CERCES, CIRCES. Circe, daughter of Helios, was the famous enchantress who turned men into beasts. Hermes gave Odysseus the moly herb to chew as an antidote against her magic food, and he escaped her enchantment. Then he made her release the men turned into beasts in her court (Odyssey X.203-574; Aeneid VII.11-24; Met XIV.271-298). Medea and her aunt Circe were both unlucky in love. The Duenna points out that Circe's witchcraft could not hold Ulysses, RR 14404-14408.

Circes appears with Medea as an enchantress in Venus's temple, KnT 1944, and with Calipsa in Fame's house, HF III.1272. Cerces, the daughter of the Sun, enchanted Ulixes's men with drinks made from magic herbs, Bo IV, Metr 3. Lady Philosophy explicates the story to show that the vices of the heart are stronger than the venom of Cerces. [Calipsa: Medea: Ulixes]

Cerces, a spelling variant, appears once, in Bo IV, Metr 3; Circes, Latin genitive singular of Circe, appears once in medial position, HF II.1273, three times in Bo IV, Metr 3, and once in final rhyming position, KnT 1944.