Circe ( / ˈ s ɜːr s iː / ; Ancient Greek : Κίρκη : Kírkē ) is an enchantress and a minor goddess in ancient Greek mythology and religion . In most accounts, Circe is described as the daughter of the sun god Helios and the Oceanid nymph Perse . Circe was renowned for her vast knowledge of potions and herbs. Through the use of these and a magic wand or staff, she would transform her enemies, or those who offended her, into animals.
188-500: A circus is a company of performers who put on diverse entertainment shows that may include clowns , acrobats , trained animals, trapeze acts, musicians , dancers , hoopers , tightrope walkers , jugglers , magicians , ventriloquists , and unicyclists as well as other object manipulation and stunt-oriented artists. The term "circus" also describes the field of performance, training, and community which has followed various formats through its 250-year modern history. Although not
376-468: A Winkte . Canadian First Nations also feature jester-like ritual performers, translated by one Anishinaabe activist as "Harlequins", though the exact nature of their role is kept secret from non-members of the tribe into the present day. The Canadian clowning method developed by Richard Pochinko and furthered by his former apprentice, Sue Morrison, combines European and Native American clowning techniques. In this tradition, masks are made of clay while
564-413: A physical performance discipline, partly because tricky subject matter can be dealt with, but also because it requires a high level of risk and play in the performer. In anthropology, the term clown has been extended to comparable jester or fool characters in non-Western cultures. A society in which such clowns have an important position are termed clown societies , and a clown character involved in
752-607: A cage with several big cats in 1833, and is generally considered to be the first wild animal trainer in American circus history. Mabel Stark was a famous female tiger-tamer. Animal rights groups have documented many cases of animal cruelty in the training of performing circus animals. The animal rights group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) contends that animals in circuses are frequently beaten into submission and that physical abuse has always been
940-409: A center ring, and sometimes a stage. The traditional large tents commonly known as "big tops" were introduced in the mid-nineteenth century as touring circuses superseded static venues. These tents eventually became the most common venue. Contemporary circus is performed in a variety of venues including tents, theatres, casinos, cruise ships, and open-air spaces. Many circus performances are still held in
1128-457: A change in the law was needed to protect circus animals. Gale told the BBC, "It's undignified and the conditions under which they are kept are woefully inadequate—the cages are too small, the environments they live in are not suitable and many of us believe the time has come for that practice to end." The group reported concerns about boredom and stress, and noted that an independent study by a member of
1316-404: A circle and the building as an amphitheatre; these would later be known as a circus. In 1770, Astley hired acrobats , tightrope walkers , jugglers , and a clown to fill in the pauses between acts. Astley was followed by Andrew Ducrow , whose feats of horsemanship had much to do with establishing the traditions of the circus, which were perpetuated by Hengler's and Sanger 's celebrated shows in
1504-461: A circus is of a Big Top with various acts providing entertainment therein; however, the history of circuses is more complex, with historians disagreeing on its origin, as well as revisions being done about the history due to the changing nature of historical research, and the ongoing circus phenomenon. For many, circus history begins with Englishman Philip Astley , while for others its origins go back much further—to Roman Empire times. In Ancient Rome,
1692-467: A clown is known as clowning or buffoonery , and the term "clown" may be used synonymously with predecessors like jester , joker , buffoon , fool , or harlequin . Clowns have a diverse tradition with significant variations in costume and performance. The most recognisable clowns are those that commonly perform in the circus, characterized by colorful wigs, red noses, and oversized shoes. However, clowns have also played roles in theater and folklore, like
1880-458: A clown might perform other circus roles or skills. Clowns may perform such skills as tightrope , juggling , unicycling , Master of Ceremonies , or ride an animal. Clowns may also "sit in" with the orchestra . Other circus performers may also temporarily stand in for a clown and perform their skills in clown costume. Frameworks are the general outline of an act that clowns use to help them build out an act. Frameworks can be loose, including only
2068-476: A clown to his shows to amuse the spectators between equestrian sequences. American comedian George L. Fox became known for his clown role, directly inspired by Grimaldi, in the 1860s. Tom Belling senior (1843–1900) developed the red clown or Auguste ( Dummer August ) character c. 1870, acting as a foil for the more sophisticated white clown . Belling worked for Circus Renz in Vienna. Belling's costume became
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#17327647996842256-444: A considerable change in the character of the modern circus. In arenas too large for speech to be easily audible, the traditional comic dialogue of the clown assumed a less prominent place than formerly, while the vastly increased wealth of stage properties relegated to the background the old-fashioned equestrian feats, which were replaced by more ambitious acrobatic performances, and by exhibitions of skill, strength, and daring, requiring
2444-479: A departing circus, collapsed, resulting in minor injuries to many but the death of Fanque's wife. Traveling circus companies also rented the land they set up their structures on sometimes causing damage to the local ecosystems. Three important circus innovators were the Italian Giuseppe Chiarini , and Frenchmen Louis Soullier and Jacques Tourniaire , whose early travelling circuses introduced
2632-426: A faithful depiction of the painting's Pre-Raphaelite mannerism but its description of Circe's potion as "distilled of death and shame" also accords with the contemporary (male) identification of Circe with perversity. This is further underlined by his statement (in a letter) that the black panthers there are "images of ruined passion" and by his anticipation at the end of the poem of passion's tide-strown shore / Where
2820-446: A foil for the white in circus or pantomime shows to a Bozo -derived standalone character in children's entertainment by the 1980s also gave rise to the evil clown character, with the attraction of clowns for small children being based in their fundamentally threatening or frightening nature. The fear of clowns, particularly circus clowns, has become known by the term "coulrophobia." There are different types of clowns portrayed around
3008-521: A general beginning and ending to the act, leaving it up to the clown's creativity to fill in the rest, or at the other extreme a fully developed script that allows very little room for creativity. Shows are the overall production that a clown is a part of, it may or may not include elements other than clowning, such as in a circus show. In a circus context, clown shows are typically made up of some combination of entrées, side dishes, clown stops, track gags, gags and bits . Clown Stops or interludes are
3196-546: A horse. By the 19th century, Circe was ceasing to be a mythical figure. Poets treated her either as an individual or at least as the type of a certain kind of woman. The French poet Albert Glatigny addresses "Circé" in his Les vignes folles (1857) and makes of her a voluptuous opium dream, the magnet of masochistic fantasies. Louis-Nicolas Ménard 's sonnet in Rêveries d'un païen mystique (1876) describes her as enchanting all with her virginal look, but appearance belies
3384-542: A later generation. In England circuses were often held in purpose-built buildings in large cities, such as the London Hippodrome , which was built as a combination of the circus, the menagerie, and the variety theatre, where wild animals such as lions and elephants from time to time appeared in the ring, and where convulsions of nature such as floods, earthquakes, and volcanic eruptions were produced with an extraordinary wealth of realistic display. Joseph Grimaldi ,
3572-412: A modern audience. In the novel, the eponymous character is a pan-dimensional monster which feeds mainly on children by luring them in the form of a clown, named "Pennywise", and then assuming the shape of whatever the victim fears the most. The character clown adopts an eccentric character of some type, such as a butcher, a baker, a policeman, a housewife or hobo . Prime examples of this type of clown are
3760-520: A more disturbing nature through the use of horror elements and dark humor . The character can be seen as playing on the sense of unease felt by those with coulrophobia, the fear of clowns. The modern archetype of the evil clown was popularized by DC Comics character the Joker starting in 1940 and again by Pennywise in Stephen King 's novel It , which introduced the fear of an evil clown to
3948-461: A more natural look. Daredevil stunt acts , freak shows , and sideshow acts are also parts of some circus acts, these activities may include human cannonball , chapeaugraphy , fire eating , breathing , and dancing , knife throwing , magic shows , sword swallowing , or strongman . Famous sideshow performers include Zip the Pinhead and The Doll Family . A popular sideshow attraction from
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#17327647996844136-628: A new Bill to ban the use of wild animals in travelling circuses. The Wild Animals in Circuses Act 2019 came into effect on 20 January 2020. A bill to ban the use of wild animals in travelling circuses in Wales was introduced in June 2019, and subsequently passed by the Welsh Parliament on 15 July 2020. Over 6,500 responses were made by the people of Wales, to the public consultation on
4324-571: A night of love with him, she explains the characteristics of the animals in her charge: the lions are the brave, the bears are the violent, the wolves are those forever dissatisfied, and so on (Canto 6). In Canto 7 he is introduced to those who experience frustration: a cat that has allowed its prey to escape; an agitated dragon; a fox constantly on the look-out for traps; a dog that bays the moon; Aesop's lion in love that allowed himself to be deprived of his teeth and claws. There are also emblematic satirical portraits of various Florentine personalities. In
