How much should Circe be like the myth version?

[marhawkman]

Reading about the myths... well... the WW Circe isn't a whole lot like the original. Yeah, there's similarities. For a start, the DC version "loosely" treats the story of the mythical character as backstory. But, it leaves it as back story. Those are all things that happened like... 3000 years ago or something and don't really come up in the present.

Which is a bit odd since the old stories talked about how she had a family living on Aeaea with her. She was an exiled princess, and lived like a queen... with proper subjects, and heirs. Yeah the various myths listed 3 of her children... and they weren't helpless babies either; more like henchmen.

which is a big difference, Aeaea was a small kingdom, but a proper kingdom, and not just a single megalomaniac with minions who are forced to serve her.

[AmiMizuno]

In some versions she does have some type of relationship with the Amazons. I do like the idea of her transform men into animals. She did use them to make potions. I mean also many myths have some very different versions. So it's hard to say. That's why they play loose. I like the idea of Hecate being her mother. Has in some Hecate is her mother. In golden age Circe was sent away by Hippoltya. I feel like at one point maybe she and the Amazons had a relations like maybe she taught some magic. But something happened.

[Gaius]

WW's takes on the Gods and the Amazons, including versions that purport to be more "accurate" like the New 52, doesn't lineup with how the Greeks thought of them so that's fair to apply to Circe.

Wonder Woman writers probably gotten more use out of her connections to Hecate than her role in The Odyssey, honestly.

[marhawkman]

WW's takes on the Gods and the Amazons, including versions that purport to be more "accurate" like the New 52, doesn't lineup with how the Greeks thought of them so that's fair to apply to Circe.

Wonder Woman writers probably gotten more use out of her connections to Hecate than her role in The Odyssey, honestly.

They allude to the Odyssey a LOT though! Which is why it feels weird. Certain aspects get used but while OFTEN used are used in superficial ways.

Which is why I keep going back to her children and citizens.... their non-presence is the biggest change to the character. Which is made even more apparent after they did a story line where Circe has a daughter in the present day. Having Lyta Milton meet Cassiphone would be neat.

[John Venus]

I think the backstory Tynion came up with for Circe in JLD works and it reconciles the myths with WW's lore.

The way WW approaches Greek Mythology is as a perspective flip. Heracles who is a hero in the myth is the villain. Ares who is a loser in the myths is instead the ultimate big bad.

Marstons's (or rather his ghost writers) original idea for Circe is as an adversary for Hippolyta. Just as the Amazons became sympathetic when you see Heracles attack on them from their perspective, Circe, who is a more sympathetic figure in the Odyssey becomes more villainous when you confront the inherent cruelty of her turning men and women into animals. Thus Circe is meant to act as a foil to the Amazons, who use their abilities for good and the betterment of humanity while Circe uses it to lord over others.

The Greek Myths themselves aren't set in stone. There are multiple variations of the story and even adaptations that claim to be accurate often changes details as well. If writers are going to Greek Mythology is WW lore, they should be filtered through the lens of how the characters are meant to be depicted in the WW world.

[kjn]

The way WW approaches Greek Mythology is as a perspective flip. Heracles who is a hero in the myth is the villain. Ares who is a loser in the myths is instead the ultimate big bad.

Correct, but a perspective flip with a specific direction: towards giving female characters a voice and telling the stories of women in their way.

Marstons's (or rather his ghost writers) original idea for Circe is as an adversary for Hippolyta. Just as the Amazons became sympathetic when you see Heracles attack on them from their perspective, Circe, who is a more sympathetic figure in the Odyssey becomes more villainous when you confront the inherent cruelty of her turning men and women into animals. Thus Circe is meant to act as a foil to the Amazons, who use their abilities for good and the betterment of humanity while Circe uses it to lord over others.

The Greek Myths themselves aren't set in stone. There are multiple variations of the story and even adaptations that claim to be accurate often changes details as well. If writers are going to Greek Mythology is WW lore, they should be filtered through the lens of how the characters are meant to be depicted in the WW world.

I very much agree that the Greek myths should be re-filtered and re-imagined when telling in a Wonder Woman context. The problem is rather that it was done poorly in Circe's case. For some reason, the "evil seductress" template was stuck on her, despite the many different interpretations of the character that had been made through time.

The problem that Circe in Wonder Woman isn't that she's too dissimilar to the mythology, it's that her depiction is stuck in a superficial interpretation of a few specific elements of the myth of Circe, AND that her depiction in Wonder Woman doesn't work within the narrative and ideological framework that underpins the world-building in Wonder Woman.