The New Student's Reference Work/Circe

Cir′ce, a sorceress about whom Homer tells us in his Odyssey. Round her palace in Ææa were many men and women whom she had changed into the shapes of lions and wolves by her drugs and charms. Twenty-two of Ulysses' companions she changed into swine, but Ulysses himself was given an herb, which protected him. So he went boldly to her palace, was unhurt by her drugs and persuaded her to disenchant his companions. She also taught him how to escape many dangers on his homeward voyage. Another story about Circe is that she poured the juice of poisonous herbs into that part of the sea where Scylla, of whom she was jealous, was accustomed to bathe, and so changed her into a horrid monster.