Before the pointed hat, the broomstick and the bubbling cauldron, there was Circe.

In Episode Two of HEXPOSITION: Witches on Screen, Millie Hardy-Ashton travels back almost three thousand years to Homer’s Odyssey to meet one of Western literature’s foundational magical women — and asks how generations of storytellers and filmmakers have transformed her into the witch we recognise today.

From Silvana Mangano’s seductive Circe in Mario Camerini’s Ulysses (1954), through Bernadette Peters in Andrei Konchalovsky’s The Odyssey (1997), to Samantha Morton’s unsettling interpretation in Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey (2026), we explore how Circe has evolved from goddess and enchantress to screen witch.

Along the way, there’s a rather wonderful Samantha Morton/Fantastic Beasts connection, a trip to ancient Greece for Fact, Fiction or Folklore?, and a Hidden Hex buried beneath three thousand years of stories about dangerous magical women.

Why do we remember Circe for turning men into pigs? When did a goddess become a witch? And perhaps most importantly...what happens when a powerful woman doesn’t need permission?

⚠️ Spoiler warning: This episode contains spoilers for Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey (2026).

🎙️ Created and presented by Millie Hardy-Ashton
🎵 Theme: Huldufolk (Hidden Folk) by Jamie Sims
🐈 A Familiar Footsteps Production

#HEXPOSITION #Circe #TheOdyssey #Witches #FilmPodcast

Why does the witch look the way she does?

From pointed hats and bubbling cauldrons to teenage witches, wicked queens, seductive sorceresses and women who refuse to behave, HEXPOSITION explores how witchcraft has been represented across film and television — and the history, folklore and real-world beliefs hiding behind what we see on screen.

Hosted by Millie Hardy-Ashton, a lifelong fantasy obsessive, practising witch and researcher, each episode takes a familiar piece of witchy pop culture and looks a little closer. Where did the stereotype come from? What does it borrow from real witchcraft? What did filmmakers change? And what can the witch on screen tell us about the culture that created her?

Expect film and television history, folklore, paganism, witchcraft, feminism, fandom and plenty of pop-culture rabbit holes — from The Wizard of Oz and Bewitched to The Craft, Sabrina the Teenage Witch, Harry Potter, Wicked and beyond.

And keep an ear out. Every episode leaves something hiding in plain sight…

🎵 Theme music: “Huldufolk (Hidden Folk)” by Jamie Sims

🐾 HEXPOSITION is a Familiar Footsteps Production.

#HEXPOSITION #WitchesOnScreen #WitchcraftPodcast #FilmPodcast #Witchcraft #WitchHistory #Folklore #FilmHistory #WitchesInFilm #WitchesInPopCulture #FamiliarFootstepsProductions