The famous witch of The Odyssey, The Aeneid, Percy Jackson and...Assassins Creed? Circe is a character who's story has been interpreted many times over the centuries. Who is she really? And do the feminist retellings of her do her justice?
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The famous witch of The Odyssey, The Aeneid, Percy Jackson and...Assassins Creed? Circe is a character who's story has been interpreted many times over the centuries. Who is she really? And do the feminist retellings of her do her justice?
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Twitter/X: @GreeksGeeksPod
Tiktok: @SabrinaSalisburyWriter
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Hello and welcome to Greeks and Geeks, the podcast that take us on a persnickety but fun journey deep diving into the lore behind our favourite stories. I’m your host Sabrina and today we’ll be looking at the many different interpretations of Circe over the years. Is she a scheming, seductive witch? Is she a tragic, isolated figure? A lover? The other woman in a mans story about finding his way home to his wife? Well, the answer is pretty tricky, because she’d been all of these and so much more.
Now much like many Greek Myths, I have to start with saying that I had to pick and choose a handful of the hundreds, if not thousands of interpretations of Circe’s story. This is because if I talked about all of them, I think this podcast would go into next week.
And by the way I cannot begin to tell you the sheer amount of interpretations of Circe. Not just in books, but TV shows, movies, art and even video games. Each interpretation is slightly different but for those of you who are unfamiliar with Circe, allow me to introduce you to her.
Circe is a witch and minor goddess of Greek Mythology. In most stories, she is the daughter of the Titan Helios, the Titans being the gods who ruled before the Olympian Gods. Her mother was the ocean nymph Perse. And let me tell you. This girl? You think you’ve got a messed up family? Well lets get into some of Circe’s siblings. Her brother Aaetes was one of those greedy, conniving kings so common in Greek Myth. He was the keeper of the Golden Fleece, which Jason eventually won with the help of Aaetes’ daughter (and Circe’s niece) Medea, the witch who THEN went on to kill her and Jason’s kids! Her sister Pasiphae was the wife of King Minos. You might know her as the Queen who found a bull so attractive she had a baby with it. That baby was the monster known as the minotaur, who gobbled up Athenians in its famous labyrinth built by Daedalus.
See now all I can imagine how AWKWARD those Christmas dinners must be. Well…I suppose they don’t celebrate Christmas anyhow so bullet dodged I guess? Besides Circe’s all stuck on that island, so she’s got the perfect excuse. “oh no sorry, I never got your invitation to tea. The sea monster I cursed must have eaten the messenger so saaaad sorry” but I’m getting ahead of myself.
So there’s Circe with her messed up family. But most people don’t know her because of that. Most people know her for being a witch who lived on an island. Sometimes she’s exiled there because the Olympians feared her powerful sorcery, sometimes she banished there due to jealously cursing a nymph who caught the eye of one of Circe’s love interests. Other times she’s just a woman on her island minding her own business. Either way the things you most have to know about her is she’s a witch and she lives on an island. Honestly, in the capitalistic hellscape we call this reality, I’m kind of envious. I too, yearn to be a witch chilling on my island with a bunch of animals. Anyone want in?
Ok ok I’m simplifying again sorry. There is a tiny bit more to it than that, and that is the fact that if you happen to be a man who managed to find your way to Circe’s island, chances are you’re most likely going to be turned into some form of animal. Usually a pig. To be specific, in most interpretations, it’s men who’ve insulted her or acted like pigs that usually end up as one literally.
So there we have it. A witchy goddess who lives on an island surrounded by nymphs, who turns bad men into animals without so much as a how do you do.
I have two questions. First, does anyone have a time/myth creator machine so I can travel to Circe’s island and second, do you think she’s willing to adopt a 32 year old teenage girl?
The thing that always strikes me about Circe is how different her interpretations are over time. As attitudes about witchcraft and gender change and grow, so too does the idea of Circe in our minds. Circe and her many iterations has been known as a gracious host, an evil witch, a femme fatale and more recently a feminist icon. You might say she has been transformed as many times as she has transformed others. Or something poetic like that, I don’t know, it’s 10pm at the time I’m writing this script after a long day of teaching. You try being poetic after educating kids in English, Maths and Art whilst also getting them to please stop picking their nose.
