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    Odyssey of Homer (Typed 2015)

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    weaverdavidt
    The summary describes Odysseus instructing his men to tie him to the mast of the ship as they sail past the Sirens, whose enchanting songs would lead sailors to their death. His men follow his orders, tying him tightly as they hear the Sirens' song, resisting his signals to be freed until they are safely past.

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    Odyssey of Homer (Typed 2015)

    Uploaded by

    weaverdavidt
    12 views1 page
    The summary describes Odysseus instructing his men to tie him to the mast of the ship as they sail past the Sirens, whose enchanting songs would lead sailors to their death. His men follow his orders, tying him tightly as they hear the Sirens' song, resisting his signals to be freed until they are safely past.

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    Odyssey of Homer (typed 2015)

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    The summary describes Odysseus instructing his men to tie him to the mast of the ship as they sail past the Sirens, whose enchanting songs would lead sailors to their death. His men follow his orders, tying him tightly as they hear the Sirens' song, resisting his signals to be freed until they are safely past.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    12 views1 page

    Odyssey of Homer (Typed 2015)

    Uploaded by

    weaverdavidt
    The summary describes Odysseus instructing his men to tie him to the mast of the ship as they sail past the Sirens, whose enchanting songs would lead sailors to their death. His men follow his orders, tying him tightly as they hear the Sirens' song, resisting his signals to be freed until they are safely past.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
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    of 1

    Excerpted from The Odyssey of Homer, Lattimore, 1965

    "Friends, since it is not right for one or two of us only


    155 to know the divinations that Circe, bright among goddesses,
    gave me, so I will tell you, and knowing all we may either
    die, or turn aside from death and escape destruction.
    First of all she tells us to keep away from the magical
    Sirens and their singing and their flowery meadow, but only
    160 I, she said, was to listen to them, but you must tie me
    hard in hurtful bonds, to hold me fast in position
    upright against the mast, with the ropes' ends fastened around it;
    but if I supplicate you and implore you to set me
    free, then you must tie me fast with even more lashings."
    165 'So as I was telling all the details to my companions,
    meanwhile the well-made ship was coming rapidly closer
    to the Sirens' isle, for the harmless wind was driving her onward;
    but immediately then the breeze dropped, and a windless
    calm fell there, and some divinity stilled the tossing
    170 waters. My companions stood up, and took the sails down,
    and stowed them away in the hollow hull, and took their places
    for rowing, and with their planed oarblades whitened the water.
    Then I, taking a great wheel of wax, with the sharp bronze
    cut a little piece off, and rubbed it together in my heavy
    175 hands, and soon the wax grew softer, under the powerful
    stress of the sun, and the heat and light of Hyperion’s lordling.
    One after another, I stopped the ears of all my companions,
    and they then bound me hand and foot in the fast ship, standing
    upright against the mast with the ropes' ends lashed around it,
    180 and sitting then to row they dashed their oars in the gray sea.
    But when we were as far from the land as a voice shouting
    carries, lightly plying, the swift ship as it drew nearer
    was seen by the Sirens, and they directed their sweet song toward us:
    "Come this way, honored Odysseus, great glory of the Achaians,
    185 and stay your ship, so that you can listen here to our singing;
    for no one else has ever sailed past this place in his black ship
    until he has listened to the honey-sweet voice that issues
    from our lips; then goes on, well pleased, knowing more than ever
    he did; for we know everything that the Argives and Trojans
    190 did and suffered in wide Troy through the gods' despite.
    Over all the generous earth we know everything that happens."
    'So they sang, in sweet utterance, and the heart within me
    desired to listen, and I signaled my companions to set me
    free, nodding with my brows, but they leaned on and rowed hard,
    195 and Perimedes and Eurylochos, rising up, straightway
    fastened me with even more lashings and squeezed me tighter.
    But when they had rowed on past the Sirens, and we could no longer hear
    their voices and lost the sound of their singing, presently
    my eager companions took away from their ears the beeswax
    200 with which I had stopped them. Then they set me free from my lashings.

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