In fact, other than her connection to the magical sorceresses Medea and Circe of Greek mythology, nothing conclusive has been proposed. Scholars have unearthed very few facts about Shakespeare's sources for Sycorax. Caliban grows to hate Prospero's presence and power on the island, claiming that the land belongs to him since it was his mother's before Prospero appeared. She dies long before the arrival of Prospero and his daughter, Miranda. Sycorax birthed Caliban and taught him to worship the demonic god Setebos.

She proceeded to enslave the spirits there, chief among them Ariel, whom she eventually imprisoned in a pine tree for disobedience. Prospero further relates that many years earlier, sailors had brought her to the island, while she was pregnant with her son, Caliban, and abandoned her there, as, due to her pregnancy, she was spared being put to death. In The Tempest, Prospero describes Sycorax as an ancient and foul witch native to Algiers, and banished to the island for practising sorcery 'so strong / That could control the Moon'. Medea (1889) by Evelyn De Morgan Scholars see parallels between Ovid's Medea and Shakespeare's Sycorax. Later versions of The Tempest, beginning with William Davenant's seventeenth-century adaptation, have given Sycorax a vocal role in the play, but maintained her image as a malevolent antagonist to Prospero. Postcolonialist writers and critics see Sycorax as giving voice to peoples, particularly women, recovering from the effects of colonisation. Scholars generally agree that Sycorax, a foil for Prospero, is closely related to the Medea of Ovid's Metamorphoses. Prospero constantly reminds Ariel of Sycorax's cruel treatment to maintain the sprite's service. Relying on his filial connection to Sycorax, Caliban claims ownership of the island. Memories of Sycorax, who dies several years before the main action of the play begins, define several of the relationships in the play. She is a vicious and powerful witch and the mother of Caliban, one of the few native inhabitants of the island on which Prospero, the hero of the play, is stranded.Īccording to the history provided by the play, Sycorax, while pregnant with Caliban, was banished from her home in Algiers to the island on which the play takes place. Sycorax / ˈ s ɪ k ər æ k s/ is an unseen character in William Shakespeare's play The Tempest (1611).

A drawing of Sycorax by Robert Anning Bell.

Caliban and the witch book