Right sorry, getting off track again.
I was recently reading a fascinating book called “Greek Myths that shape the way we think” by Richard Buxton which had a chapter on Medea, Circe’s niece. She is another sorceress who is looked at in an unfavourable manner. Although, admittedly, most myths do say she killed her own children in a revenge plan so she’s definitely got more of an edge than Circe does, to put it mildly. But in his book, Buxton looks at how such myths grow and change over time. Especially with the prevalence of Christianity after antiquity and the lack of women in academic spaces. Medea especially, seems to suffer from evermore harsh interpretations. She doesn’t just kill her children, in some medieval interpretations, she even tricks their father Jason into eating their hearts. “The history of European culture being what it is” Buxton states “the vast majority of those who have remade Medea’s mythology have been male.”
Why is this a problem? Well before you get all not-all-men-y at me, remember I am literally quoting a man and promoting his book here. Also Richard Buxton was a very nice professor who answered my email and gave me some sources to look up for this video besides his own so yes, I know not-all-men. But the problem with this is the same problem I have with some translations of the Iliad, or why men writing women poorly is a trope. When any group is margianalised or pushed to one side, and the majority group speaks for them or worse, ignores them completely, it allows for stereotypes and biases to creep in. For interpretations of the classics, such as the Odyssey and the Iliad, the hyper fixation with making Helen constantly degrade herself in a sexualised way, with language specifically used when degrading women, when she wasn’t as derogatory in the original translation, becomes a problem. Instead of focusing and interpreting the biases and sexism of the ancient world, you’re bringing in the biases and sexism of your modern world, even though the ancient Greeks had a very different way of looking at things.
It can’t be mistaken then, that Circe shares the same fate as her niece. As Helen. As Pandora and all the other Greek women who’ve been sidelined or treated harshly. However things aren’t as black and white as “oh yeah patriarchy and sexism was really bad, so Circe was considered an evil, murderous witch throughout the whole of history and it was only Madelline Miller’s Circe that made her a feminist icon and saved Circe from the patriarchy!” Bit regressive innit?
But as of the time of writing this script, it was the year of the Barbie Movie, and I’m going to try to be a little more nuanced then Ken with his patriarchy models. Besides I agree with him. If it isn’t about horses, I’m not really interested. So I’m going to take you through a handful of Circe interpretations and discuss my thoughts on them.
And it would be most obvious to start with the Odyssey.
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For this part, I’m using Emily Wilson’s translation. Emily Wilson, for those who don’t know her, is an incredible academic. She’s the first woman to officially translate the Odyssey into English. I greatly enjoy her lecture about translating the Odyssey, it’s about an hour long but it’s on youtube. I’ll link it for you as I highly recommend it for a deep dive into the fascinating world of translation, and how our biases can affect how we interpret ancient text.
In the Odyssey, the first mention we ever get of Circe is that she is a “beautiful, dreadful goddess.” What a mysterious combination that seems to be. However, ancient Greeks often had opposing views of witchcraft. You had goddesses such as Hecate, who is the goddess of witchcraft and was revered. In society at large, witchcraft had a lot to do with healing and those women were often respected members of the community. But on the other hand witches in a lot of ancient Greek myths are often portrayed as seductive, powerful and usually out to get men in one way or another- usually in an act of revenge. It’s worth noting that Emily Wilson stated that Homers epics were most likely intended for a male audience. So this could be a reflection of male anxieties towards female empowerment. We can see this with her taming wild, masculine animals such as mountain wolves and Lions (Hercales famously fought and killed a lion, yet Circe is able to tame them with drugs). Mmmmm symbolic much?
We can also see these anxieties play out in the way Odysseus handles Circe, so to speak. At this point, Circe has turned Odysseus’ men into pigs when they arrived at her island. Hermes tells Odysseus that a show of force or violence is the way to get Circe to back off. And it works. After being given a special plant (Moly) which means Circe’s potions don’t work on him, he charges at her and (in fear) she relents. She offers to sleep with him after his big strong mighty man power display and the two form a very trusting bond born of mutual respect. You know. Once he put her in her place.
Allow me to put my eyes squarely back into my head. I rolled them so hard they fell out.
