We study the female protagonist of the tale 'Circe' within the rich tradition of the archetypical femme fatale. We first analyse the character Delia Manara, constructed on the basis of various sources - artistic and historical, ancient and modern, biblical and pagan, European and American - about the legendary femme fatale. Second, we argue that this complex and contradictory character can be comprehended within the circular time vision of Heraclitus. Cortazar created this fatal woman in line with the theory of the Eternal Return. She appears in all epochs and is both identical to and different from Circe, Eve, Diana, the Siren, the Spider Woman and... Delia Manara. From this perspective, we propose a Heraclitian reading of the tale: the protagonist symbolizes the Eternal Return of the femme fatale and has been constructed as the incarnation of unity within multiplicity
