Circe on Aeaea
A year on an island with a goddess who turns men into pigs, and the only host in the wanderings who sends Odysseus on with instructions instead of injuries.
In the poem
Half the crew are turned into swine; Odysseus, protected by the herb moly, forces Circe to undo it. They stay a year. When the men finally ask to leave, Circe tells Odysseus he must first go to the house of Hades and consult Tiresias.
On the return from the dead she briefs him again: the Sirens, the choice between the Wandering Rocks and Scylla, the cattle of the Sun. Almost everything the rest of the voyage knows about itself comes from this island.
Why it matters for the atlas
It is the hinge of the wanderings' narrative and the source of every subsequent 'route'. Locating it would anchor the second half of the voyage; the identification is a Roman tradition attached to a promontory.
Competing theories
- Speculative
Monte Circeo
Proposed by: Strabo, Geography 5.3; Virgil, Aeneid 7 · Antiquity
An ancient identification with a distinctive landform behind it — a promontory that looks like an island from the sea — and nothing excavated.
Aeaea- Primary textStrabo, Geography 5.3
- Primary textVirgil, Aeneid 7.10-24 — the Circean headland
What is disputed
The poem calls Aeaea the place 'where Dawn has her dwelling', an eastward marker that sits badly with the western identification. Whether that is a survival from an older version of the story is genuinely argued.
Questions
- Where is Aeaea?
- Roman tradition placed it at Monte Circeo in Latium, which still carries Circe's name. The atlas classes it speculative at 5/12.
- Why does Circe matter for the geography?
- Because she supplies the sailing directions. Every later stop is described before it is reached, which is why the wanderings read like an itinerary even though the poem never gives a bearing.
Sources
- Primary textHomer, Odyssey (trans. A. T. Murray, Loeb, 1919)
- Primary textStrabo, Geography 5.3
- Primary textVirgil, Aeneid 7.10-24 — the Circean headland