Circe Invidiosa

Circe Invidiosa is a painting by an English painter, John William Waterhouse completed in 1892. It is his second painting, after " Circe Offering The Cup To Ulysses, 1891 " of the classical mythological character Circe. Circe Invidiosa is a mythological portrayal based on Ovid's tale in Metamorphoses, where Circe turns Scylla into a sea monster, solely because Glaucus mocked the enchantress romantic advances in hopes of attaining Scylla's love instead. Circe Invidiosa is now a part of the Art Gallery Of South Australia Collections.

The myth of Circe, Scylla and Glaucus originates in the book " XIV Of Metamorphoses ". The specific scene that Waterhouse painted " Circe Invidiosa " occurs in lines 52-65 of the poem:

There was a cove, a little inlet shaped like a bent bow, a quiet place where Scylla, at midday, sought shelter when the sea and sky were hot and, in mid course, the sun scorched with full force, reducing shadows to a narrow thread. And Circe now contaminates this bay, polluting it with noxious poisons, there she scatters venom drawn from dreadful roots and, three-times-nine times, murmurs an obscure and tangled maze of words, a labyrinth, the magic chant that issues from her lips. Then Scylla comes, no sooner has she plunged waist-deep into the water than she sees, around her hips, the horrid barking shapes.

Title: Circe Invidiosa

Creator: John William Waterhouse

Date Created: 1892

Location: London

Physical Dimension: 87.4x180.7cm

Type: Painting

Medium: Oil On Canvas

Courtesy: South Australian Government Grant 1892 / Art Gallery Of South Australia

Reference: Wikipedia.org