Putting the obvious patriarchal ickiness aside for now, if we ignore the way their relationship starts, we can see the two do indeed grow very close. Circe dresses him, he touches her knee in supplication when he asks her for something. He stays on her island a whole year and, unlike Calypso, she does let him go. She understands him as much as he does her. “Your mind is still obsessed with deeds of war” she chides him, without fear that he will use that violent display he did at their first meeting. The relationship between Circe and Odysseus in the Odyssey is a fascinating one as it can be interpreted so many ways. Are they using each other? Do they truly have a bond? Arguments can be made for both.
My interpretation of Circe in the Odyssey, which doesn’t hold much weight I know because I’m not a scholar, is that I very much don’t get the impression that she’s overly seductive or an evil temptress here. She is an antagonist at first, tricking Odysseus’ men and turning them to pigs, but she is no Polyphemus. She doesn’t destroy or murder Odysseus’ men. Her actions are wicked and shocking (well… I mean to the Ancient Greek men hearing about it I’m sure they are. I for one, support her endeavours and I have a couple of men who I might like to send her way- but that’s not important right now). Regardless, she is not irredeemably evil.
She does offer her bed to Odysseus, so there is an element of temptation. She is beautiful, powerful, deadly and seductive. But in her words, they share a bed so they can trust each other. A level playing field I suppose (behave yourselves). Her part of the poem is much more about how seductive her knowledge can be. Once Odysseus has outdone her, he has access to her knowledge. That is the thing that is most tempting about her. The knowledge she has which, in turn, can help Odysseus and his men get home.
As this is a tale written by a man, about a man, and for a male audience, we don’t really get a lot of insight into Circe’s mind. Why does she feel the need to guard her home with friendly mountain lions? Why does she turn men into pigs? We don’t know. All we know is that she does, and that makes her dangerous and powerful. In short, she’s another conquest for Odysseus to prove how strong and clever he is, another part of his journey rather than a character in her own right. And here’s the part where I had to delete a few hundred words breaking down Odysseus’ character because NOT EVERYTHING IS ABOUT YOU ODYSSEUS.
Next we head off to the Romans with Virgil’s interpretation of her in the Aeneid.
Circe goes from a full-fledged speaking role in Homer, to basically a background character with no speaking lines in Virgil. He makes note of many attributes Homer gave Circe, her singing and her weaving but, as his main character Aeneas only passes by her island rather than visit it, it seems a lot more mysterious. The animals, a bear now added to the list of pigs, wolves and lions, sound more menacing than the docile ones of Homers descriptions.
In the Aeneid, all of Circe’s functions to the plot of the Odyssey are given to other characters. However, we get to hear other stories about her. In the Aeneid, a story is told where she changes a king into a bird because she was in love with him, yet he scorned her. This is not going to be the last of those types of stories. In THE HIDDEN SEDUCTION: CIRCE AND THE SIRENS IN THE AENEID, author Laura Aresi writes the Circe, in the Aeneid has become defined by “the patricarchal constructs of womanhood.” Domestic work at the loom, singing songs, and the intoxicating scent of the smoke. However there’s the flip side- the dangers of perversion and magic too. Personally, I like the Odyssey’s take on Circe better. Aresi writes that the Aeneid version of Circe is overfeminised, and it is this interpretation of her which trivialises her power into something far more seductive than it was in the Odyssey. By stripping her of her knowledge and her role in the plot, her part is a lot more reductive.
In Ovid, another jealous Circe appears. This time, she is jealous that a god she loves (Glaucous) loves the nymph Scylla instead of her. She bewitches the waters where Scylla likes to bathe, transforming her into the hideous man eating creature we see in the Odyssey. Here she is emotional, malevolent and jealous. All of those scary things men love painting powerful women as! Yay!
There’s a part of me that wonders if these harsher, even more patriarchal interpretations of Circe by Roman writers, arise due to the fact that the Ancient Romans were more uneasy at the idea of witchcraft than the ancient Greek were, and the ancient Greeks certainly had a complicated relationship with Witchcraft! Witches in the ancient Roman world were associated poisons. Casting of spells which caused harm was strictly prohibited by actual LAW, especially when it comes to things like the harming of crops, animals or people. So in order to take away Circe’s power, you need to strip her of her use, her ability to be a friend and ally (such as in the case of Virgil) or you highlight the stories which show her at her worst, pettiest and most cruel (such as in Ovid).
