Circe, Lamia or Erinya – the image of the witch in The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis

The aim of this article is to present a variety of inspirations and reception of ancient myths that affected the shaping of the Witches in ‘The Chronicles of Narnia’ by C.S. Lewis. Lewis purposefully mingled different traditions, believing that the most important classical myths carry a faint shadow of divine truth falling on human imagination. The most famous witches created by him: The White Witch and the Lady of the Green Kirtle, have a great deal of sources in the literature, but they derive above all from ancient patterns, combining the features of, among others, Venus, Ishtar, Erinyes, Lamia and Circe. A comparative analysis of the mythological witches and those created by Lewis will demonstrate not only the complexity of their characters, but also the manner of his reception of antiquity.