The Odyssey Sirens Quotes

"First you will raise the island of the Sirens,
those creatures who spellbind any man alive,
whoever comes their way. Whoever draws too close,
off guard, and catches the Sirens’ voices in the air –
no sailing home for him, no wife rising to meet him,
no happy children beaming up at their father’s face.
The high, thrilling song of the Sirens will transfix him,
lolling there in their meadow, round them heaps of corpses
rotting away, rags of skin shriveling on their bones."

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 12, lines 44-52. Circe prophesies that on Odysseus’ journey home he will pass by the powerful and deadly Sirens. She warns what happens to men who sail near the mythical female monsters and are ensnared by their song. For those who hear their voices, there will be no homecoming. So she advises Odysseus to block his shipmates’ ears with beeswax, but if he wishes to hear the Sirens, to have his men tie him hand and foot to the mast-block.

"I alone was to hear their voices, so she said,
but you must bind me with tight chafing ropes
so I cannot move a muscle, bound to the spot,
erect at the mast-block, lashed by ropes to the mast.
And if I plead, commanding you to set me free,
then lash me faster, rope on pressing rope."

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 12, lines 174-179. Odysseus is without question a heroic character who accomplishes his goals. But he does have one great flaw that can sometimes compromise him or the safety of his men – his hubris. Having heard that no man has ever listened to the Sirens’ song and survived, he wants to be the first. He tells the crew what Circe has advised, to tie him to the mast with ropes so that he alone can hear the Sirens’ voices. Later he and the crew survive the Sirens unharmed, but Odysseus’ excessive pride puts himself and his crew at risk.

Now with a sharp sword I sliced an ample wheel of beeswax
down into pieces, kneaded them in my two strong hands
and the wax soon grew soft, worked by my strength
and Helios’ burning rays, the sun at high noon,
and I stopped the ears of my comrades one by one.
They bound me hand and foot in the tight ship –
erect at the mast-block, lashed by ropes to the mast –
and rowed and churned the whitecaps stroke on stroke.
We were just offshore as far as a man’s shout can carry,
scudding close, when the Sirens sensed at once a ship
was racing past and burst into their high, thrilling song.

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 12, lines 189-199. Odysseus displays his cunning once again when it is time to pass the Sirens. To protect against their irresistible song that lures sailors to their doom, he plugs the crewmen’s ears with beeswax. Then he instructs the crew to bind him with ropes to the mast, so he can listen to the Sirens and not endangering his ship or those on it. There is an element of pride in Odysseus’ decision to leave his ears unplugged. He wants the bragging rights of being the first person to hear the Sirens and live.

"Come closer, famous Odysseus – Achaea’s pride and glory –
moor your ship on our coast so you can hear our song!
Never has any sailor passed our shores in his black craft
until he has heard the honeyed voices pouring from our lips,
and once he hears to his heart’s content sails on, a wiser man.
We know all the pains that the Greeks and Trojans once endured
on the spreading plain of Troy when the gods willed it so –
all that comes to pass on the fertile earth, we know it all!"

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 12, lines 200-207. As Odysseus’ ship races past the Sirens, Homer describes how the hypnotic but deadly women of the sea burst into their irresistible song. In their bid to tempt Odysseus, the Sirens feed into his ego and pride, referring to his fame and how he is the pride and glory of his people. A metaphor compares their voices to the pouring of sweet honey. The Sirens ask him to moor his ship on their coast, promising that he will sail away a wiser man. This is an example of irony, since the readers knows that the Sirens mean the opposite of what they say, they use their hypnotic feminine voices to lure sailors to their deaths on their rocky shores.
Close