Circe Oil

Circe is probably a pre Olympian sorceress goddess. She is best known from The Odyssey by the brilliant Greek poet, Homer. Circe turned Odysseus’ shipmates into pigs when they visited her island. When Odysseus convinced her to return them to their human forms, she did comply, but they were younger than they had been before. The Trojan hero Aeneas also once sailed past her island, where she wove on her loom. She had lions, bears, boar, and wolves, who once had been men until she used her magic herbs to turn them into beasts.

Helps the wearer to control others, mostly in getting & keeping their attention; used to fascinate your mark, or to cause someone to become enthralled with you.

Artwork by Jessica Galbreth

Circe (also spelled Kirke) was a powerful enchantress and minor goddess in Greek mythology, renowned for her mastery of sorcery, potions, herbs, and transformation magic.

• Parentage: She was typically the daughter of the Titan sun god Helios and the Oceanid nymph Perse (or Perseis). This made her part of a family of sorcerers, including her sister Pasiphaë (wife of King Minos and mother of the Minotaur) and her brother Aeëtes (king of Colchis and father of Medea, making Medea her niece).
• Status: Sources often describe her as a goddess (sometimes of sorcery or magic), a nymph, or a witch/enchantress. She was immortal and possessed innate divine powers, though she was especially skilled in pharmakeia (the use of drugs, potions, and spells).

Famous Myth: The Odyssey

Circe is best known from Homer’s Odyssey. She lived on the remote island of Aeaea, where she turned Odysseus’s crew into pigs (or other animals like wolves and lions) using a potion and her wand/staff after they ate at her palace. Odysseus, protected by the herb moly given by the god Hermes, resisted her magic. She then became his lover and hostess, helping him and his restored crew for a year before advising him on the next stages of his journey home.

• She was associated with transformation, illusion, and necromancy.
• In some traditions, she had the power to hide the sun and moon.
• She appears in other myths, such as purifying or advising Medea and Jason.
• Her island home featured tame wild animals (former transformed humans) and was surrounded by dense woods.

Circe has been interpreted in various ways over time: as a dangerous seductress embodying female sexuality in ancient views, or as a symbol of feminine autonomy, knowledge, and power in modern retellings (e.g., Madeline Miller’s novel Circe).

In short, she’s one of the most iconic sorceresses in Western mythology — a formidable, independent divine figure who blends hospitality with danger.