4512-588: A performance there later that season. In the Americas during the first two decades of the 19th century, the Circus of Pepin and Breschard toured from Montreal to Havana, building circus theatres in many of the cities it visited. Victor Pépin , a native New Yorker, was the first American to operate a major circus in the United States. Later the establishments of Purdy, Welch & Co., and of van Amburgh gave
4700-440: A quarrel with his mother-in-law and killed her; Cassiphone then killed Telemachus to avenge her mother's death. On hearing of this, Odysseus died of grief. Dionysius of Halicarnassus (1.72.5) cites Xenagoras , the 2nd-century BC historian, as claiming that Odysseus and Circe had three different sons: Rhomos , Anteias , and Ardeias , who respectively founded three cities called by their names: Rome , Antium , and Ardea . In
4888-561: A religious or ritual capacity is known as a ritual clown . Many native tribes have a history of clowning, such as the Pueblo clown of the Kachina culture. A Heyoka is an individual in Lakota and Dakota cultures who lives outside the constraints of normal cultural roles, playing the role of a backwards clown by doing everything in reverse. The Heyoka role is sometimes best filled by
5076-800: A reserve. On 1 February 1992 at the Great American Circus in Palm Bay, Florida , an elephant named Janet (1965 – 1 February 1992) went out of control while giving a ride to a mother, her two children, and three other children. The elephant then stampeded through the circus grounds outside before being shot to death by police. Also, during a Circus International performance in Honolulu, Hawaii , on 20 August 1994, an elephant called Tyke (1974 – 20 August 1994) killed her trainer, Allen Campbell , and severely mauled her groomer, Dallas Beckwith, in front of hundreds of spectators. Tyke then bolted from
5264-444: A ring, usually 13 m (43 ft) in diameter. This dimension was adopted by Astley in the late eighteenth century as the minimum diameter that enabled an acrobatic horse rider to stand upright on a cantering horse to perform their tricks. A shift in form has been credited with a revival of the circus tradition since the late 1970s, when a number of groups began to experiment with new circus formats and aesthetics, typically avoiding
5452-569: A series of poetic dialogues, in the first of which, after a long series of incantations to the seven planets of the Hermetic tradition , most humans appear changed into different creatures in the scrying bowl. The sorceress Circe is then asked by her handmaiden Moeris about the type of behaviour with which each is associated. According to Circe, for instance, fireflies are the learned, wise, and illustrious amidst idiots, asses, and obscure men (Question 32). In later sections different characters discuss
5640-497: A variety of other routines. Juggling is one of the most common acts in a circus; the combination of juggling and gymnastics that includes acts like plate spinning and the rolling globe come under the category equilibristics , along with more classical balance disciplines such as tightwire, slackline and unicycle. Acts like these are some of the most common and the most traditional. Clowns are common to most circuses and are typically skilled in many circus acts; "clowns getting into
5828-415: A wider popularity to the circus in the United States. In 1825, Joshuah Purdy Brown was the first circus owner to use a large canvas tent for the circus performance. Circus pioneer Dan Rice was the most famous pre- Civil War circus clown, popularising such expressions as "The One-Horse Show" and " Hey, Rube! ". The American circus was revolutionised by P. T. Barnum and William Cameron Coup , who launched
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6016-646: A wider programme of events; for example, the Cirkusbygningen (The Circus Building) in Copenhagen, Denmark, Cirkus in Stockholm, Sweden, or Carré Theatre in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Clown A clown is a person who performs physical comedy and arts in an open-ended fashion , typically while wearing distinct makeup or costuming and reversing folkway-norms . The art of performing as
6204-594: A woodpecker for resisting her advances. Another story tells of her falling in love with the sea-god Glaucus , who prefers the nymph Scylla to her. In revenge, Circe poisoned the water where her rival bathed and turned her into a dreadful monster. Depictions, even in Classical times, diverged from the detail in Homer's narrative, which was later to be reinterpreted morally as a cautionary story against drunkenness. Early philosophical questions were also raised about whether
6392-478: Is H.D. 's "Circe", from her collection Hymen (1921). In her soliloquy she reviews the conquests with which she has grown bored, then mourns the one instance when she failed. In not naming Ulysses himself, Doolittle universalises an emotion with which all women might identify. At the end of the century, British poet Carol Ann Duffy wrote a monologue entitled Circe which pictures the goddess addressing an audience of "nereids and nymphs". In this outspoken episode in
6580-632: Is a mirror image of the Classical story. In place of the witch who easily seduces the men she meets, a male enchanter is resisted by female virtue. In the 20th century, the Circe episode was to be re-evaluated in two poetic sequels to the Odyssey . In the first of these, Giovanni Pascoli 's L'Ultimo Viaggio ( The Last Voyage , 1906), the aging hero sets out to rediscover the emotions of his youth by retracing his journey from Troy , only to discover that
6768-546: Is a variation of pink, red, or tan rather than white. Features are exaggerated in size, and are typically red and black in color. The mouth is thickly outlined with white (called the muzzle) as are the eyes. Appropriate to the character, the Auguste can be dressed in either well-fitted garb or a costume that does not fit – oversize or too small, either is appropriate. Bold colors, large prints or patterns, and suspenders often characterize Auguste costumes. The Auguste character-type
6956-463: Is a very different interpretation of the encounter with Circe in John Gower 's long didactic poem Confessio Amantis (1380). Ulysses is depicted as deeper in sorcery and readier of tongue than Circe and through this means he leaves her pregnant with Telegonus. Most of the account deals with the son's later quest for and accidental killing of his father, drawing the moral that only evil can come of
7144-561: Is following Hesiod 's tradition in making Circe arrive in Aeaea on Helios' chariot, while Valerius Flaccus writes that Circe was borne away by winged dragons. Roman poets associated her with the most ancient traditions of Latium, and made her home to be on the promontory of Circeo . Homer describes Circe as "a dreadful goddess with lovely hair and human speech". Apollonius writes that she (just like every other descendant of Helios) had flashing golden eyes that shot out rays of light, with
7332-568: Is instructed by the whiteface to correct the Auguste when he is doing something wrong. There are two major types of clowns with whiteface makeup: The classic white clown is derived from the Pierrot character. His makeup is white, usually with facial features such as eyebrows emphasized in black. He is the more intelligent and sophisticated clown, contrasting with the rude or grotesque Auguste types. Francesco Caroli and Glenn "Frosty" Little are examples of this type. The second type of whiteface
7520-473: Is more a matter of allusion and is nowhere overtly stated beyond the title. It is a reflection on contemporary gender politics that scarcely needs the disguises of Augusta Webster's. With two other poems by male writers it is much the same: Louis Macneice 's, for example, whose "Circe" appeared in his first volume, Poems (London, 1935); or Robert Lowell 's, whose "Ulysses and Circe" appeared in his last, Day by Day (New York, 1977). Both poets have appropriated
7708-409: Is often an anarchist, a joker, or a fool. He is clever and has much lower status than the whiteface. Classically the whiteface character instructs the Auguste character to perform his bidding. The Auguste has a hard time performing a given task, which leads to funny situations. Sometimes the Auguste plays the role of an anarchist and purposefully has trouble following the whiteface's directions. Sometimes
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7896-431: Is one of the characters, the power of her potion is differently interpreted. The inner tendencies unlocked by it are not the choice between animal nature and reason but between two types of impersonality, between divine clarity and the poet's participatory and tragic vision of life. In the poem, Circe discovers a youth laid asleep in the portico of her temple by a draught of her ivy-wreathed bowl. On awaking from possession by
8084-592: Is questioned and beasts are proved to be of superior wisdom and virtue. Strabo writes that a tomb-shrine of Circe was attended in one of the Pharmacussae islands, off the coast of Attica , typical for hero-worship. Circe was also venerated in Mount Circeo , in the Italian peninsula , which took its name after her according to ancient legend. Strabo says that Circe had a shrine in the small town, and that
8272-485: Is the buffoonish clown of the Bozo type, known as Comedy or Grotesque Whiteface . This type has grotesquely emphasized features, especially a red nose and red mouth, often with partial (mostly red) hair. In the comedic partnership of Abbott and Costello , Bud Abbot would have been the classic whiteface and Lou Costello the comedy whiteface or Auguste. Traditionally, the whiteface clown uses clown white makeup to cover
8460-539: Is told in Homer 's Odyssey when Odysseus visits her island of Aeaea on the way back from the Trojan War and she changes most of his crew into swine . He manages to persuade her to return them to human shape, lives with her for a year and has sons by her, including Latinus and Telegonus . Her ability to change others into animals is further highlighted by the story of Picus , an Italian king whom she turns into
8648-470: Is transformed into his true animal likeness. It has further been suggested that John Milton 's Mask Presented at Ludlow Castle (1634) is a sequel to Tempe Restored , a masque in which Circe had figured two years earlier, and that the situation presented there is a reversal of the Greek myth. At the start of the masque , the character Comus is described as the son of Circe by Bacchus , god of wine, and
8836-402: The circus was a roofless arena for the exhibition of horse and chariot races, equestrian shows, staged battles, gladiatorial combat, and displays of (and fights with) trained animals. The circuses of Rome were similar to the ancient Greek hippodromes , although circuses served varying purposes and differed in design and construction, and for events that involved re-enactments of naval battles,
