Circe Changing Ulysses's Men to Beasts

Ulysses and his men encountered the sorceress Circe during their epic journey in Homer’s Odyssey. Enticing them with a feast, Circe drugged them with her magic and transformed them into swine. Castiglione, an inveterate painter of animals in biblical and historical narratives, diverges from Homer’s text by showing the men as having been turned into a variety of creatures; their armor and clothing, now useless, are scattered in the foreground. Circe, dressed in exotic robes and a turban, appears at left, surrounded by her manuals of magic that bear esoteric markings. Despite Circe’s wicked deed, Castiglione depicts a rather pleasant scene in which the naturalistic rendering of the animals and the intricacy of the etched details of the ruins evoke notions of an idyllic Arcadian past rather than a sinister sense of wrongdoing.