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Who was Sycorax in The Tempest and how did she arrive on the island?

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Sycorax, in The Tempest, was a powerful witch from Algiers, banished to the island for a crime that warranted death, though she was spared, likely due to her pregnancy. Sailors left her on the island, where she gave birth to Caliban and enslaved spirits like Ariel. Sycorax's death predates the play, but her influence persists, paralleling Prospero as a figure of power and colonial exploitation. Her racial identity is ambiguous, contributing to the play's post-colonial themes.

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Sycorax was a powerful witch from Algiers in North Africa, banished to the island for an unknown crime. All we know of her misdeed is that although it deserved death, "for one thing she did / They would not take her life."

Scholars have speculated she was not executed because she was pregnant. Sailors dropped her on the island. She gave birth to a son, Caliban, whom she raised to worship a demonic god called Setebos. She gained control of the spirits on the island, most notably Ariel, and imprisoned him in a pine tree.

Sycorax has died before the play begins, but her lingering memory remains. In act V, scene 1, Prospero describes Sycorax as "so strong / That [she] could control the Moon."

The "strong" Sycorax is a matriarchal counterpart to the patriarchal Prospero. Both enslave and bend others to their will, and both assume ownership of the island. Caliban resents Prospero in part because he believes, not without reason, that he inherited the island from his mother. To his thinking, Prospero stole his kingdom.

Sycorax's race is indeterminate. She has blue eyes but comes from North Africa, suggesting she is black. Korax means crow in Greek, and crows were associated with the color black, also suggesting Sycorax is black, though the word might simply refer to her black magic.

The hovering presence of the dead Sycorax reinforces the post-colonial nature of the play. Prospero did not simply arrive to a deserted island; like the European colonists, he arrived at a place with a preexisting culture that he exploited.

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