Circean poison

English

Etymology

After the Greek mythological figure of Circe, who (in the Odyssey) tempted men to excess before turning them into pigs.

Noun

Circean poison (uncountable)

1. A poison or potion that changes the body but not the mind.
   • 1926, Essays in memory of Barrett Wendell, page 77:

     And the riven Tree in the West withered; and the broken Car was changed by the Circean poison of the golden plumes into a two-natured monster, half-bird, half-beast — a mockery of the holy Griffin.

2. Anything magically (and fatally) captivating, such as a potion or applause.
   • 1834, Thomas Carlyle, "The Death of Edward Irving," essay from Fraser's Magazine 61 (1834)[1]:

     O foulest Circean draught, thou poison of Popular Applause! madness is in thee, and death; thy end is Bedlam and the Grave.

   • 1878, John Henry Newman, An Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine, page 242:

     "Is not this herd," he continues, "worse than Circean poison?"

   • 1908, John Ruskin, St. Mark's Rest: The History of Venice Written for the Help of the Few ..., page 236:

     So soon the worm that dies not is also upon him—in its fang Circean poison to make the victim one with his plague...

References

• Circean poison at the online public domain 1907 edition of The Nuttall Encyclopaedia.