Circe Offering the Cup to Ulysses

Circe Offering the Cup to Ulysses is an oil painting in the Pre-Raphaelite style by John William Waterhouse that was created in 1891. It is now in Gallery Oldham, Oldham, England.

Subject
The painting depicts a scene from the Odyssey. Circe, a sorceress, offers a cup to Odysseus (commonly Ulysses in English). In the cup is a potion. Circe seeks to bring Ulysses under her spell, as she has done with his crew. Two of Ulysses' crewmen have been transformed into pigs; one can be seen beside Circe's feet on the right, while the other is peering out from behind her throne on the left. Ulysses' reflection can be seen in the mirror which is behind Circe's throne.

It reflects the columns of Circe's palace, and Ulysses' ship. Odysseus, intrepid and worried about his sailors, tries to save them and on the way Hermes (the messenger of the immortals) intercepts him and tells him of Circe's intentions, advising him to find a special plant that keeps him away from the effects of Circe's drink. After Odysseus had the plant he was able to resist the evil effects of Circe's potion. So when the sorceress thought that she had had the effect of her drink, she went to touch Odysseus with her wand to complete the transformation process, and Odysseus threatened Circe with his sword, who then seduced him and coerced him into sleeping with her to return his sailors. He reluctantly agreed, and, after the job was done, she returned his sailors to their human form.

Mirrors
The trick of having a wide view shown in a large mirror behind the subject is used in other paintings by Waterhouse. It is also seen in his The Lady of Shalott Looking at Lancelot (1894) and his I Am Half-Sick of Shadows, Said the Lady of Shalott (1916). Those are both based on Tennyson's poem The Lady of Shalott, where the subject is described as weaving a tapestry of the view in her mirror (a common method still used by weavers).