Circe

Circe was a witch who lived in ancient Greece, on an island referred to as Circe's Island. She enjoyed transfiguring lost sailors into animals.^[1]

Biography

Circe was featured on a Chocolate Frog Card. Harry Potter obtained this card from a Chocolate Frog on his first trip to Hogwarts in 1991.^[2] There was a portrait of Circe at Hogwarts Castle. It guarded a secret shortcut between the fourth-floor landing of the Grand Staircase and the Entrance Hall side room. The password required to gain access to said shortcut was GuineaPiggyWiggy.^[3]

Magical abilities and skills

• Transfiguration: Circe was proficient in the human to pig spell, as according to The Odyssey, where she turned Odysseus and his sailors into said animals. Human transfiguration is stated as the most complex one, showing she was highly talented in this very difficult branch of magic.

Behind the scenes

• Circe was a minor goddess in Greek mythology, said to transform sailors lost around her island of Aeaea into animals via the use of enchanted food. She is perhaps most well known as a figure in Homer's Odyssey, where the hero Odysseus spent a year on her island after freeing his shipmates from her spells.
• Because of her appearance in said Greek texts, Circe is considered by scholars to be the first traditional witch to appear in literature.

Appearances

• Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (Mentioned only)
• Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (video game) (Appears on a Famous Wizard Card)
• Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (video game) (Appears on a Famous Wizard Card)
• Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (video game) (Appears in portrait(s))
• Pottermore (Appears on a Famous Wizard Card)

Notes and references

Hogwarts Castle
Locations on the ground floor
Astronomy Tower courtyard · Balcony around the Great Hall · Bean Bonus Room · Boys' toilets · Caretaker's office · Central tower courtyard · Chamber off the Great Hall · Chamber of Reception · Classroom Eleven · Classroom 1B · Corridor off the Entrance Hall · Entrance Hall · Great Hall · Great Hall balcony · Ground Floor Corridor · Herbology Store · House Point Ceremony Chamber · Link Building · Marble Staircase · Middle Courtyard · Northern Courtyard · Northern Courtyard Annex · North Tower courtyard · Out Of Bounds · Oxford Corridor · Paved grounds · Portrait Room · Side chamber · Staffroom · Staffroom corridor · Storage Cupboard · Storeroom · Storeroom courtyard · Suspension Bridge · Temporary Defence Against the Dark Arts Classroom · Transfiguration department · Viaduct Courtyard · Viaduct Entrance · Viaduct · Viaduct Courtyard Gatehouses · West Tower courtyard · Suspension Bridge foyer · The Quad
Portraits, statues and other artwork located on the ground floor
Brian Gagwilde · Circe · Gargoyles at the staff room entrance · George von Rheticus · Giffard Abbott · Glanmore Peakes · Godric Gryffindor · Google Stump · Greta Catchlove · Henry Bumblepuft · Lonely Male Gargoyle · Lonely Male Gargoyle's friend · Medieval couple · Merwyn the Malicious · Mirabella Plunkett · Miserable Female Gargoyle · Norvel Twonk · Old Posh Baron · People watching Quidditch · Staring Portrait · Professor Swoopstikes · Temeritus Shanks · Timothy the Timid · Violet · Architect of Hogwarts · First Headmaster of Hogwarts · Jocunda Sykes · Sarcastic Male Gargoyle · Portrait of a girl with flowers · Wizard with a walrus moustache

Transfiguration (class)
Branches of Transfiguration	Transformation · Vanishment · Conjuration · Untransfiguration
Known practitioners	Circe · Emeric Switch · Falco Aesalon · Mirabella Plunkett · Thaddeus Thurkell
Professors	Albus Dumbledore · Minerva McGonagall
Textbooks	A Beginner's Guide to Transfiguration · Intermediate Transfiguration · A Guide to Advanced Transfiguration
Transfiguration spells studied at Hogwarts
Colour Change Charm (Colovaria) · Change of hair colour and style (Crinus Muto) · Hardening Charm (Duro) · Mending Charm (Reparo) · Reparifarge · Softening Charm (Spongify) · Switching Spell · Vanishing Spell (Evanesco)
Conjuring Spells	Bird-Conjuring Charm (Avis) · Inanimatus Conjurus Spell · Orchideous · Snake Summons Spell (Serpentsortia)
Transforming Spells	Animal to Water Goblet (Vera Verto) · Beetle Buttons · Cat to Cauldron (Felifors) · Cauldron Cakes to Cabbages · Chair to cat · Cross-Species Switches · Desk Into Pig · Dinner plate to mushroom · Guinea fowl to guinea pig · Hedgehog to pincushion · Match to needle · Meddling Man to Monkey · Mice to Snuffboxes · Owl to Opera Glasses (Strigiforma) · Porcupine to Pin Cushion (Hystrifors) · Small Child to Rat · Small Object to Dragon (Draconifors) · Snail to Teapot · Target to Bird (Avifors) · Target to matchbox (Flintifors) · Target to Rabbit (Lapifors) · Teacup to gerbil · Teacup to Rat · Teapot to tortoise · White Rabbits to Slippers