But as much as I was to be all “BOOOO You gave Circe’s best roles to other people because you’re a ‘fraidy cat man writer BOOOOOOO” I can’t because not everything is so simplistic, and the Aeneid and Metamorphosis are different tales written in different times for different purposes. The Aeneid in particular, is more of an origin story for Romans than anything- that they are the descendants of Troy. I also can admit the limits of my research here. I’ve taken a long time to write this script and it’s because Circe is such a dense, complicated topic and her stories are enclosed in such dense, complicated stories. It’s hard to pick apart when you’re doing this for hobby.
But saying “BOOOOOOO PATRIARCHY” is fun so I’m gonna do it anyways! BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!! You took Circe’s voice a way! To quote Rufio in Hook “You man! You stupid stupid man!”
Righto.
I would be remiss if I didn’t say that the Ovid versions of Circe too, didn’t pave way for some absolutely BANGING artwork. God tier. Goddess tier if you will. Circe has been depicted in art since like forever, BUT I NEED TO TALK ABOUT THE PRE-RAPHELITES FOR A SECOND. Please let me talk about them. Specifically John William Waterhouse’s paintings because GHGHKGHKGH. His artwork makes me FEEL things.
In John William Waterhouse’s painting “Circe Offering the cup to Odysseus/Ulysseys” we see the scene where Circe and Odysseus first meet. The scene shows a beautiful, powerful goddess on her throne, surrounded by purple flowers (purple being the colour of royalty). With her one hand she holds her wand. We see her offering a cup of wine to Odysseus, which we know is bewitched. Odysseus is reflected in a mirror, looking like he’s ready to strike. I’ve seen the painting in real life and, to me, this is an imagine of Circe at her most power and seductive. Maybe I’m just a dumb bisexual woman with no sense of survival skills when it comes to beautiful, powerful women, but I think this artwork is a positive representation of Circe. Maybe not for Odysseus but…
The second John William Waterhouse’s painting I want to talk about is Circe Invidiosa. This is based on the Ovid story where Circe bewitches the waters where Scylla bathes. You can see her pouring her potion into the pool. Here she’s full of malice, and is downright scary. The blues and greens are both beautiful and dreadful, pretty yet they kind of remind you of being sick or ill at ease, exactly like Circe! But I get a sense of pain behind her eyes too. Her cruelty is motivated by heartbreak. It’s a haunting piece of art.
These paintings were created in the Victorian era, when the femme fatale was all the rage in art. And whilst the Circe of John William Waterhouse’s paintings is somewhat of a femme fatale, what I really like is that that’s not all she is. She is far more nuanced. She’s a queen, she’s a goddess, she’s powerful, she malevolent. She is not all evil or all seduction. There’s more to her than that. And that’s the best kind of interpretation of her.
Thank you for indulging me. I could gush about those paintings all day but really it would descend into pterodactyl screeching because its ARTTTT and it makes me FEEL THINGS.
Now I have a confession to make. This script too me a long time to write because not only did a heck ton of research go into in, but also… I kinda thought I had to talk about Ulyssey’s by James Joyce which, for my fanfiction girlies, is basically like Odyssey AU fanfiction set in the 20th century. It’s also like 700 pages and in it, Circe is the owner of a brothel- which is partly inspired by the fact that the Christians of the middle ages made Circe purely a symbol of temptation and “unchastity” because of course they did. I tried guys, I really tried. But I just can’t bring myself to do it. For one thing, I want to keep this podcast series as PG as possible and Ulyssey’s is absolutely not PG in any sort of way. And besides, I realised that this is MY podcast and I can focus on any part I like. However, I felt like I should at least mention it. So here I am. Ulyssey’s by James Joyce. A Circe-like character is in it. She’s reduced to a brothel owner. Thanks I hate it. And so did Virginia Woolf I’ll have you know. Lets move on shall we, thank god…ess.