9024-745: The Bartholomew Fair in London during the Middle Ages . The origin of the modern circus has been attributed to Philip Astley , who was born 1742 in Newcastle-under-Lyme, England. He became a cavalry officer who set up the first modern amphitheatre for the display of horse riding tricks in Lambeth, London, on 4 April 1768. Astley did not originate trick horse riding, nor was he first to introduce acts such as acrobats and clowns to
9212-507: The Bozo character in the 1960s. Willard Scott , who had played Bozo during 1959–1962, performed as the mascot in 1963 television spots. The McDonald's trademark application for the character dates to 1967. Based on the Bozo template, the US custom of birthday clown, private contractors who offer to perform as clowns at children's parties, developed in the 1960s to 1970s. The strong association of
9400-513: The Fifth Dynasty of Egypt , around 2400 BC. Unlike court jesters , clowns have traditionally served a socio-religious and psychological role, and traditionally the roles of priest and clown have been held by the same persons. Peter Berger writes, "It seems plausible that folly and fools, like religion and magic, meet some deeply rooted needs in human society." For this reason, clowning is often considered an important part of training as
9588-564: The Harvard Advocate . Circe herself does not appear, her character is suggested by what is in the grounds and the beasts in the forest beyond: panthers, pythons, and peacocks that look at us with the eyes of men whom we knew long ago . Rather than a temptress, she has become an emasculatory threat. Several female poets make Circe stand up for herself, using the soliloquy form to voice the woman's position. The 19th-century English poet Augusta Webster , much of whose writing explored
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#17327647996849776-761: The Pickle Family Circus , founded in San Francisco in 1975; Ra-Ra Zoo in 1984 in London ; Nofit State Circus in 1984 from Wales ; Cirque du Soleil , founded in Quebec in 1984; Cirque Plume and Archaos from France in 1984 and 1986 respectively. More recent examples include: Cirque Éloize (founded in Quebec in 1993); Sweden's Cirkus Cirkör (1995); Teatro ZinZanni (founded in Seattle in 1998);
9964-628: The Wildlife Conservation Research Unit at Oxford University "found no evidence that circuses contribute to education or conservation."; however, in 2007, a different working group under the UK Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs , having reviewed information from experts representing both the circus industry and animal welfare, found an absence of "scientific evidence sufficient to demonstrate that travelling circuses are not compatible with meeting
10152-466: The court jesters of the Middle Ages and the jesters and ritual clowns of various indigenous cultures . Their performances can elicit a range of emotions, from humor and laughter to fear and discomfort, reflecting complex societal and psychological dimensions. Through the centuries, clowns have continued to play significant roles in society, evolving alongside changing cultural norms and artistic expressions. The most ancient clowns have been found in
10340-519: The sun god Helios and Perse , one of the three thousand Oceanid nymphs . In Orphic Argonautica , her mother is called Asterope instead. Her brothers were Aeëtes , keeper of the Golden Fleece and father of Medea , and Perses . Her sister was Pasiphaë , the wife of King Minos and mother of the Minotaur . Other accounts make her and her niece Medea the daughters of Hecate ,
10528-493: The ( Bozo -derived) clown character with children's entertainment as it has developed since the 1960s also gave rise to Clown Care or hospital clowning in children's hospitals by the mid-1980s. Clowns of America International (established 1984) and World Clown Association (established 1987) are associations of semi-professionals and professional performers. The shift of the Auguste or red clown character from his role as
10716-624: The 13th century, through medieval and renaissance jesters, minstrels and troubadours to the late 18th century and the time of Astley. The first circus in the city of Rome was the Circus Maximus , in the valley between the Palatine and Aventine hills. It was constructed during the monarchy and, at first, built completely from wood. After being rebuilt several times, the final version of the Circus Maximus could seat 250,000 people; it
10904-435: The 17th century, inspired by Arlecchino and the commedia dell'arte. It was here that Clown came into use as the given name of a stock character. Originally a foil for Harlequin's slyness and adroit nature, Clown was a buffoon or bumpkin fool who resembled less a jester than a comical idiot. He was a lower class character dressed in tattered servants' garb. The now-classical features of the clown character were developed in
11092-682: The 1920s to 1930s. The English word clown was borrowed, along with the circus clown act, by many other languages, such as French clown , Russian (and other Slavic languages) кло́ун, Greek κλόουν, Danish/Norwegian klovn , Romanian clovn etc. Italian retains Pagliaccio , a Commedia dell'arte zanni character, and derivations of the Italian term are found in other Romance languages, such as French Paillasse , Spanish payaso , Catalan/Galician pallasso , Portuguese palhaço , Greek παλιάτσος, Turkish palyaço , German Pajass (via French) Yiddish פּאַיאַץ ( payats ), Russian пая́ц, Romanian paiață . In
11280-667: The 1970s in Australia, Canada, France, the West Coast of the United States, and the United Kingdom. New Circus combines traditional circus skills and theatrical techniques to convey a story or theme. Compared with the traditional circus, this genre of circus tends to focus more attention on the overall aesthetic impact, on character and story development, and on the use of lighting design , original music, and costume design to convey thematic or narrative content. Music used in
11468-406: The American circus is the hobo , tramp or bum clown. There are subtle differences in the American character clown types. The primary differences among these clown types is attitude . According to American circus expert Hovey Burgess , they are: The World Clown Association is a worldwide organization for clowns, jugglers, magicians, and face painters. It holds an annual convention, mainly in
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#173276479968411656-542: The Argonauts find Circe bathing in salt water; the animals that surround her are not former lovers transformed but primeval "beasts, not resembling the beasts of the wild, nor yet like men in body, but with a medley of limbs." Circe invites Jason, Medea and their crew into her mansion; uttering no words, they show her the still bloody sword they used to cut Absyrtus down, and Circe immediately realizes they have visited her to be purified of murder. She purifies them by slitting
11844-425: The Auguste is confused or is foolish and makes errors less deliberately. The contra-auguste plays the role of the mediator between the white clown and the Auguste character. He has a lower status than the white clown but a higher status than the Auguste. He aspires to be more like the white clown and often mimics everything the white clown does to try to gain approval. If there is a contra-auguste character, he often
12032-460: The Barnum & Bailey Greatest Show On Earth, where it toured from 1897 to 1902, impressing other circus owners with its large scale, its touring techniques (including the tent and circus train), and its combination of circus acts, a zoological exhibition, and a freak show. This format was adopted by European circuses at the turn of the 20th century. The influence of the American circus brought about
12220-419: The Circe episode among them. The two most common representations have Circe surrounded by the transformed sailors and Odysseus threatening the sorceress with his sword. In the case of the former, the animals are not always boars but also include, for instance, the ram, dog and lion on the 6th-century BC Boston kylix . Often the transformation is only partial, involving the head and perhaps a sprouting tail, while
12408-459: The English public, but he was the first to create a space where all these acts were brought together to perform a show. Astley rode in a circle rather than a straight line as his rivals did, and thus chanced on the format of performing in a circle. Astley performed stunts in a 42 ft diameter ring, which is the standard size used by circuses ever since. Astley referred to the performance arena as
12596-659: The Gryllus episode in Plutarch occurs as a chapter of Thomas Love Peacock 's late novel, Gryll Grange (1861), under the title "Aristophanes in London". Half Greek comedy, half Elizabethan masque, it is acted at the Grange by the novel's characters as a Christmas entertainment. In it Spiritualist mediums raise Circe and Gryllus and try to convince the latter of the superiority of modern times, which he rejects as intellectually and materially regressive. An Italian work drawing on
12784-724: The Italian Antonio Franconi in 1793. In 1826, the first circus took place under a canvas big top. The Englishman John Bill Ricketts brought the first modern circus to the United States. He began his theatrical career with Hughes Royal Circus in London in the 1780s, and travelled from England in 1792 to establish his first circus in Philadelphia . The first circus building in the US opened on 3 April 1793 in Philadelphia, where Ricketts gave America's first complete circus performance. George Washington attended
12972-503: The Italian island where Circe dwells and hears the cries of her many male victims, who now number more than the pigs of earlier accounts: The roars of lions that refuse the chain, / The grunts of bristled boars, and groans of bears, / And herds of howling wolves that stun the sailors' ears. In Ovid's 1st-century poem Metamorphoses , the fourth episode covers Circe's encounter with Ulysses (the Roman name of Odysseus), whereas book 14 covers
13160-432: The London comic stage that harlequinade Clowns became known as "Joey", and both the nickname and Grimaldi's whiteface make-up design are still used by other clowns. The comedy that clowns perform is usually in the role of a fool whose everyday actions and tasks become extraordinary—and for whom the ridiculous, for a short while, becomes ordinary. This style of comedy has a long history in many countries and cultures across
13348-492: The Netherlands, Norway, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Poland, Portugal, Singapore, Slovenia, Sweden, Switzerland, and Turkey. Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Germany, Spain, the United Kingdom, and the United States, have locally restricted or banned the use of animals in entertainment. In response to a growing popular concern about the use of animals in entertainment, animal-free circuses are becoming more common around
