Circe

"First must Trinacrian waters bend the oar, / Ausonian waves thy vessels must explore, / first must thou view the nether world, where flows / dark Styx, and visit that AEaean shore, / the home of Circe, ere, at rest from woes, / thou build the promised walls, and win the wished repose."

Lycus, a mortal, being detained by Circe in her magical dominion, was beloved by a water-nymph who desired to render him immortal; she had recourse to the sorceress, and Circe gave her an incantation to pronounce.

The adventure of the companions of Ulysses, changed into beasts by Circe, was much more ancient than the dogma of the metempsychosis, broached in Greece and Italy by Pythagoras.

Here is a nice state of affairs. I, at my age, to fall a victim to this modern Circe!