the idea of Circe as his mother is attested only in Hyginus, Fabulae 125, while the more common tradition makes him the son of Calypso (as in Hesiodās Theogonyāa text, needless to say, far better known in antiquity than Hyginusā work). I also donāt take into account the Sibylās statement, ā[ā¦] men shalt say [ā¦] that Iām a Sibyl, born of mother Circe and father Gnostos, [ā¦]ā since, despite a semi-popular Reddit post presenting it as fact, any claim introduced with āmen shalt sayā is clearly framed as commentary. Nevertheless, the repetition I lampshaded in the list is precisely why I believe Circeās posterity is important. To truly understand her as more than just the dangerous seductress she is often reduced to, itās essential to consider her connections to ancient Italy, her image being used to establish the heroic lineage of cities, and, yes, her worship. For these reasons, I argue that Circeās children not only deserve to be remembered, but perhaps also recognized as heroes.
- Zalewska-Jura, H. (2018). Circe and Rome. The origin of the legend. Studia Ceranea Journal of the Waldemar Ceran Research Centre for the History and Culture of the Mediterranean Area and South-East Europe, 8, 77ā87. https://doi.org/10.18778/2084-140x.08.04
- HƩsiode. (1966). Theogony: Edited with Prolegomena and Commentary by M.L. West.
- Hornblower, S. (2017). LYKOPHRON : alexandra. Oxford University Press.
- CIRCE (Kirke) - Greek Goddess of sorcery, Sorceress of AEAEA. (n.d.). https://www.theoi.com/Titan/Kirke.html [For the Telegonus section]
- Sententiaeantiquae. (2016, February 3). Circe ā SENTENTIAE ANTIQUAE. SENTENTIAE ANTIQUAE. https://sententiaeantiquae.com/tag/circe/
āāāāāāāāāāāāāāāāāāāāāā
ā± M. L. West, in his Theogony commentary cited above, argues that Telegonusā inclusion in this line is a Byzantine interpolation. He cites as proof the work of Eustathius, who wrote: āį¼Īŗ ĪĪÆĻĪŗĪ·Ļ Ļ
ἱοὶ καὶ ἩλιĻΓοĻ
į½Ī“Ļ
ĻĻεῠį¼Ī³ĻĪ¹ĪæĻ ĪŗĪ±į½¶ ĪαĻįæĪ½ĪæĻ,ā which translates as āFrom Circeās sons, [herself] of Helios, to Odysseus [were] Agrios and Latinus.ā Notably, Telegonus is missing there. However, West fails to consider that Eustathius does in fact discuss Telegonus elsewhere in his writings:
Eustathius (Comm. ad Od. 1.142.35): āConcerning being born far off, it is sufficiently clear in the Iliad. And now it will be addressed to an extent. Among the ancients, that someone is far-born is not only about where he was born, as the only son of Menelaos was Megapenthes, but that he was born when his father was far away, or grew up in this way after he was born. A first example of this is Telegonos, who was born from KirkĆŖ when Odysseus was far away.ā
The teacher/s at Sententiae Antiquae remark that āit is important to note that Telegonosā name (āborn far awayā; ābegotten far awayā) may be echoed in the line after the supposed interpolation (μάλα ĻįæĪ»Īµ).ā
Westās view is still frequently brought up in scholarship, but to the best of my knowledge, no other academic has accepted his proposal.
Edit: Westās Byzantine interpolation theory has, indeed, been rejected by published scholars