Circe

As the daughter of a naiad, Circe is considered a nymph—the least of all lesser goddesses. Her father Helios, the Titan, is just as beautiful and blinding as the sun he personifies. Her mother, Perse, is beautiful and clever enough to entice him into marriage with the novelty of her imposed conditions. Helios decides their baby will make a fair match for a prince but not a god, with her strangely spotted hair and too-sharp chin. Mere moments after her birth, Circe is deemed inadequate and abandoned, as Perse invites Helios to her bed, saying, “Let us make a better one” (6). Perse ignores the babe, who is reared by an ambitious aunt until she realizes caring for the child will gain her no favor. Before departing, the aunt names her Circe, or “hawk,” for her golden eyes and strange voice. Circe quickly grows from infancy to adulthood with no one for company but her parents, who range from disinterested to actively disdainful at any given moment. Her mother soon bears two more children, Pasiphaë and Perses, who consider cruelly tormenting others (especially Circe) a favored pastime. Sadism is a common trait among the gods, as Helios enjoys being early or late whenever possible, to invalidate the predictions of human astronomers who punished with death.