From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Sycorax | |
|---|---|
| The Tempest character | |
| A drawing of Sycorax by Robert Anning Bell. | |
| Created by | William Shakespeare |
| In-universe information | |
| Family | Caliban (son) |
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Sycorax /ˈsɪkəræks/ is an unseen character in William Shakespeare‘s play The Tempest (1611). 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. She is originally from ‘Argier,’ defined by geographer Mohamed. S. E. Madiou as “a 16th and 17th century older English-based exonym for both the 16th and 17th c. capital and state of ‘Algiers’ (Argier/Argier),”[1] from where Sycorax is banished.
According to the backstory 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. Memories of Sycorax, who dies several years before the main action of the play begins, define several of the relationships in the play. Relying on his filial connection to Sycorax, Caliban claims ownership of the island. Prospero constantly reminds Ariel of Sycorax’s cruel treatment to maintain the sprite’s service.
Scholars generally agree that Sycorax, a foil for Prospero, is closely related to the Medea of Ovid‘s Metamorphoses. Postcolonialist writers and critics see Sycorax as giving voice to peoples, particularly women, recovering from the effects of colonisation. Later versions of The Tempest, beginning with William Davenant‘s eighteenth-century adaptation, have given Sycorax a vocal role in the play, but maintained her image as a malevolent antagonist to Prospero.
Role in the play
Medea (1889) by Evelyn De Morgan; Scholars see parallels between Ovid‘s Medea and Shakespeare’s Sycorax.
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 [she] could control the Moon”.[2] Prospero further relates that many years earlier, sailors had brought her to the island, while she was pregnant with her bestial son, Caliban, and abandoned her there, as by some ambiguous reason, she was spared being put to death. She proceeded to enslave the spirits there, chief among them Ariel, whom she eventually imprisoned in a pine tree for disobedience. Sycorax birthed Caliban and taught him to worship the demonic god Setebos. She dies long before the arrival of Prospero and his daughter, Miranda. 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.