Based upon the eponymous Greek mythological figure who imprisoned Odysseus in Homer's Odyssey, she is a wicked sorceress and major recurring adversary of the superhero Wonder Woman.

She has been presented variously since first appearing in 1949’s Wonder Woman #37, though her characterization has consistently retained a key set of features: immortality, stunning physical beauty, a powerful command over sorcery, a penchant for turning human beings into animals (like her mythological antecedent) and often, a delight in humiliation.

Though she first appeared as a Wonder Woman villain, Circe would spend the next 43 years as an antagonist for other DC Comics heroes, such as Rip Hunter, the Sea Devils, and particularly Superman and Supergirl, for whom she was a persistent foil (and sometimes ally) throughout the late 1950s and 1960s.

Circe has been adapted into several Wonder Woman and DC Comics-related animated TV and video game projects, in which she has been voiced by Michelle Forbes, Laura Post, Rachel York, and Anya Chalotra.

[1] Her first Silver Age appearance, with black hair and a yellow gown, saw her battle Rip Hunter in 1959’s Showcase #21, written by Jack Miller and illustrated by Mike Sekowsky.

She figured significantly in the origin and exploits of Comet the Super-Horse, a human-turned-animal character who was, somewhat alarmingly, presented as both a love-interest for Supergirl, as well as her pet and steed.

[2] Heck’s rendering of Circe, colored by Nansi Hoolahan, composited several elements of her Golden and Silver Age designs, including the pink gown and scepter from her Superman and Supergirl appearances, and the flowing red robe from her 1949 debut.

Circe would be re-imagined in June 1988,[3] by creative team George Pérez and Greg Potter as part of their reboot of the Wonder Woman mythos.

This version, with red irises, dark violet hair, and attired in a sultry green gown, would become one of Wonder Woman's principal Post-Crisis foes.

With the goddess of witchcraft Hecate as her patron, Circe featured significantly in a number of Wonder Woman-related storylines throughout the Modern Age, including as the principal antagonist in DC Comic’s 1991 company-wide crossover event War of the Gods.

Ross’s redesign accompanied a brassier, wise-cracking characterization by Christopher Priest which would be largely retained by future Wonder Woman writers, including Phil Jimenez, Gail Simone, Allan Heinberg and Greg Rucka.

The short-cropped auburn-red hair of the character’s Bronze Age design returns, accompanied by a wardrobe of fitted blazers, sharp open-collared shirts and black jeans.

In the original DC Comics continuity (prior to the Crisis on Infinite Earths), Circe is a centuries-old enchantress who is kept young by an elixir called vitae.

A woman claiming to be a descendant of the original Circe later appears and gives Superman an evolution serum, which temporarily and partially transforms him into a lion after he does not agree to marry her.

After she failed to kill the Amazon with a series of attacks by man-animal hybrids, she took up with the Aztec god Tezcatlipoca, who set in motion a chain of events that led Wonder Woman to the jungles of Tropidor.

Over the course of the war, Circe succeeded in killing Hermes, who had since been in a severely weakened state from being away from Olympus for so long and temporarily devolving Diana herself out of existence by reverting her back into the clay from which she had been formed.

Elsewhere, with the aid of the Spectre, Deadman, and the Phantom Stranger, Diana was restored to life and in a concerted effort with Donna Troy, used the amulet of Harmonia to open a portal into an alternate universe where the Titans of Myth resided.

To circumvent Diana's Lasso of Truth, she also cast an enchantment to remove all memory of herself as Circe so that the Donna persona would be in complete control.

She allied herself with Sebastian Ballesteros, who had usurped the power of the Cheetah from Barbara Ann Minerva and turned Diana's friend Vanessa Kapatelis into the new Silver Swan.

Her scheme involved the transformation of all male superheroes into her bestiamorphs save for J'onn Jonzz, Beast Boy, and Plastic Man, whom she took special means to keep imprisoned due to their shape-shifting abilities.

In the "One Year Later" storyline, Circe was revealed to be the source behind the new upgrades to Wonder Woman's rogues gallery, increasing their power "beyond their wildest imaginings".

This greatly resembles a previous occurrence written by Phil Jimenez in which Circe magically caused herself to possess the strength of "Earth's strongest woman".

[volume & issue needed] She was also responsible for giving Everyman his shapeshifting powers back to replace Sarge Steel at the Department of Metahuman Affairs and instigate the events leading up to the Amazons Attack!

After killing several soldiers, Circe tricked Wonder Woman into wrapping her lasso around the witch, enabling her to complete the ritual to bind Phobos and Deimos into the forms of dogs.

[29] Though Luthor leaves immediately afterward, Ra's remains behind and Circe explains that the pits contain an army of demons which require a sacrifice to be released.

At first Circe transforms the male members of the League into Ani-men, but upon seeing Diana's witchmark, she quickly reverses her spell and admits that she plays the role of a supervillain purely to occupy herself.

While this initially works Hecate eventually possess Wonder Woman and launches an attack on Nanda Parbat in an attempt to dominate all magical centres in the world.

She secretly begins to build her own villainous Dark League starting by recruiting the Floronic Man and then later Solomon Grundy, Papa Midnite, and Klarion the Witch Boy.

Among other things, she can alter minds, fire destructive magical energy blasts, create illusions, revive the dead (as she did with Medusa), teleport, and transform objects and beings.

Circe also can magically summon, lure, and seduce men towards her with her enchantingly beautiful, seductive, melodic hypnotic calls, vocalized melodies, lullabies, or songs, similar to that of a siren.