13536-514: The Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus came to an end in 2014 when The Humane Society of the United States and a number of other animal rights groups paid a $ 16 million settlement to Feld Entertainment; however, the circus closed in May 2017 after a 146-year run when it experienced a steep decline in ticket sales a year after it discontinued its elephant act and sent its pachyderms to
13724-608: The Soviet gymnastics programme. When the Moscow State Circus company began international tours in the 1950s, its levels of originality and artistic skill were widely applauded. Circuses from China, drawing on Chinese traditions of acrobatics , like the Chinese State Circus are also popular touring acts. New Circus (originally known as cirque nouveau ) is a performing arts movement that originated in
13912-620: The Tyrrhenian shore (that is, the western coast of Italy). In the same poem, Circe's brother Aeëtes describes how Circe was transferred to Aeaea: "I noted it once after taking a ride in my father Helios' chariot, when he was taking my sister Circe to the western land and we came to the coast of the Tyrrhenian mainland, where she dwells to this day, very far from the Colchian land." A scholiast on Apollonius Rhodius claims that Apollonius
14100-689: The Tyrsenoi, that is the Etruscans . The Telegony , an epic now lost, relates the later history of the last of these. Circe eventually informed her son who his absent father was and, when he set out to find Odysseus, gave him a poisoned spear. When Telegonus arrived in Ithaca, Odysseus was away in Thesprotia , fighting the Brygi. Telegonus began to ravage the island; Odysseus came to defend his land. With
14288-777: The United States, bringing with him a circus tent. At this time, itinerant circuses that could be fitted-up quickly were becoming popular in Britain. William Batty 's circus, for example, between 1838 and 1840, travelled from Newcastle to Edinburgh and then to Portsmouth and Southampton. Pablo Fanque , who is noteworthy as Britain's only black circus proprietor and who operated one of the most celebrated travelling circuses in Victorian England, erected temporary structures for his limited engagements or retrofitted existing structures. One such structure in Leeds, which Fanque assumed from
14476-475: The United States. Clowns of America International is a Minnesota-based non-profit clown arts membership organization which aims "to share, educate, and act as a gathering place for serious minded amateurs, semiprofessionals, and professional clowns". Clowns International is a British clowning organisation dating back to the 1940s. It is responsible for the Clown Egg Register . In the circus,
14664-564: The West African Circus Baobab (late 1990s); and Montreal's Les 7 doigts de la main (founded in 2002). The genre includes other circus troupes such as the Vermont-based Circus Smirkus (founded in 1987 by Rob Mermin ) and Le Cirque Imaginaire (later renamed Le Cirque Invisible, both founded and directed by Victoria Chaplin , daughter of Charlie Chaplin ). The most conspicuous success story in
14852-426: The absurd fashions of the day, comic impressions, and ribald songs." — The History and Psychology of Clowns Being Scary , Smithsonian . The circus clown tradition developed out of earlier comedic roles in theatre or Varieté shows during the 19th to mid 20th centuries. This recognizable character features outlandish costumes, distinctive makeup, colorful wigs, exaggerated footwear, and colorful clothing, with
15040-411: The accursed reality. Poets in English were not far behind in this lurid portrayal. Lord de Tabley 's "Circe" (1895) is a thing of decadent perversity likened to a tulip, A flaunting bloom, naked and undivine... / With freckled cheeks and splotch'd side serpentine, / A gipsy among flowers . That central image is echoed by the blood-striped flower of T.S.Eliot 's student poem "Circe's Palace" (1909) in
15228-574: The act" is a very familiar theme in any circus. Famous circus clowns have included Austin Miles , the Fratellini Family , Rusty Russell, Emmett Kelly , Grock , and Bill Irwin . The title clown refers to the role functions and performance skills, not simply to the image of red nose and exaggerated facepaint that was popularised through 20th Century mass media. While many clowns still perform in this styling, there are also many clowns who adopt
15416-568: The arena and ran through the streets of Kakaako for more than thirty minutes. Police fired 86 shots at Tyke, who eventually collapsed from the wounds and died. In December 2018, New Jersey became the first state in the U.S. to ban circuses, carnivals and fairs from featuring elephants, tigers, and other exotic animals. In 1998 in the United Kingdom, a parliamentary working group chaired by MP Roger Gale studied living conditions and treatment of animals in UK circuses. All members of this group agreed that
15604-522: The arts from the Renaissance down to modern times. Western paintings established a visual iconography for the figure, but also went for inspiration to other stories concerning Circe that appear in Ovid 's Metamorphoses . The episodes of Scylla and Picus added the vice of violent jealousy to her bad qualities and made her a figure of fear as well as of desire. By most accounts, she was the daughter of
15792-549: The author of Argonautica Orphica noting that she had hair like fiery rays. Ovid 's The Cure for Love implies that Circe might have been taught the knowledge of herbs and potions from her mother Perse, who seems to have had similar skills. In the Argonautica , Apollonius relates that Circe purified the Argonauts for the murder of Medea's brother Absyrtus , possibly reflecting an early tradition. In this poem,
15980-428: The brief appearances of clowns in a circus while the props and rigging are changed. These are typically made up of a few gags or several bits . Clown stops will always have a beginning, a middle, and an end to them, invariably culminating in a blow-off. These are also called reprises or run-ins by many, and in today's circus they are an art form in themselves. Originally they were bits of business usually parodying
16168-571: The broad categories of juggling, equilibristics, acrobatics, aerial and clowning. These disciplines can be honed into individual acts, which can be performed independently and marketed to many different prospective circus employers, and also used for devising solo or collaborative work created specifically for a single project. Common acts include a variety of acrobatics , gymnastics (including tumbling and trampoline ), aerial acts (such as trapeze , aerial silk , corde lisse , Lyra or Ariel hoop , circus hammok ), contortion , stilt-walking , and
16356-744: The case, brought against Feld Entertainment International by the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals et al., the Court ruled that evidence against the circus company was "not credible with regard to the allegations". In lieu of a USDA hearing, Feld Entertainment Inc . (parent of Ringling Bros.) agreed to pay an unprecedented $ 270,000 fine for violations of the Animal Welfare Act that allegedly occurred between June 2007 and August 2011. A 14-year litigation against
16544-495: The change from being a human endowed with reason to being an unreasoning beast might not be preferable after all, and the resulting debate was to have a powerful impact during the Renaissance . Circe was also taken as the archetype of the predatory female. In the eyes of those from a later age, this behaviour made her notorious both as a magician and as a type of sexually free woman. She has been frequently depicted as such in all
16732-411: The chorus in place of the usual Satyrs . Fragments of Anaxilas also mention the transformation and one of the characters complains of the impossibility of scratching his face now that he is a pig. The theme of Circe turning men into a variety of animals was elaborated by later writers. In his episodic work The Sorrows of Love (first century BC), Parthenius of Nicaea interpolated another episode into
16920-585: The circus to Latin America, Australia, Southeast Asia, China, South Africa, and Russia. Soullier was the first circus owner to introduce Chinese acrobatics to the European circus when he returned from his travels in 1866, and Tourniaire was the first to introduce the performing art to Ranga, where it became extremely popular. After an 1881 merger with James Anthony Bailey and James L. Hutchinson's circus and Barnum's death in 1891, his circus travelled to Europe as
17108-430: The circus traditionally takes place within a ring; large circuses may have multiple rings, like the six-ringed Moscow State Circus . A circus often travels with its own band, whose instrumentation in the United States has traditionally included brass instruments , drums, glockenspiel , and sometimes the distinctive sound of the calliope . Performers have been traditionally referred to as artistes, although in recent years
17296-484: The circus tramps Otto Griebling and Emmett Kelly . Red Skelton , Harold Lloyd , Buster Keaton , Charlie Chaplin , Rowan Atkinson and Sacha Baron Cohen would all fit the definition of a character clown. The character clown makeup is a comic slant on the standard human face. Their makeup starts with a flesh tone base and may make use of anything from glasses, mustaches and beards to freckles, warts, big ears or strange haircuts. The most prevalent character clown in
17484-450: The circus was flooded with water; however, the Roman circus buildings were not circular but rectangular with semi circular ends. The lower seats were reserved for persons of rank; there were also various state boxes for the giver of the games and his friends. The circus was the only public spectacle at which men and women were not separated. Some circus historians such as George Speaight have stated "these performances may have taken place in
17672-465: The creator's eyes are closed. A mask is made for each direction of the medicine wheel . During this process, the clown creates a personal mythology that explores their personal experiences. "Grimaldi was the first recognizable ancestor of the modern clown, sort of the Homo erectus of clown evolution. Before him, a clown may have worn make-up, but it was usually just a bit of rouge on the cheeks to heighten
17860-595: The danger to be found in the palace, and is rewarded at the end by being given back his human shape. In most accounts Ulysses only demands this for his own men. In her survey of the Transformations of Circe , Judith Yarnall comments of this figure, who started out as a comparatively minor goddess of unclear origin, that "What we know for certain – what Western literature attests to – is her remarkable staying power…These different versions of Circe's myth can be seen as mirrors, sometimes clouded and sometimes clear, of
