"Circe's Spirit" (2017) by Barbara Kacicek

"Circe's Spirit" (2017)
by Barbara Kacicek (1957-2024)
6 x 12 in., oil on canvas

Circe was the ancient Greek goddess of the storm - her father was the sun and her mother was an ocean nymph, she appears in three (count them, three) separate stories

Circe is visited and revisited by poets throughout history, including TS Eliot (1909) "Circe's Palace", E Burne-Jones (1870) "The Wine of Circe", and Shakespeare's Titania, from Midsummer Night's Dream, is seen as an inversion of Circe (1600), so "Circe's Dream"

Circe persists, and embodies everything from the mystique of feminine strength to the fear that men have of it, she is cast as a madam as a way to tame her, but she remains a sorceress who promotes change and transformation.

The Circe Trilogy (2017)

"Circe's Dream"
"Circe's Spirit"
"Circe's Palace"