Una mirada a la obra

Among the adventures of Odysseus, his encounter with the mysterious goddess Circe, who transforms the hero's companions into swine, has long been a favorite of readers. The combination of magic, metamorphosis, intrigue, seduction, and danger in this episode of the Odyssey make it particularly attractive and thought-provoking, so that many later authors mention or recreate it: Apollonius of Rhodes, Plutarch, Virgil, Ovid, Dante, Lope, Calderon, etc. This book analyzes the tradition of the Homeric myth in western literature, from ancient Greece to the present day, with particular attention to Spanish literature. From archaic Greece through Roman literature, from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance and the Spanish Baroque, the Homeric theme of Circe is imitated and transformed again and again, with the characters and narrative elements adapted to various new contexts. A comparative analysis of these elaborations of the theme of Circe allows us to appreciate a long and rich literary tradition that fuses myth, philosophy, and poetry.