	Chocolate Frog Cards
Gold cards	Armando Dippet · Albus Dumbledore · Barberus Bragge · Bertie Bott · Carlotta Pinkstone · Dzou Yen · Godric Gryffindor · Hermione Granger · Herpo the Foul · Helga Hufflepuff · Harry Potter · Montague Knightley · Phillipus von Hohenheim · Roderick Plumpton · Rowena Ravenclaw · Ronald Weasley · Salazar Slytherin
Silver cards	Alberic Grunnion · Alberta Toothill · Andros the Invincible · Artemisia Lufkin · Blenheim Stalk · Bowman Wright · Chauncey Oldridge · Circe · Cliodna · Crispin Cronk · Cyprian Youdle · Daisy Dodderidge · Derwent Shimpling · Donaghan Tremlett · Dunbar Oglethorpe · Dymphna Furmage · Elfrida Clagg · Felix Summerbee · Fulbert the Fearful · Gaspard Shingleton · Gideon Crumb · Glenda Chittock · Gondoline Oliphant · Gregory the Smarmy · Gwenog Jones · Honoria Nutcombe · Ignatia Wildsmith · Joscelind Wadcock · Kirley Duke · Laverne de Montmorency · Leopoldina Smethwyck · Maeve · Mirabella Plunkett · Mopsus · Morgan le Fay · Oswald Beamish · Sacharissa Tugwood · Thaddeus Thurkell · Thurkell brothers · Wendelin the Weird · Xavier Rastrick
Bronze cards	Adalbert Waffling · Almerick Sawbridge · Archibald Alderton · Balfour Blane · Beatrix Bloxam · Beaumont Marjoribanks · Bridget Wenlock · Burdock Muldoon · Cassandra Vablatsky · Celestina Warbeck · Cornelius Agrippa · Devlin Whitehorn · Dorcas Wellbeloved · Edgar Stroulger · Elladora Ketteridge · Ethelred the Ever-Ready · Flavius Belby · Gifford Ollerton · Glanmore Peakes · Glover Hipworth · Greta Catchlove · Grogan Stump · Gulliver Pokeby · Gunhilda de Gorsemoor · Havelock Sweeting · Hengist of Woodcroft · Heathcote Barbary · Herman Wintringham · Hesper Starkey · Jocunda Sykes · Justus Pilliwickle · Merlin · Merton Graves · Merwyn the Malicious · Miranda Goshawk · Mungo Bonham · Musidora Barkwith · Myron Wagtail · Newton Scamander · Norvel Twonk · Orsino Thruston · Perpetua Fancourt · Quong Po · Roland Kegg · Stoddard Withers · Tilly Toke · Uric the Oddball · Yardley Platt
Famous Vampires cards	Blodwyn Bludd · Vlad Drakul · Amarillo Lestoat · Carmilla Sanguina · Herbert Varney
Famous Hags cards	Babayaga · Malodora Grymm · Old Mother Hubbard · Cordelia Misericordia · Leticia Somnolens
Famous Giants cards	Bran the Bloodthirsty · Cyclops · Goliath · Morholt · Hengist of Upper Barnton
Famous Goblins cards	Alguff the Awful · Eargit the Ugly · Gringott · Ug the Unreliable · Urg the Unclean
Dragon cards	Common Welsh Green · Hebridean Black · Hungarian Horntail · Norwegian Ridgeback · Romanian Longhorn
Beast cards	Billywig · Bowtruckle · Doxy · Double-ended Newt · Giant Purple Toad · Giant Squid · Gnome · Gytrash · Imp · Kelpie · Manticore · Mountain Troll · Streeler · Phoenix · Unicorn