18048-569: The development of the mediaeval legend of Morgan le Fay . In addition, it has been argued that the fairy Titania in William Shakespeare 's A Midsummer Night's Dream (1600) is an inversion of Circe. Titania (daughter of the Titans ) was a title by which the sorceress was known in Classical times. In this case the tables are turned on the character, who is queen of the fairies. She is made to love an ass after, rather than before, he
18236-718: The disheveled seaweed hates the sea . The Australian A. D. Hope 's "Circe – after the painting by Dosso Dossi", on the other hand, frankly admits humanity's animal inheritance as natural and something in which even Circe shares. In the poem, he links the fading rationality and speech of her lovers to her own animal cries in the act of love. There remain some poems that bear her name that have more to do with their writers' private preoccupations than with reinterpreting her myth. The link with it in Margaret Atwood 's "Circe/Mud Poems", first published in You Are Happy (1974),
18424-709: The draft Bill, 97% of which supported the ban. The use of wild animals in travelling circuses has been banned in Scotland. The Wild Animals in Travelling Circuses (Scotland) Act 2018 came into force on 28 May 2018. There are nationwide bans on using some if not all animals in circuses in Austria, Belgium, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Colombia, Costa Rica, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Ecuador, El Salvador, Estonia, Finland, Greece, Hungary, India, Iran, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Malta, Mexico,
18612-537: The early 1800s by Joseph Grimaldi , who played Clown in Charles Dibdin's 1800 pantomime Peter Wilkins: or Harlequin in the Flying World at Sadler's Wells Theatre , where Grimaldi built the character up into the central figure of the harlequinade. The circus clown developed in the 19th century. The modern circus derives from Philip Astley 's London riding school, which opened in 1768. Astley added
18800-529: The early 19th century was the flea circus , where fleas were attached to props and viewed through a Fresnel lens . A variety of animals have historically been used in acts. While the types of animals used vary from circus to circus, big cats (namely lions , tigers , and leopards ), foxes , wolves , polecats , minks , weasels , camels , llamas , elephants , zebras , horses , donkeys , birds (like parrots and doves ), sea lions , bears , monkeys , and domestic animals such as cats and dogs are
18988-562: The early 20th century, with the disappearance of the rustic simpleton or village idiot character of everyday experience, North American circuses developed characters such as the tramp or hobo . Examples include Marceline Orbes , who performed at the Hippodrome Theater (1905), Charlie Chaplin 's The Tramp (1914), and Emmett Kelly 's Weary Willie based on hobos of the Depression era. Another influential tramp character
19176-518: The early modern commedia dell'arte , which were themselves directly based on the rustic fool characters of ancient Greek and Roman theatre . Rustic buffoon characters in Classical Greek theater were known as sklêro-paiktês (from paizein : to play (like a child) ) or deikeliktas , besides other generic terms for rustic or peasant . In Roman theater, a term for clown was fossor , literally digger; labourer . The English word clown
19364-449: The ears, under the chin and on their legs with metal tipped prods, called bullhooks. Feld stated that these practices are necessary to protect circus workers. Feld also acknowledged that an elephant trainer was reprimanded for using an electric shock device, known as a hot shot or electric prod, on an elephant, which Feld also stated was appropriate practice. Feld denied that any of these practices harm elephants. In its January 2010 verdict on
19552-475: The eighth and last canto he has a conversation with a pig that, like the Gryllus of Plutarch, does not want to be changed back and condemns human greed, cruelty and conceit. The other Italian author was the esoteric philosopher Giordano Bruno , who wrote in Latin. His Cantus Circaeus ( The Incantation of Circe ) was the fourth work on memory and the association of ideas by him to be published in 1582. It contains
19740-429: The employment of immense numbers of performers, and often of complicated and expensive machinery. From the late 19th century through the first half of the 20th century, travelling circuses were a major form of spectator entertainment in the US and attracted huge attention whenever they arrived in a city. After World War II, the popularity of the circus declined as new forms of entertainment (such as television) arrived and
19928-433: The end it is only the horse, formerly a courtesan, who wants to return to her former state. The same theme occupies La Fontaine's late fable, "The Companions of Ulysses" (XII.1, 1690), which also echoes Plutarch and Gelli. Once transformed, every animal (which includes a lion, a bear, a wolf and a mole) protests that their lot is better and refuses to be restored to human shape. Charles Dennis shifted this fable to stand at
20116-491: The entire face and neck, leaving none of the underlying natural skin visible. In the European whiteface makeup, the ears are painted red. Whiteface makeup was originally designed by Joseph Grimaldi in 1801. He began by painting a white base over his face, neck and chest before adding red triangles on the cheeks, thick eyebrows and large red lips set in a mischievous grin. Grimaldi's design is used by many modern clowns. According to Grimaldi's biographer Andrew McConnell Stott, it
20304-423: The equal of his mother in enchantment. He too changes travelers into beastly forms that "roll with pleasure in a sensual sty". Having waylaid the heroine and immobilized her on an enchanted chair, he stands over her, wand in hand, and presses on her a magical cup (representing sexual pleasure and intemperance), which she repeatedly refuses, arguing for the virtuousness of temperance and chastity. The picture presented
20492-409: The equestrian demonstrations and thus chanced on the format which was later named a "circus." Performances developed significantly over the next 50 years, with large-scale theatrical battle reenactments becoming a significant feature. The format in which a ringmaster introduces a variety of choreographed acts set to music, often termed "traditional" or "classical" circus, developed in the latter part of
20680-402: The fantasies and assumptions of the cultures that produced them." After appearing as just one of the characters that Odysseus encounters on his wandering, "Circe herself, in the twists and turns of her story through the centuries, has gone through far more metamorphoses than those she inflicted on Odysseus's companions." One of the most enduring literary themes connected with the figure of Circe
20868-416: The female condition, has a dramatic monologue in blank verse titled "Circe" in her volume Portraits (1870). There the sorceress anticipates her meeting with Ulysses and his men and insists that she does not turn men into pigs—she merely takes away the disguise that makes them seem human. But any draught, pure water, natural wine, / out of my cup, revealed them to themselves / and to each other. Change? there
21056-764: The first European country to ban any animal from performing in any circus in its territory in February 2012, following a campaign by Animal Defenders International and the Greek Animal Welfare Fund (GAWF). On 6 June 2015, the Federation of Veterinarians of Europe adopted a position paper in which it recommends the prohibition of the use of wild animals in travelling circuses. Despite the contemporary circus' shift toward more theatrical techniques and its emphasis on human rather than animal performance, traditional circus companies still exist alongside
21244-706: The first mainstream clown , had his first major role as Little Clown in the pantomime The Triumph of Mirth; or, Harlequin's Wedding in 1781. The Royal Circus was opened in London on 4 November 1782 by Charles Dibdin (who coined the term "circus"), aided by his partner Charles Hughes, an equestrian performer. In 1782, Astley established the Amphithéâtre Anglais in Paris, the first purpose-built circus in France, followed by 18 other permanent circuses in cities throughout Europe. Astley leased his Parisian circus to
21432-435: The first two sections. The Circe episode is viewed by him as a narrow escape from death of the spirit: With twisted hands and thighs we rolled on burning sands, / a hanging mess of hissing vipers glued in sun!... / Farewell the brilliant voyage, ended! Prow and soul / moored in the muddy port of the contented beast! / O prodigal, much-traveled soul, is this your country? His escape from this mire of sensuality comes one day when
21620-504: The goddess of witchcraft by Aeëtes, usually said to be her brother instead. She was often confused with Calypso , due to her shifts in behavior and personality, and the association that both of them had with Odysseus . According to Greek legend, Circe lived on the island of Aeaea . Although Homer is vague when it comes to the island's whereabouts, the early 3rd BC author Apollonius of Rhodes 's epic poem Argonautica locates Aeaea somewhere south of Aethalia ( Elba ), within view of
21808-405: The gods and the giants , one of the giants, Picolous , fled the battle against the gods and came to Aeaea, Circe's island. He attempted to chase Circe away, only to be killed by Helios, Circe's ally and father. From the blood of the slain giant, a herb came into existence; moly , named thus from the battle (malos) and with a white-coloured flower, either for the white Sun who had killed Picolous or
21996-502: The gods, return home safely and recover his kingdom. Circe also advises him on how this might be achieved and furnishes him with the protections he will need and the means to communicate with the dead. On his return, she further advises him about two possible routes home, warning him, however, that both carry great danger. Towards the end of Hesiod's Theogony (c. 700 BC), it is stated that Circe bore Odysseus three sons: Agrius (otherwise unknown); Latinus ; and Telegonus , who ruled over
22184-575: The graduating class of the French circus school Le Centre National des Arts du Cirque (CNAC), directed by Joseph Nadj. In contrast to New Circus, Contemporary Circus (as a genre) tends to avoid linear narrative in favour of more suggestive, interdisciplinary approaches to abstract concepts. This includes a strong trend for developing new apparatus and movement languages based on the capacities, experience and interests of individual performers, rather than finding new ways to present traditional repertoire. Beyond
