ABSTRACT
The Renaissance humanists knew that there were Greek and Roman myths about a great flood, a hero whose strength lay in his hair, a miraculous birth and a hero who died and was restored to life. The tragic ending of Orpheus, which Milton uses unforgettably in Lycidas, seems to have had a more personal meaning for him than any other myth. The original Circe appears in Homer’s Odyssey as a rather capricious goddess who could, however, be a useful friend if one knew how to manage her. Odysseus and his men land on her island and she transforms some of them into swine, with the aid of a magic potion. The resemblance of the Circe story to that of Comus is obvious, but it had been a popular subject for many earlier masques, since the beast-men provided good parts for anti-masquers.
