A perfume vase in the form of a Siren, dating to about 560 BC. Homer does not describe the Sirens in detail, and indeed does not indicate that Odysseus and his crew actually saw them; but early Greek art depicted them as bird-like women, and in one form or another that remained the prevailing image for the ancients. The Greek word for Siren, Σειρήν, is used in the Septuagint (Greek language) version of Isaiah 13:21 where it stands for a bird crying mournfully among the ruins of Babylon. In 1 Enoch 19:2, dating to about 300-200 BC, the Archangel Uriel reveals that on the Day of Judgment “the women also of the angels who went astray shall become sirens.”
Part 1 of 2
WHEN morning broke I went down to the ship; and we took our places on board, and Circe sent a friendly breeze to fill our sails and help us. So we sat at ease while the ship ran on, and then I said to my crew:
“Comrades, you must all hear the counsel Circe gave me. She bade us beware of the Sirens and their magic song and the flowery meadow where they sit.* I alone may listen, but you must bind me to the mast so that I cannot move, and if I beg you to set me free bind me tighter than before.”
So the good ship went scudding on to the Sirens’ island with the fair breeze in her wake, when suddenly the wind dropped and there was a dead calm; something had put the waves to rest. Then my crew hauled down the sails and took out the oars, and I made plugs of wax and stopped their ears with them, and they bound me hand and foot to the mast. And when we came within earshot of the shore the Sirens caught sight of the ship and began their magic song:
* In warning Odysseus of the Sirens, Circe implied that they numbered just two by using the dual form of the noun Siren.
Précis
Before Odysseus left her island, Circe warned him about the Sirens, who lured sailors to their meadow with sweet song, never to return. Thus forewarned, when the sea fell calm and the strains of song were heard, Odysseus stopped up his comrades’ ears with wax, and they bound him to the mast so that he could listen in safety. (59 / 60 words)
Part Two
‘Ulysses and the Sirens’ by English artist Herbert James Draper (1863–1920). Ulysses was the Roman form of the name Odysseus. Although Circe implies that the Sirens were just two in number, many modern artists have depicted them as a much larger group. In the Middle Ages, the original bird-like form gave way to the now-familiar mermaid, a woman with a fish-tail in place of legs; following the Renaissance, artists gradually turned Sirens into whole but naked women. For Draper, it would seem, the Siren-mermaid turned fully human in form when out of contact with water.
“HITHER, come hither and hearken awhile,
Odysseus, far-famed king!
No sailor ever has passed this way
but has paused to hear us sing.
Our song is sweeter than honey,
and he that can hear it knows
What he never had learnt from another,
and has joy before he goes.
We know what the heroes bore at Troy
in the ten long years of strife.*
We know what happens in all the world,
and the secret things of life.”*
I heard the wonderful music and my heart longed to listen, and I made signs to my comrades to set me free; but the others only bent to their oars and rowed the harder, while two of them stood up and bound me tighter than before, till at last we had left the Sirens behind us and could not hear their song, and then my comrades took out the wax from their ears and unfastened me.
* Odysseus had been one of the Greek warriors at the Siege of Troy.
* The prose translation by Samuel Butler (1835-1902) ran: “‘Come here,’ they sang, ‘renowned Ulysses, honour to the Achaean name, and listen to our two voices. No one ever sailed past us without staying to hear the enchanting sweetness of our song — and he who listens will go on his way not only charmed, but wiser, for we know all the ills that the gods laid upon the Argives and Trojans before Troy, and can tell you everything that is going to happen over the whole world.’”
Précis
When Odysseus heard the Sirens’ song, he begged his crew to free him and let him follow the voices. But they hardened their hearts, bound him tighter and rowed harder. As soon the Sirens were out of earshot, Odysseus gave the signal and the crew, after removing the wax from their ears, released their grateful captain from his bonds. (59 / 60 words)