What happens when you take the temptation away from Circe? When she’s still a powerful witch/goddess in her own right, but that element of seductiveness is removed? You get guinea pigs that’s what. That’s right, Guinea Pigs and with that it’s time to talk about one of my favourite interpretations of her.
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In the second book of the Percy Jackson and the Olympian’s series, Percy Jackson and the Sea of Monsters, the titular hero goes on an Odyssey-like adventure to rescue his friend from Polythemus. It’s one of my favourite books in the series. Now, naturally, any Odyssey reimagining worth its salt is going to have a part with Circe in it. And BOY OH BOY does Rick Riordan deliver on that part.
So Circe’s island has become a spa resort. When Percy and his gal-pal Annabeth arrive (yes I’m calling her that, a because its funny and b because gender is relevant here), the Circe they meet has renamed herself C.C. Surrounding her island of paradise are old boats, ships and planes from various eras, a telltale sign that something is amiss. Percy dismisses them as tourist replicas, of course, but we come to know they’re the real deal, remnants of all the men Circe has trapped.
We then hear Circe singing, and it’s just as beautiful as in all the ancient interpretations. When we meet her, she’s weaving a stunning tapestry. Immediately, she talks to Annabeth about giving her a spa makeover, revealing her innermost self, and the red flags start blaring as she is left with Percy. The innermost self is a refrence to how, in the original myths, transforming the men into pigs in her mind was “revealing their true selves.” She offers Percy not wine, but age appropriate strawberry milkshake and he’s transformed into a guinea pig instead of a pig (because guinea pigs are cuter and less smelly). It’s up to our heroes to figure out how to stop her.
It's a very clever child-friendly interpretation of the tale. But what I really like about it is that Annabeth is the one to save the day here. Percy is transformed and Annabeth steps into the Odysseus role. But unlike Odysseus, she doesn’t use a show of violence to defeat Circe, but rather as a child of Athena, she outsmarts her. I also very much enjoy that, like with a lot of Rick’s villains, they aren’t totally evil, and they often have…actually pretty good reasons for doing what they do. Or if not good reasons, at least understandable ones. Circe is sweet and kind to Annabeth at first, she is talented and beautiful, but again she is also malevolent…but not without reason. The Sea of Monsters touches on aspects of sexism, which both the demigod daughter of Ares, Clarisse and Annabeth herself either mention or have to deal with. Circe highlights the sexism present at Camp Half Blood, and how many men take glory for themselves. It’s just another great example of Rick Riordan’s writing, how he can present such a multi-layered interpretation of Circe in such a short time, bringing up such a complicated topic, all under the guise of a funny adventure. In my opinion its some of his best writing.
But now we’ve come to the final part of the podcast, which I’m sure is the part you’ve been waiting for the most. That being discussing Madelline Miller’s 2018 novel Circe.
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Before we get into Circe, I do want to mention that, while Madelline Miller’s book is rightly declared as a feminist take of the Circe myth, it isn’t the first such reimaging and it won’t be the last. Margaret Atwoods Circe/Mud poems spring to mind as a dive into Circe’s thought process. But these interpretations are much fewer than the Circe reimaginings where the focus in on her temptress/witch side.
So it stands to reason that a well-written, emotional take on Circe’s story would be wildly popular. Miller’s story is heartfelt, depressing, hopeful, shocking, frustrating and deeply familiar. It’s immensely hard to write a book about women suffering under patriarchal systems without it coming across as glib, heavy handed or making it so awful that it simply becomes dystopian. I’ve read a few reimaginings of Greek mythologies where the female characters are so completely stripped of their agency that it becomes hard to connect to the story and the characters. Where it becomes a tale of “yeah, ALL men are all awful all the time and there’s nothing any woman can do about it and we are all crushed all the time forever it’s so depressing right?” and…well yeah that’s super depressing thanks. And I guess there are spaces for that kind of story, but can it really be called feminist if your downtrodden female character starts the book like that and ends up like that too? It’s not really inspiring.
However, Circe is absolutely a downtrodden character in Madelline Millers book. We see her struggle and lose time and time again, but we also see her grow as a character. We see her grow into her power. We get to celebrate her finding her place in the world, take lovers of her own volition and secretly cheer when she turns men into pigs because, certainly in Miller’s book, we get a sense of shadenfreude from it, catharisis. I mentioned before that most women have at least one guy they’d like to send Circe’s way, didn’t I?
