|
Circe
Within
the Ancient
Greek mythos,
Circe is the
daughter of
Helios (Sun)
and
Perse (Ocean) who lives on the island of
Aeaea.
Circe transformed her enemies and those who
offended her
into animals, through the use of
magical potions. She
was renowned for her knowledge of
drugs and
herbs.
In
Homer's
Odyssey,
Circe is described as living in a
mansion that stands in the middle of a clearing in a
dense wood. Around the house prowled
strangely docile
lions and wolves, the
drugged victims of her magic.
Circe worked at a huge loom, symbolizing the
wheel of
eternal Life.
She
invited
Odysseus' crew to a feast of familiar food, a
pottage of cheese and
meal, sweetened with
honey and
laced with wine, but also
laced with one of her magical
potions. After the crew ate, she turned them all into
pigs.
Only
Eurylochus, suspecting
treachery from the outset,
escaped to warn
Odysseus and the others who had
stayed
behind at the ships. Odysseus set out to
rescue his men,
but was intercepted by
Hermes, who told him to use the
holy herb moly (holy moly!) to
protect himself from
Circe's potion and having
resisted it, to draw his sword
and act as if he were to attack Circe. From there,
Circe
would ask him to bed, but
Hermes advised
caution, for
even there the goddess would be
treacherous. She would
take his manhood unless he had her swear by the names of
the gods that she would not.
Odysseus followed
Hermes's advice, freeing his men.
Odysseus and his men
remained on the island for
one year feasting and
drinking wine. Circe suggested to
Odysseus
two alternative routes to return to
Ithaca: toward the
‘Wandering Rocks’ where
King Aeolus reigned or
passing
between the dangerous
Scylla and the whirlpool
Charybdis.
Medea
In
the fascinating Greek mythos,
Medea was the
daughter of
King Aeëtes of
Colchis, niece of
Circe,
granddaughter of
Helios and
later wife to the
hero Jason, with whom she had
two
children:
Mermeros and Pheres.
Medea
features in the myth of
Jason and the Argonauts and is
often depicted as being a priestess of the goddess
Hecate.
Medea's
role begins after Jason arrived from
Iolcus to
Colchis
to claim his inheritance and throne by
retrieving the
Golden Fleece. Medea falls in love with
Jason and her
father
Aeëtes promises to
give him the fleece, but only
if he could perform certain tasks.
First,
Jason had to
plough a field with fire-breathing oxen
that he had to yoke himself. Medea gave him an
unguent
with which to anoint himself and his
weapons, to
protect
him from the bulls' fiery breath. For the next task,
Jason had to
sow the teeth of a dragon in the ploughed
field. The teeth sprouted into an
army of warriors.
Jason was forewarned by Medea and
knew to throw a rock
into the crowd. Unable to determine where the
rock had
come from, the soldiers attacked and defeated each
other. Finally, Aeëtes made
Jason fight and kill the
sleepless dragon that
guarded the fleece.
Medea put the
beast to sleep with her
narcotic herbs.
Jason then took
the fleece and sailed away with Medea, as he had
promised.
Apollonius says that Medea only helped
Jason in the
first place because
Hera had convinced
Aphrodite to
cause Medea to fall in
love with him.
Medea distracted
her father as they fled by
killing her brother
Absyrtus.
These
myths of reknown are
important to understand in the present, they give
us valuable insight to keep
within our own centre, to
dredge out falsehoods which
are encountered, to keep our wits
about us. Only in this way can we be at
One with our Universal Truth.
|