22372-510: The great arenas that were called 'circuses' by the Romans, but it is a mistake to equate these places, or the entertainments presented there, with the modern circus". Others have argued that the lineage of the circus does go back to the Roman circuses and a chronology of circus-related entertainment can be traced to Roman times, continued by the Hippodrome of Constantinople that operated until
22560-588: The head of his translation of La Fontaine, Select Fables (1754), but provides his own conclusion that When Mortals from the path of Honour stray, / And the strong passions over reason sway, / What are they then but Brutes? / 'Tis vice alone that constitutes / Th'enchanting wand and magic bowl, The exterior form of Man they wear, / But are in fact both Wolf and Bear, / The transformation's in the Soul. Louis Fuzelier and Marc-Antoine Legrand titled their comic opera of 1718 Les animaux raisonnables . It had more or less
22748-522: The intervention of Circe, the victims find their natural condition as soon as they set foot on the island. The philosopher here is not Gelli's elephant but the bat that retreats from human contact into the darkness, like Bruno's fireflies (VI). The only one who wishes to change in Gozzi's work is the bear, a satirist who had dared to criticize Circe and had been changed as a punishment (IX). There were two more satirical dramas in later centuries. One modelled on
22936-460: The inventor of the medium, Newcastle-under-Lyme born Philip Astley is credited as the father of the modern circus. In 1768, Astley, a skilled equestrian, began performing exhibitions of trick horse riding in an open field called Ha'penny Hatch on the south side of the Thames River , England. In 1770, he hired acrobats, tightrope walkers, jugglers, and a clown to fill in the pauses between
23124-503: The island of Eea is deserted. What in his dream of love he had taken for the roaring of lions and Circe's song was now no more than the sound of the sea-wind in autumnal oaks (Cantos 16–17). This melancholy dispelling of illusion is echoed in The Odyssey: A Modern Sequel (1938) by Nikos Kazantzakis . The fresh voyage in search of new meaning to life recorded there grows out of the hero's initial rejection of his past experiences in
23312-518: The island to her home with her lovely singing while weaving on an enormous loom, but later drugs them so that they change shape. One of her Homeric epithets is polypharmakos , "knowing many drugs or charms". Circe invites the hero Odysseus' crew to a feast of familiar food, a pottage of cheese and meal, sweetened with honey and laced with wine, but also mixed with one of her magical potions that turns them into swine. Only Eurylochus , who suspects treachery, does not go in. He escapes to warn Odysseus and
23500-444: The keeping of animals for circuses. A survey confirmed that on average, wild animals spend around 99 to 91 percent of their time in cages, wagons, or enclosure due to transportation. This causes a huge amount of distress to animals and leads to excessive amounts of drooling. City ordinances banning performances by wild animals have been enacted in San Francisco (2015), Los Angeles (2017), and New York City (2017). Greece became
23688-546: The last animal, a philosopher in its former existence, wants to. The work was translated into English soon after in 1557 by Henry Iden . Later the English poet Edmund Spenser also made reference to Plutarch's dialogue in the section of his Faerie Queene (1590) based on the Circe episode which appears at the end of Book II. Sir Guyon changes back the victims of Acrasia's erotic frenzy in the Bower of Bliss, most of whom are abashed at their fall from chivalric grace, But one above
23876-441: The later 5th-century CE epic Dionysiaca , its author Nonnus mentions Phaunus, Circe's son by the sea god Poseidon . Three ancient plays about Circe have been lost: the work of the tragedian Aeschylus and of the 4th-century BC comic dramatists Ephippus of Athens and Anaxilas . The first told the story of Odysseus' encounter with Circe. Vase paintings from the period suggest that Odysseus' half-transformed animal-men formed
24064-635: The method for training circus animals. It is also alleged that the animals are kept in cages that are too small and are given very little opportunity to walk around outside of their enclosure, thereby violating their right to freedom. According to PETA, although the US Animal Welfare Act does not permit any sort of punishment that puts the animals in discomfort, trainers will still go against this law and use such things as electric rods and bullhooks . According to PETA, during an undercover investigation of Carson & Barnes Circus, video footage
24252-533: The mischievous and brutish foil for the more sophisticated Harlequin, who became more of a romantic character. The most influential such pair in Victorian England were the Payne Brothers, active during the 1860s and 1870s. The white clown , or clown blanc in French, is a sophisticated character, as opposed to the clumsy Auguste. The two types are also distinguished as the sad clown (blanc) and happy clown (Auguste). The Auguste face base makeup color
24440-422: The more well-known clown stunts are: squirting flower; the too-many-clowns-coming-out-of-a-tiny-car stunt; doing just about anything with a rubber chicken , tripping over one's own feet (or an air pocket or imaginary blemish in the floor), or riding any number of ridiculous vehicles or clown bicycles . Individual prop stunts are generally considered individual bits. Circe The best known of her legends
24628-436: The most common. The earliest involvement of animals in circus was just the display of exotic creatures in a menagerie . Going as far back as the early eighteenth century, exotic animals were transported to North America for display, and menageries were a popular form of entertainment. The first true animals acts in the circus were equestrian acts. Soon elephants and big cats were displayed as well. Isaac A. Van Amburgh entered
24816-467: The myth to make a personal statement about their broken relationships. Several Renaissance epics of the 16th century include lascivious sorceresses based on the Circe figure. These generally live in an isolated spot devoted to pleasure, to which lovers are lured and later changed into beasts. They include the following: Later scholarship has identified elements from the character of both Circe and especially her fellow enchantress Medea as contributing to
25004-683: The name "contemporary circus." This labelling can cause confusion based upon the other use of the phrase contemporary circus to mean "circus of today." For this reason, some commentators have begun using the term "21st Century Circus" to encompass all the various styles available in the present day. 21st Century Circus continues to develop new variations on the circus tradition while absorbing new skills, techniques, and stylistic influences from other art forms and technological developments. For aesthetic or economic reasons, 21st Century Circus productions may often be staged in theaters rather than in large outdoor tents. First attested in English fourteenth century,
25192-468: The new circus genre has been that of Cirque du Soleil , the Canadian circus company whose estimated annual revenue exceeds US$ 810 million in 2009, and whose cirque nouveau shows have been seen by nearly 90 million spectators in over 200 cities on five continents. The genre of contemporary circus is largely considered to have begun in 1995 with 'Le Cri du Caméléon', an ensemble performance from
25380-706: The new movement. Numerous circuses continue to maintain animal performers, including UniverSoul Circus and the Big Apple Circus from the United States, Circus Krone from Munich, Circus Royale and Lennon Bros Circus from Australia, Vazquez Hermanos Circus , Circo Atayde Hermanos, and Hermanos Mayaror Circus from Mexico, and Moira Orfei Circus from Italy, to name just a few. In some towns, there are circus buildings where regular performances are held. The best known are: In other countries, purpose-built circus buildings still exist which are no longer used as circuses, or are used for circus only occasionally among
25568-558: The new title of Homines voluptatibus transformantur , men are transformed by their passions. This explains her appearance in the Nighttown section named after her in James Joyce 's novel Ulysses . Written in the form of a stage script, it makes of Circe the brothel madam, Bella Cohen. Bloom, the book's protagonist, fantasizes that she turns into a cruel man-tamer named Mr Bello who makes him get down on all fours and rides him like
25756-444: The nineteenth century and remained the dominant format until the 1970s. As styles of performance have developed since the time of Astley, so too have the types of venue where these circuses have performed. The earliest modern circuses were performed in open-air structures with limited covered seating. From the late eighteenth to late nineteenth century, custom-made circus buildings (often wooden) were built with various types of seating,
25944-522: The others who have remained with the ship. Before Odysseus reaches Circe's palace, Hermes , the messenger god sent by the goddess of wisdom Athena , intercepts him and reveals how he might defeat Circe in order to free his crew from their enchantment. Hermes provides Odysseus with moly to protect him from Circe's magic. He also tells Odysseus that he must then draw his sword and act as if he were going to attack her. From there, as Hermes foretold, Circe would ask Odysseus to bed, but Hermes advises caution, for
26132-540: The people there kept a bowl they claimed belonged to Odysseus. The promontory is occupied by ruins of a platform attributed with great probability to a temple of Venus or Circe. Giovanni Boccaccio provided a digest of what was known of Circe during the Middle Ages in his De mulieribus claris ( Famous Women , 1361–1362). While following the tradition that she lived in Italy, he comments wryly that there are now many more temptresses like her to lead men astray. There
26320-494: The performance aspect of circus, is the Social Circus field, catalysed by Reg Bolton. Social Circus engages communities through circus practice and activity to provide health and well-being benefits. A traditional circus performance is often led by a ringmaster who has a role similar to a Master of Ceremonies . The ringmaster presents performers, speaks to the audience, and generally keeps the show moving. The activity of
