The goddess Circe on Homer’s Odyssey By Javier Girona Martinez In order to understand Circe, it is necessary to interpret the symbolism of the characters and contexts in the episodes where she is mentioned. We need to compare Circe not just with oth- er characters in the poem, but with characters from the Epic of Gilgamesh and other Indo-Eu- ropean works. It is not just about the goddess and the hero and their relationship, but also about the island where the goddess dwells, the role of women in society, the role of men in the civilised world, the hero’s struggle and the Upper and Underworld. Understanding Circe helps to better understand the world in which the poet lived, how male and female roles fit in society and what was expected from them. Circe is also the first of a long list of characters in the Ancient world. Independent and autonomous women who were in contact with nature. Women who probably were feared by men and as a result, portrayed as witches, and as Evil that had to be repressed. Circe and her world also represent the binary system of good and Evil, the Upper and the Underworld. This was a dual system that Greece inherited from its neighbours in Mesopotamia, Syria, Palestine and Egypt. It was a dual system that influenced mythology, literature and society. The origins of Circe might be Indo-European, from a time before the East split from the West. It might have been that the Bedr Basim and Bhimaparakrama stories combined to cre- ate both the Odyssey and another story named Mahavamsa. It is a story that most probably was influenced by the Bronze, the Dark and the Lyric Ages, all combined together by poets of the time . 1 Foley 1981: 2 1