The Hidden Seduction: Circe and the Sirens in the Aeneid

Framing the mission of Aeneas in the underworld, Palinurus’ disappereance in the waters of the Sirens at the end of Aeneid 5 and Circe’s indirect appearance at the beginning of Aeneid 7 mark the last stages of the Trojan hero’s journey. In both cases Vergil deviates and distances himself from Homer, excluding the Sirens and Circe from the narration. !e aim of the article is to consider Circe’s and the Sirens’ ambiguous exclusion from the o"cial plot of the Aeneid through a gender-informed perspective. While formally discrediting the #gures of Circe and the Sirens, the author invites the reader to glimpse their presence beneath the surface of the text. If these characters, who stand for a problematic model of femina sapiens, lose body and voice, their #gures are conveyed through symbols, and they end up embodying two complementary ways of reading Vergil’s epic: intertextuality (the Sirens) and semiotics (Circe).