Most importantly we get to see into her mind. At last, we hear Circe’s voice beyond that of a beautiful song which bewitches or scares men. We come to know her motivations, her thoughts on her relationship with not just the men, but the women in her life. We finally know why she turns men into pigs, and we completely understand her reasons. We see how other women handle the complex societal structures in different ways and how men suffer under it too. Indeed Miller’s take on Odysseus (whilst not being new, I mean her interpretation literally uses Circe’s words from the Odyssey as inspiration- that his mind cannot stop turning to war) is brilliant and I’ll have to do a separate podcast about that entirely. Miller plucks all these different stories of Circe throughout the centuries and weaves them into one complete telling of Circe’s life. And the best thing is that, like Waterhouses’ paintings, Miller isn’t afraid to show the darker side to Circe. She truly is the nuanced character she always had the potential to be. I genuinely adore the book and the ending is so perfect to the Circe myth. Circe has been so many different things to so many different people, usually falling on the negative, or scary side, that it makes sense we end on a cliffhanger, forever guessing which path she takes. I won’t discuss the ending to the book in detail here, lest I spoil it for you. But if you have read it, that final paragraph and the ending, you’ll know exactly what I mean.
I could honestly have gone on for days about the different Circe interpretations over the years. Some are typically eye-rolling, like the DC villainess Circe who wants to kill Superman because he rejected her. Some are kind of weird like the AC Odyssey interpretation where she’s sort of this feral witch with a blood stained mouth, a miniboss fight. And then there was the one which dealt me about 50 points of psychic damage and had me screaming in my girlie’s group chat- which is there’s apparently a 2017 movie where Circe is actually a Trojan priestess whom Odysseus kidnaps for help fighting against the Kraken- which the Trojans released in revenge. So now I’m imparting that psychic damage onto you too. You’re welcomeee!
And on that horrendous thought I think we’ll move on to question time.
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This is a new segment where I read your replies to the question based on last weeks podcast and answer any questions you have for me. Last weeks question given to you, my lovely listeners, was based on the book Good Omens, the topic of last weeks podcast. With silliness, we looked at how an apocalypse can be considered cozy and so I asked you the question “how would you react to seeing fish raining from the sky?” so I’m gonna read some of your answers now.
Rebecca says “depends…sushi I’d love it! Just fish straight from the sea, NO! Cooked? Is it hot? Then no, cold probably also no.” and yeah I’d be inclined to agree. I love sushi, but what would really sell it for me is some smoked salmon onigiri. When I was in university, I studied in Hawaii for a semester and the corner shop near my apartment sold the BEST salmon onigiri. I would swim back to Waikiki for one of those bad boys… if I wasn’t so afraid of sharks.
Amdavidson513 and Libby Fausett both said something similar with either being grossed out or not even bothering to ask if it was cured like the people in Good Omens did. Because yeah as an apocalyptic event, it’s a super freaky one! You definitely expect scary rather than yucky from most end of the world scenarios.
I think emotionally, I would be like Trick who says “call work and tell them I’m out sick. Raining fish definitely seems like an indoor day.” And emotionally I am SO with you Trick, I would love to do that. But as a city girl and a teacher I think I’m most likely to be like bcq who says “probably take an umbrella with me and leave early for uni since the roads must be filled with traffic.” That is the most city-person response I’ve heard and I feel it in my soul BCQ.
So that was the first question time of Greeks and Geeks! If you liked this segment please let me know and I’ll definitely keep going with it. Your feedback is very important to me and I personally love to hear your thoughts on the episodes and show a little appreciation back. The question of the week this time is “If Circe turned you into an animal to reveal your innermost self, what animal would you get transformed into?” I’ll tell you mine next week too but to answer the question, you can do so on Spotify or by contacting me on twitter @GreeksGeeksPod. You can also ask ME questions about this episode which I will happily answer!
Thank you for listening. Next Tuesday we’ll be sticking with witches as we’ve move into the 20th Century, taking a deep dive into Kiki’s Delivery Service and the Satanic Panic of the 1980s.
I’ve been your host Sabrina and I’m Geeking Out! See ya next time!