CIRCE, in classical mythology, the daughter of So] and Perse, or of Hyperion and Aerope, or, according to some, of Aetes, king of Colchis (whom others call her brother), was a famous sorceress. Having murdered her husband, the prince of Colehis, she was expelled by her subjects, and placed by her father on the solitary island of iEma, on the coast of Italy. Here she was found by Ulysses and his companions; the latter she changed into swine, but the hero, protected by the herb moly which he had received from Mercury, not only forced her to restore them, but also gained her love. For a year he relinquished himself to her endearments ; but at length he aroused himself, and after descending at her advice to the lower world, to consult the prophet Tiresias as to the fate which awaited him, he left her. The metamorphoses by Circe of Scylla and of Picus, king of the Ausonians, are celebrated by Ovid.