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Sole satae Circes, of Circe, daughter of the sun-god Helios and the Oceanid Perse, Od.X. 138. Aeaea, the island in which she practised her sorceries, is in Homer (ib. 195) situated in the wonderland of the western Mediterranean. In Hesiod (Theog. 1011-3) Circe is already connected with Italy as mother of Latinus (a story apparently followed by Virg. Aen.XII. 164), and later tradition (cf. XIII. 744 n., Mommsen, Hist. of Rome, vol. I. p. 147 E.T.) identified the island with the promontory or peninsula of Circeii, said to have been originally separated from the mainland, and spoken of by Virgil himself as an island, Aen.III. 386.Here was a temple of Circe, of which perhaps some remains still exist, with a cup left behind by Ulysses, and the tomb of Elpenor (cf. 252 n.), and one of the caverns in the Monte Circello was as recently as the beginning of this century still regarded by the natives with superstitious terror as having been the abode of the enchantress (Bonstetten, quoted by Dr. Henry on Virg. Aen.VII. 11). See further details in Mayor's note on Od.X. 133.ferarum. Cf. 255 n.
Charles Simmons. Metamorphoseon XIII. xiv. The Metamorphoses of Ovid, Books XIII. and XIV. Edited, with introduction, analysis, and notes by Charles Simmons. New York. Macmillan. 1899.
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