Circe the Witch - Re-sing to me those familiar myths

https://www.books.com.tw/products/0010930763?sloc=main

Witch Circe

Who is Circe?

Perhaps hearing this translation, fantasy fans may first think of Queen Cersei in "A Song of Ice and Fire", but she is actually a witch in Greek mythology, who used herbs to turn sailors into pigs in the adventure of Odyssey— —**Circe**.

#herbs and myths

#The whole article has thunder,

In Greek mythology, Demeter, the goddess of harvest, can protect the earth and make all things prosperous in the earth; Venus, the goddess of love and beauty, is loved by everyone, and they all protect women. Hermit looked after merchants and travelers, but who looked after witches who were good at using herbs?

I guess such candidates are Circe (Circe) and Medea. They are all women who are good at using herbs, whether they are good or bad, they go with their hearts.

When the Greek mythology I read in the past mentioned the stories of Circe, all of them featured male heroes as the protagonists. For example, in Scala's Metamorphoses, Glaucus, a fisherman who turned into a sea god, fell in love with Scylla, a water nymph who looked down on him at all. When he asked the witch Circe for assistance, Circe's advice was ignored by this dear friend. The emotions of the male protagonists need to be taken care of...

In this time "The Witch Circe", readers can see from Circe's narrative that Grauus is simply a type who is immersed in his own light and does not look at the situation at all. Circe knew that Scala despised Graus at all. When Graius told himself about his love for Scala, the girl Circe made a desperate confession - not to mention that Graus became a god because of her. .

But in the face of the confession of the girl Circe, Grauus' reaction was:

He understood. He raised his hands, as if scared that I would hit him. He, a tall god, was actually afraid of me. "You are like my sister."

He pushed me away, his face froze, half angry, half scared. He looks just like he used to be. (P.66)

He looks like he used to be.

Because of love, the girl Circe used her ignorant witchcraft to turn the human fisherman Grauus into a sea god, but once Grauus became a god, there was no longer Circe in his eyes. On the contrary, Circe waited madly, and even cursed Scala in order to let Grauus understand the original appearance of Scala.

As we all know, seven emotions and six desires have always been a feature of Greek mythology, but often the protagonist in many stories is a male, and the narrator is a male - the Trojan War started because of Helen, but when you read this story, you can't actually read much about Helen herself. Instead, the heroic and wise male heroes are described more than others; Odysseus in the Odyssey has been wandering for twenty years, and Penelope, who stayed in his hometown, is just a background.

In this book, the author, who is also a scholar and a writer, constructs another gender in Greek mythology that is less often noticed, and that gender actually accounts for half of the world's population: women.

The author makes it clear that we can see the meaning of Nymph (the bride), and women who do not enter this expectation, for example, may not be beautiful or attractive enough, have no value. Compared with her sisters, Circe is not good-looking enough, and even her obedience in order to seek the attention of adults is a sin in the eyes of her sister Pasifah. Circe has no value in the family because no one in her family pays attention to her, and it wasn't until she was exiled to the island of Aeaea that she began to find her strength and germinate into her own image.

Aeaea loves Yiya Island, the original text is like Yu Yingzhen, it is a palindrome, and the righteous thoughts are the same. On the island, she became ㄆ...friends with the wind-like man (aka King of Bagua) Hemet, but like women at the same time, she often encounters such men with ulterior motives, although it is not bad, But I just knew I couldn't trust this man.

In this book, Circe's feelings change from being ignorant (Glauus) > groping (Daedalus) > mature (Odysseus) > understanding and accepting (Tlamarcus), the names of these gods or people , are names that readers familiar with Greek mythology will not forget.

But this time I finally had a chance to see through the eyes of women: I saw that Grouse was actually an unsupportable man, fulfilling the prophecy that some mothers have told their daughters since time immemorial: "Don't support your man, Because when he gets what he wants, he forgets about you."

I saw Daedalus, oh my God, he's finally not the old white-bearded craftsman anymore, he's finally had a period of youth and strength, and how a man with talent and skill can be used by others.

I see Odysseus.

This name seems to have a memory since childhood. When I was a child, I saw a special film of Hollywood House (??), and there were pictures that had no animation at that time. Odysseus and his sailors rushed into the valley of the Cyclops to steal Treasure, the valley is very deep, they stick the treasure on the raw meat that the villagers feed to the Cyclops, and the raw meat will be captured by the vultures, Odysseus uses this method to escape from the valley.

Odysseus is a hero. Destroying Troy's Trojan Horse was a plan he came up with. His deeds became "The Odyssey" in the poet Homer's pen, an inevitable epic in human history, but in this novel, the writer uses Circe, Pretty Mimi The sarcasm of these poets:

"The poet spends most of his time belittling women, as if we don't fall to the ground crying, it's not a good story. 』

It's almost a sentence that should be highlighted with a highlighter.

Odysseus probably fits some kind of imagining of a hero, like James Bond 007, who is loved wherever he goes, always succeeds in the face of enemy tactics, and - most importantly - has a place to go back to , and there is a faithful and kind wife waiting there.

The last Terra Marcus, although the previous impression was not very good.

Some readers feel that this book is not enough for women, after all, except for Circe, the other women in this book are either too bad (such as Pasifah, the Minoan princess who has sex with bulls), some are too cold (such as Mi Dia, but she was running for her life at that time), the good and the good passed away, and in the end only Penelope and Circe were left.

But reading this book, I can't help but think of **Penelope** written by Grandma Margaret Atwood:

https://www.books.com.tw/products/E050071927

Personally, I think it is also very worth reading, it's Grandma Atwood!

Also, I've always been curious about the herbs Circe uses.

In some books, it is written that she uses **white flowers and black root grass**. In this book, it is written that she uses moly. In the "Greek and Roman Mythology" published by Sunrise, it is believed that moly may be Holy moly. origin.

https://www.books.com.tw/products/0010879284?loc=P_0005_038

But I was curious if this herb really exists. I checked it and found that it actually exists, but it should not be moly in ancient legends. After all, moly is described as "white flower and black root grass". Now moly refers to Allium moly L., some people call her bear onion in Chinese, but the scientific name of bear onion is not moly, so it may be guessed that it is a common Mediterranean leek food.

Thinking that Circe's herbs actually smell like chives, it feels delicious in an instant~

In addition, leek-like foods are inseparable from traditional medicinal herbs and aphrodisiac, warming and nourishing. Until now, it is often heard that eating leeks can aphrodisiac.

Sometimes I look at herbs with herbs, and when I read some works, I can't help but think about them.

If the moly used by Circe is similar to the leek used now, is the so-called transformation also related to sex?