26508-430: The poetic frenzy it has induced, he craves for it to be continued. With the Renaissance there began to be a reinterpretation of what it was that changed the men, if it was not simply magic. For Socrates , in Classical times, it had been gluttony overcoming their self-control. But for the influential emblematist Andrea Alciato , it was unchastity. In the second edition of his Emblemata (1546), therefore, Circe became
26696-423: The preceding act. If for instance there had been a tightrope walker the reprise would involve two chairs with a piece of rope between and the clown trying to imitate the artiste by trying to walk between them, with the resulting falls and cascades bringing laughter from the audience. Today, interludes are far more complex, and in many modern shows the clowning is a thread that links the whole show together. Among
26884-451: The production is often composed exclusively for that production, and aesthetic influences are drawn as much from contemporary culture as from circus history. Animal acts rarely appear in new circus, in contrast to traditional circus, where animal acts have often been a significant part of the entertainment. Early pioneers of the new circus genre included: Circus Oz , forged in Australia in 1977 from SoapBox Circus (1976) and New Circus (1973);
27072-597: The public with innovative new approaches to the circus form itself. In 1919, Lenin , head of Soviet Russia , expressed a wish for the circus to become "the people's art-form", with facilities and status on par with theatre, opera and ballet. The USSR nationalised Russian circuses. In 1927, the State University of Circus and Variety Arts , better known as the Moscow Circus School , was established; performers were trained using methods developed from
27260-415: The public's tastes changed. From the 1960s onward, circuses attracted growing criticism from animal rights activists. Many circuses went out of business or were forced to merge with other circus companies. Nonetheless, a good number of travelling circuses are still active in various parts of the world, ranging from small family enterprises to three-ring extravaganzas. Other companies found new ways to draw in
27448-460: The rest in speciall, / That had an hog beene late, hight Grille by name, / Repined greatly, and did him miscall, / That had from hoggish forme him brought to naturall. Two other Italians wrote rather different works that centre on the animal within the human. One was Niccolò Machiavelli in his unfinished long poem, L'asino d'oro ( The Golden Ass , 1516). The author meets a beautiful herdswoman surrounded by Circe's herd of beasts. After spending
27636-473: The rest of the body is human. In describing an otherwise obscure 5th-century Greek bronze in the Walters Art Museum that takes the form of a man on all fours with the foreparts of a pig, the commentator asks in what other way could an artist depict someone bewitched other than as a man with an animal head. In these scenes Circe is shown almost invariably stirring the potion with her wand, although
27824-451: The same scenario transposed into another medium and set to music by Jacques Aubert . Circe, wishing to be rid of the company of Ulysses, agrees to change back his companions, but only the dolphin is willing. The others, who were formerly a corrupt judge (now a wolf), a financier (a pig), an abused wife (a hen), a deceived husband (a bull) and a flibbertigibbet (a linnet), find their present existence more agreeable. The Venetian Gasparo Gozzi
28012-411: The sense of them being florid, funny drunks or rustic yokels. Grimaldi, however, suited up in bizarre, colorful costumes, stark white face paint punctuated by spots of bright red on his cheeks and topped with a blue mohawk. He was a master of physical comedy—he leapt in the air, stood on his head, fought himself in hilarious fisticuffs that had audiences rolling in the aisles—as well as of satire lampooning
28200-406: The sight of some fishermen, a mother and her baby enjoying the simple comforts of food and drink, recalls him to life, its duties and delights. Where the attempt by Pascoli's hero to recapture the past ended in failure, Kazantzakis' Odysseus, already realising the emptiness of his experiences, journeys into what he hopes will be a fuller future. Scenes from the Odyssey are common on Greek pottery,
28388-409: The spot where Scylla usually took her bath, and poisoned the water. When Scylla went down to it to bathe, dogs sprang from her thighs and she was transformed into the familiar monster from the Odyssey . In another, similar story, Picus was a Latian king whom Circe turned into a woodpecker. He was the son of Saturn , and a king of Latium . He fell in love and married a nymph , Canens , to whom he
28576-431: The stories of Picus and Glaucus. Plutarch took up the theme in a lively dialogue that was later to have several imitators. Contained in his 1st-century Moralia is the Gryllus episode in which Circe allows Odysseus to interview a fellow Greek turned into a pig. After his interlocutor informs Odysseus that his present existence is preferable to the human, they engage in a philosophical dialogue in which every human value
28764-543: The story of her encounter with Ulysses appears as a verse epic in three cantos. This takes its beginning from Homer's account, but it is then embroidered; in particular, Circe's love for Ulysses remains unrequited. As "Circe's Palace", Nathaniel Hawthorne retold the Homeric account as the third section in his collection of stories from Greek mythology, Tanglewood Tales (1853). The transformed Picus continually appears in this, trying to warn Ulysses, and then Eurylochus, of
28952-546: The style generally being designed to entertain large audiences. The first mainstream clown role was portrayed by Joseph Grimaldi (who also created the traditional whiteface make-up design). In the early 1800s, he expanded the role of Clown in the harlequinade that formed part of British pantomimes , notably at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane and the Sadler's Wells and Covent Garden theatres. He became so dominant on
29140-500: The template for the modern stock character of circus or children's clown, based on a lower class or hobo character, with red nose, white makeup around the eyes and mouth, and oversized clothes and shoes. The clown character as developed by the late 19th century is reflected in Ruggero Leoncavallo 's 1892 opera Pagliacci ( Clowns ). Belling's Auguste character was further popularized by Nicolai Poliakoff 's Coco in
29328-524: The term artists has also come into regular use. To some performers from multi-generational circus families, the term artiste is still preferred as it is considered to confer higher status than artist. Conversely, some performers from the circus school training route taken by many of the newer generations prefer the term artist as it is considered to be less pretentious than artiste. The physical and creative skills that circus artist/es perform are known as disciplines, and are often grouped for training purposes into
29516-475: The terrified Circe who turned white; the very plant, which mortals are unable to pluck from the ground, that Hermes would later give to Odysseus in order to defeat Circe. In Homer's Odyssey , an 8th-century BC sequel to his Trojan War epic Iliad , Circe is initially described as a beautiful goddess living in a palace isolated in the midst of a dense wood on her island of Aeaea. Around her home prowl strangely docile lions and wolves. She lures any who land on
29704-445: The throat of a suckling pig and letting the blood drip on them. Afterwards, Medea tells Circe their tale in great detail, albeit omitting the part of Absyrtus' murder; nevertheless Circe is not fooled, and greatly disapproves of their actions. However, out of pity for the girl, and on account of their kinship, she promises not to be an obstacle on their way, and orders Jason and Medea to leave her island immediately. The sea-god Glaucus
29892-478: The time that Odysseus was staying with Circe. Pestered by the amorous attentions of King Calchus the Daunian , the sorceress invited him to a drugged dinner that turned him into a pig and then shut him up in her sties. He was only released when his army came searching for him on the condition that he would never set foot on her island again. Among Latin treatments, Virgil 's Aeneid relates how Aeneas skirts
30080-632: The transformation of Odysseus' companions when, though Head, face and members bristle into swine, / Still cursed with sense, their mind remains alone . Dobson's " The Prayer of the Swine to Circe " (1640) depicts the horror of being imprisoned in an animal body in this way with the human consciousness unchanged. There appears to be no relief, for only in the final line is it revealed that Odysseus has arrived to free them. But in Matthew Arnold 's dramatic poem "The Strayed Reveller" (1849), in which Circe
30268-663: The transformation theme was the comedy by Ettore Romagnoli, La figlia del Sole ( The Daughter of the Sun , 1919). Hercules arrives on the island of Circe with his servant Cercopo and has to be rescued by the latter when he too is changed into a pig. But, since the naturally innocent other animals had become corrupted by imitating human vices, the others who had been changed were refused when they begged to be rescued. Also in England, Austin Dobson engaged more seriously with Homer's account of
30456-471: The travelling P. T. Barnum's Museum, Menagerie & Circus , the first freak show , in the 1870s. Coup also introduced the first multiple-ring circuses, and was also the first circus entrepreneur to use circus trains to transport the circus between towns. By the 1830s, sideshows were also being established alongside travelling circuses. In 1838, the equestrian Thomas Taplin Cooke returned to England from
30644-477: The treacherous goddess could still "unman" him unless he has her swear by the names of the gods that she will not take any further action against him. Following this advice, Odysseus is able to free his men. After they have all remained on the island for a year, Circe advises Odysseus that he must first visit the Underworld , something a mortal has never yet done, in order to gain knowledge about how to appease
30832-411: The type of the prostitute . His Emblem 76 is titled Cavendum a meretricibus ; its accompanying Latin verses mention Picus, Scylla and the companions of Ulysses, and concludes that "Circe with her famous name indicates a whore and any who loves such a one loses his reason". His English imitator Geoffrey Whitney used a variation of Alciato's illustration in his own Choice of Emblemes (1586) but gave it
31020-520: The use of animals to focus exclusively on human artistry. Circus companies and artistes within this movement, often termed "new circus" or "cirque nouveau," have tended to favor a theatrical approach, combining character-driven circus acts with original music in a broad variety of styles to convey complex themes or stories. Since the 1990s, a more avant-garde approach to presenting traditional circus techniques or "disciplines" in ways that align more closely to performance art, dance or visual arts has been given
