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HIPPOLYTE GOURSE (1870-1932)

The item was sold for 8 580

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HIPPOLYTE GOURSE (1870-1932)
Ulysses' companions, circa 1898
Oil on canvas
Unsigned
(Old restorations with piece on back)
Oil on canvas, unsigned
85 x 126 cm - 33 1/2 x 49 5/8 in.

Provenance
- Artist's family, France
- Acquired from the latter

Related work
Hippolyte Gourse (1870-1932), Les compagnons d'Ulysse in. Salon des Artistes français, Paris, Galerie des Machines, 1898, n°936

Note
Circe appears mainly in Canto X of the Odyssey. She lives on the island of Eea, in a palace in the middle of a clearing, surrounded by wolves and lions, formerly men she had bewitched. It was here, according to Argonautic accounts, that she took in and purified Jason and Medea (her niece, daughter of Aeetes) after the murder of Absyrtos. When Ulysses and his companions land on the island, twenty-two of them, led by Eurylochus, are lured to the palace by a harmonious voice. The magician welcomes them and offers them a cyceon, a beverage made from barley gruel, green honey, cheese and Pramnos wine, to which she adds a poison. As soon as they have drunk, she recites an incantation that transforms them into pigs. Eurylochus, who has stayed outside, runs to warn Ulysses, who sets off in search of Circe the sorceress. The god Hermes appears to him as a handsome young man holding a golden reed. The god Hermes with the golden wand hands him the herb "moly" and gives him iiiiiiinstructions on how to triumph over Circe. When he arrives at the magician's, she offers him the cyceon, but fails to transform him. Ulysses draws his sword. Frightened, Circe offers to share her bed. Again, following Hermes' recommendations, Ulysses asks the sorceress to swear by "the great oath of the gods" that she will not harm him again. When this is done, Ulysses and Circe unite, and she returns the companions to their human form. A year passes. Finally, she helps the hero and his crew prepare for their departure, advising them to consult the soothsayer Tiresias in the Underworld.