"Then, being much troubled in
mind, I said to my men, ‘My friends, it is not right that one or
two of us alone should know the prophecies that Circe has made me, I
will therefore tell you about them, so that whether we live or die we
may do so with our eyes open. First she said we were to keep clear of
the Sirens, who sit and sing most beautifully in a field of flowers;
but she said I might hear them myself so long as no one else did.
Therefore, take me and bind me to the crosspiece half way up the
mast; bind me as I stand upright, with a bond so fast that I cannot
possibly break away, and lash the rope's ends to the mast
itself. If I beg and pray you to set me free, then bind me more
tightly still.’
"I had hardly finished telling
everything to the men before we reached the island of the two Sirens,
for the wind had been very favorable. Then all of a sudden it fell
dead calm; there was not a breath of wind nor a ripple upon the
water, so the men furled the sails and stowed them; then taking to
their oars they whitened the water with the foam they raised in
rowing. Meanwhile I look a large wheel of wax and cut it up small
with my sword. Then I kneaded the wax in my strong hands till it
became soft, which it soon did between the kneading and the rays of
the sun-god son of Hyperion. Then I stopped the ears of all my men,
and they bound me hands and feet to the mast as I stood upright on
the crosspiece; but they went on rowing themselves. When we had got
within earshot of the land, and the ship was going at a good rate,
the Sirens saw that we were getting in shore and began with their
singing.
"‘Come here,’ they
sang, ‘renowned Odysseus, honor 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.’
"They sang these words most
musically, and as I longed to hear them further I made by frowning to
my men that they should set me free; but they quickened their stroke,
and Eurylokhos and Perimedes bound me with still stronger bonds till
we had got out of hearing of the Sirens’ voices. Then my men
took the wax from their ears and unbound me.
Homer. The Odyssey. Rendered into English prose for the use of those who cannot read the original. Samuel Butler. Based on public domain edition, revised by Timothy Power and Gregory Nagy. A. C. Fifield, London. 1900 (?).
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.
An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.