31208-420: The use of images in the imagination in order to facilitate use of the art of memory , which is the real aim of the work. French writers were to take their lead from Gelli in the following century. Antoine Jacob wrote a one-act social comedy in rhyme, Les Bestes raisonnables ( The Reasoning Beasts , 1661) which allowed him to satirise contemporary manners. On the isle of Circe, Ulysses encounters an ass that
31396-482: The use of sorcery. The story of Ulysses and Circe was retold as an episode in Georg Rollenhagen's German verse epic, Froschmeuseler ( The Frogs and Mice , Magdeburg, 1595). In this 600-page expansion of the pseudo-Homeric Batrachomyomachia , it is related at the court of the mice and takes up sections 5–8 of the first part. In Lope de Vega 's miscellany La Circe – con otras rimas y prosas (1624),
31584-428: The war between the sexes, Circe describes the various ways in which all parts of a pig could and should be cooked. Another indication of the progression in interpreting the Circe figure is given by two poems a century apart, both of which engage with paintings of her. The first is the sonnet that Dante Gabriel Rossetti wrote in response to Edward Burne-Jones ' "The Wine of Circe" in his volume Poems (1870). It gives
31772-728: The weapon Circe gave him, Telegonus killed his father unknowingly. Telegonus then brought back his father's corpse to Aeaea, together with Penelope and Odysseus' son by her, Telemachus . After burying Odysseus, Circe made the other three immortal. Circe married Telemachus, and Telegonus married Penelope by the advice of Athena. According to an alternative version depicted in Lycophron 's 3rd-century BC poem Alexandra (and John Tzetzes ' scholia on it), Circe used magical herbs to bring Odysseus back to life after he had been killed by Telegonus. Odysseus then gave Telemachus to Circe's daughter Cassiphone in marriage. Sometime later, Telemachus had
31960-477: The welfare needs of any type of non-domesticated animal presently being used in the United Kingdom." According to that group's report, published in October 2007, "there appears to be little evidence to demonstrate that the welfare of animals kept in travelling circuses is any better or any worse than that of animals kept in other captive environments." A ban prohibiting the use of wild animals in circuses in England
32148-509: The welfare of circus animals in 2008. The following issues, among others, were found: Based on these findings, the researchers called for more stringent regulation regarding the welfare of circus animals. In 2012, the Dutch government announced a ban on the use of wild circus animals. In testimony in U.S. District Court in 2009, Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus CEO Kenneth Feld acknowledged that circus elephants are struck behind
32336-612: The word "circus" derives from Latin circus , which is the romanization of the Greek κίρκος ( kirkos ), itself a metathesis of the Homeric Greek κρίκος ( krikos ), meaning "circle" or "ring." In the book De Spectaculis , early Christian writer Tertullian claimed that the first circus games were staged by the goddess Circe in honor of her father Helios , the Sun God. The modern and commonly held idea of
32524-535: The world. In 2009, Bolivia passed legislation banning the use of any animals, wild or domestic, in circuses. The law states that circuses "constitute an act of cruelty." Circus operators had one year from the bill's passage on 1 July 2009 to comply. In 2018 in Germany, an accident with an elephant during a circus performance prompted calls to ban animal performances in circuses. PETA called the German politicians to outlaw
32712-416: The world. Some writers have argued that due to the widespread use of such comedy and its long history it is a need that is part of the human condition. The modern clowning school of comedy in the 21st century diverged from white-face clown tradition, with more of an emphasis on personal vulnerability and heightened sexuality. The clown character developed out of the zanni rustic fool characters of
32900-578: The world. They include The classical pairing of the White Clown with Auguste in modern tradition has a precedent in the pairing of Pierrot and Harlequin in the Commedia dell'arte . Originally, Harlequin's role was that of a light-hearted, nimble and astute servant, paired with the sterner and melancholic Pierrot. In the 18th-century English Harlequinade , Harlequin was now paired with Clown. As developed by Joseph Grimaldi around 1800, Clown became
33088-441: Was another Italian who returned to Gelli for inspiration in the 14 prose Dialoghi dell'isola di Circe ( Dialogues from Circe's Island ) published as journalistic pieces between 1760 and 1764. In this moral work, the aim of Ulysses in talking to the beasts is to learn more of the human condition. It includes figures from fable ( The fox and the crow , XIII) and from myth to illustrate its vision of society at variance. Far from needing
33276-866: Was built of stone and measured 400m in length and 90m in width. Next in importance were the Circus Flaminius and the Circus Neronis , from the notoriety which it obtained through the Circensian pleasures of Nero. A fourth circus was constructed by Maxentius ; its ruins have helped archaeologists reconstruct the Roman circus. For some time after the fall of the Western Roman Empire , large circus buildings fell out of use as centres of mass entertainment. Instead, itinerant performers, animal trainers, and showmen travelled between towns throughout Europe, performing at local fairs, such as
33464-449: Was captured showing animal care director Tim Frisco training endangered Asian elephants with electrical shock prods and instructing other trainers to "beat the elephants with a bullhook as hard as they can and sink the sharp metal hook into the elephant's flesh and twist it until they scream in pain". On behalf of the Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality of the Netherlands, Wageningen University conducted an investigation into
33652-589: Was due to be passed in 2015, but Conservative MP Christopher Chope repeatedly blocked the bill under the reasoning that "The EU Membership Costs and Benefits bill should have been called by the clerk before the circuses bill, so I raised a point of order". He explained that the circus bill was "at the bottom of the list" for discussion. The Animal Defenders International non-profit group dubbed this "a huge embarrassment for Britain that 30 other nations have taken action before us on this simple and popular measure". On 1 May 2019 Environmental Secretary Michael Gove announced
33840-542: Was first recorded c. 1560 (as clowne, cloyne ) in the generic meaning rustic, boor, peasant . The origin of the word is uncertain, perhaps from a Scandinavian word cognate with clumsy . It is in this sense that Clown is used as the name of fool characters in Shakespeare's Othello and The Winter's Tale . The sense of clown as referring to a professional or habitual fool or jester developed soon after 1600, based on Elizabethan rustic fool characters such as Shakespeare's. The harlequinade developed in England in
34028-552: Was her ability to change men into animals. There was much speculation concerning how this could be, whether the human consciousness changed at the same time, and even whether it was a change for the better. The Gryllus dialogue was taken up by another Italian writer, Giovan Battista Gelli , in his La Circe (1549). This is a series of ten philosophical and moral dialogues between Ulysses and the humans transformed into various animals, ranging from an oyster to an elephant, in which Circe sometimes joins. Most argue against changing back; only
34216-440: Was in love with a beautiful maiden, Scylla , but she spurned his affections no matter how he tried to win her heart. Glaucus went to Circe, and asked her for a magic potion to make Scylla fall in love with him too. But Circe was smitten by Glaucus herself, and fell in love with him. Glaucus did not love her back, and turned down her offer of marriage. Enraged, Circe used her knowledge of herbs and plants to take her revenge; she found
34404-420: Was included in her collection The Path of Dreams (1900), the first stanza of which relates the usual story of men turned into swine by her spell. But then a second stanza presents a sensuous portrait of an unnamed woman, very much in the French vein; once more, it concludes, "A Circe's spells transform men into swine". This is no passive victim of male projections but a woman conscious of her sexual power. So too
34592-413: Was no change; / only disguise gone from them unawares . The mythological character of the speaker contributes at a safe remove to the Victorian discourse on women's sexuality by expressing female desire and criticizing the subordinate role given to women in heterosexual politics. Two American poets also explored feminine psychology in poems ostensibly about the enchantress. Leigh Gordon Giltner's "Circe"
34780-403: Was once a doctor, a lion that had been a valet, a female doe and a horse, all of whom denounce the decadence of the times. The ass sees human asses everywhere, Asses in the town square, asses in the suburbs, / Asses in the provinces, asses proud at court, / Asses browsing in the meadows, military asses trooping, / Asses tripping it at balls, asses in the theatre stalls. To drive the point home, in
34968-410: Was one of the most important theatrical designs of the 1800s. America's first great whiteface clown was stage star George "G.L." Fox . Inspired by Grimaldi, Fox popularised the Humpty Dumpty stories throughout the U.S. in the 1860s. The scary clown, also known as the evil clown or killer clown, is a subversion of the traditional comic clown character, in which the playful trope is instead depicted in
35156-465: Was played by Otto Griebling during the 1930s to 1950s. Red Skelton 's Dodo the Clown in The Clown (1953), depicts the circus clown as a tragicomic stock character, "a funny man with a drinking problem". In the United States, Bozo the Clown was an influential Auguste character since the late 1950s. The Bozo Show premiered in 1960 and appeared nationally on cable television in 1978. McDonald's derived its mascot clown, Ronald McDonald , from
35344-399: Was utterly devoted. One day as he was hunting boars, he came upon Circe, who was gathering herbs in the woods. Circe fell immediately in love with him; but Picus, just like Glaucus before him, spurned her and declared that he would remain forever faithful to Canens. Circe, furious, turned Picus into a woodpecker. His wife Canens eventually wasted away in her mourning. During the war between
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