Witch Wednesday

John William Waterhouse: Circe Offering the Cup to Ulysses (1891)

Well, I rather missed my cue for Hallowe'en, but a day with a  "W" in it is as much excuse as anyone should need for posting beautiful Victorian paintings of Witches. Those Pre-Raphaelites love their witches! Mysterious, powerful, sexually independent, threatening ... they play into all sorts of male fantasies. Especially as  - in the example above - they seem to have a tendency to under-dress in public. I love the transparent muslin in that picture, and the sneaky depiction of her nipples .. as well as the fantastic use of the mirror. Naughty and gorgeous.

John William Waterhouse: Circe Invidiosa (1892)

Circe is the one of the oldest witches in literature, though technically she's a  minor goddess. Here she is using a magical potion to turn her love-rival Scylla into a hideous man-eating monster. This painting is particularly striking for the palpable malevolence, and the use of colour.

 John Melhuish Strudwick: Circe and Scylla (1886)

 A gentler version of that poison-in-the-bath scene.

Wright Barker (1864-1941): Circe

But her most famous appearance is in the Odyssey, where she is found holding court on the island of Aeaea with an entourage of lions and wild beasts, and transforms Odyssus' exhausted sailors into swine (insert your own metaphorical interpretation here).

Edward Burne-Jones (1833-1898): The Wine of Circe

I love the fawning great cats in these pictures. In dog circles the action below is known as "counter-surfing." You look away for a moment, distracted by contemplation of the Black Arts, and they're straight in there lapping up the magic potion.

John William Waterhouse (yes, again - obsessed or what?): Circe or The Sorceress

Okay, moving on from Circe...
No, actually I think I'll do the other witches next Wednesday. Circe is a jealous sort and I don't want to start a fight ...

Damn, I'm going to have to write a Circe story sometime, aren't I?