Circe Invidiosa [SEP] creator
Circe Invidiosa
Circe Invidiosa is a painting by John William Waterhouse completed in 1892. It is his second depiction, after "Circe Offering the Cup to Ulysses" (1891), of the classical mythological character Circe. This particular mythological portrayal is based on Ovid's tale in "Metamorphoses", wherein Circe turns Scylla into a sea monster, solely because Glaucus scorned the enchantress' romantic advances in hopes of attaining Scylla's love instead. Waterhouse later returned to the subject of Circe a third time with "The Sorceress"
(1911). "Circe Invidiosa" is part of the collection of the Art Gallery of South Australia, which also owns Waterhouse's "The Favourites of the Emperor Honorius".
=Description=
The myth of Circe, Glaucus, and Scylla originates in Book XIV of "Metamorphoses". The specific scene that Waterhouse bases this painting on occurs in lines 52-65 of the epic poem:
There was a cove,
a little inlet shaped like a bent bow,
a quiet place where Scylla,