Tone Towards The Sirens In Homer's Odyssey

Through the imagery of both Homer and Margaret Atwood we see the difference in the Siren’s attitude in each poem. In The Odyssey, the Siren says, “honeyed voices pouring from our lips.” This imagery is a seductive tactic used by the Siren to lure the men closer. Odysseus tells us that his heart wanted more. This shows how the desire to get closer to the Siren was toxic. In “Siren Song” the Siren uses imagery to mock herself and make the reader feel bad for her. She tells us that she is “squatting on the island looking picturesque and mythical.” It is inferred that she is simply unhappy and bored where she is.

In the first passage it describes how Odysseus got the beeswax for his men to cover their ears. To prevent Odysseus from escaping while hearing the song, his men tied him to a post on the ship. The passage describes just how difficult it is to resist the voices of the Sirens by using figurative language such as personification. The passage stated, “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.” This is an example of personification

There is a universal ideology that suggests that each gender plays their specific, individualized roles in society: men acting as independent, powerful alpha males, and women being their dutiful submissives. Contemporary narratives depict women as such whereas mythology is rich with goddesses and other female figures who are brave and powerful warriors equal to men. So if mythology can be overflowed with stories about female leaders, how come contemporary narratives have derived from that viewpoint? Sirens in Greek Mythology are a perfect example of the derivation to the new idea of women in society: weak. By examining the myth of Sirens through a feminist critical lens, the question of whether society is “concerned with the ways in which literature and other cultural productions reinforce or undermine the economic, political, social, and psychological oppression”(Brizee Web) will be answered. The mythological legend of the Sirens highlights the superiority of these figures who could destroy by temptation through their melodic voices; modern interpretations of sirens- as in Disney’s The Little Mermaid (1989)- reduce the feminine power of the siren to a contemporary stereotype of the powerless, dependent, subservient woman.

This poem therefore includes the use of dramatic irony, meaning that the words of the Sirens had a different intent than what is clearly seen, which is known by the reader, but not Odysseus. The Sirens ask Odysseus to “Help [them]!”, which makes him feel like a hero (Atwood, 22). The reader knows that the Sirens only want to kill him, by flattering him first. Although Odysseus knew about the Sirens, at the time, he ignored the knowledge that they only wanted to make him crash and kill himself. This shows that the Sirens’ words were so strong that they could influence him in that way without Odysseus noticing. He is so engulfed into the praise of the Sirens, that he almost lost sight of his goal once again. Next, the author uses repetition of the Sirens, telling Odysseus that “only [he] can” help them (Atwood, 23). This continued the Sirens’ deep adulation in order to tempt him. This repeated use emphasizes the Sirens’ knowledge that his weakness was his pride and arrogance. They knew that the best way to get to him was through his egotism, which only hurt him in the long run.

"The Sirens", taunt and tease Odysseus as him and his crew sail towards the, “Land of the Dead". Crossing the bumpy ocean in order to reach the Land of The Dead, Odysseus and his man sailed into trouble. Sirens were on the horizon and Odysseus had to think quickly. As his mind raced he finally came up with a solution, he grabbed a handful of wax and rolled it in his hands. “Going forward I carried wax along the line, and laid it thick on their ears.” (Lines 712-713 The Odyssey). Whilst finishing this tedious task, Odysseus was tied down to the mast and left with his thoughts. The men continued to row while the Sirens flew in and sang

“Come closer Odysseus- Archaea's pride” the Sirens perceive Odysseus as a high valued prize. If they had defeated Odysseus they could have boasted about how much power they had, and claimed they killed someone not even the great god Poseidon could. The Sirens could sense “at once a ship” and start singing their song luring the ship and its crew to their demise. This made the Sirens one of the most powerful creatures in the sea by being able to kill several people by just singing their mysterious song. However, in Atwood’s poem the Sirens are conniving creatures. The Siren is lying the whole time saying “you, only you can, you are unique”. The Siren is deceiving the person into believing that they are the only one who can save the them from living a cursed life. Atwood makes the Sirens look weak by saying it “is a cry for help” when in reality it was all a trick that “works every time.” Homer’s Sirens are perceived as powerful while Atwood’s are perceived as conniving through the use of point of

In the case of the Sirens, the theme is revisited simply for its own interest. With their ears plugged, the crew members sail safely by the Sirens’ island, while Odysseus, longing to hear the Sirens’ sweet song, is saved from folly only by his foresighted command to his crew to keep him bound to the ship’s mast. Homer is fascinated with depicting his protagonist tormented by temptation: in general, Odysseus and his men want very desperately to complete their nostos, or homecoming, but this desire is constantly at odds with the other pleasures that the world offers

In another part of the story, Odysseus and his crew have to sail past the sirens. Odysseus decides that instead of plugging his ears like his crew does he want to listen to the sirens song. He then has his crew tie him to the mast of the ship with orders to not untie him until they have past the sirens. Odysseus seems to have done this out of pride and curiosity. He most likely does it out of pride. To show his crew how strong and brave he is. He is probably also curious about the sirens song, wondering what could be so beautiful that it could lure so many people to their death. Doing this could lead to respect from his crew, and satisfying his

In the story of the Sirens, Homer uses diction to describe the tone as mystical and oblivious to the audience. Homer presents the intricacy of the myth of the Sirens through different point of views, tones, and imagery. He tells a story of a man who is clever enough to hear the Siren’s song and not lose his life. Odysseus knows what the sirens will do to him, so he takes precautions by plugging his crew’s ears with wax and asking them to tie him to the ship.. An example is, “My faithful company rested on their oars now, peeling off the wax that I had laid thick on their ears…” (line 754-755) This implies that the crew was exhausted of hearing the Sirens voices and trying to ignore it, as the Sirens leave, they remove the wax from their ears.

The Sirens in the Odyssey represent more than just a maritime danger to the passing ship. They are the desires of man that he cannot have. The Sirens can also be construed as forbidden knowledge or some other taboo object. Whatever these singing women actually are, the sailors are wise to avoid them. As usual, the wily Odysseus cheats at the rules of the game by listening to their song under the restraints constructed by his crew.

One of the lessons learned from the sirens Is that tempations can cause struggles. Our great hero and his men learn this through this episode. If the crew or Odysseus had heard the sirens they would have been dead. This relates to our lives because most all people have a hard time with temptations. For example most men have a hard time with sexual temptations as Rick Thomas says. He exclaimed “You cannot dismiss the old, godly man’s commentary on sexual temptation as an anomaly”. These two sources relate because you can not stop the sirens and you can not stop temptations. There is no way to get rid of

During his journey home, Odysseus continues to be determined and looks ahead through the tough times. Odysseus’ men “tie him up” as they approached the Sirens (Homer 550). Aside from Odysseys' courage, his drive to go home pulls him through his challenge. By sacrificing his temptation of the Sirens, Odysseus values completing his journey more and tries harder to keep his men safe. Later on, Odysseus uses his experience to the men ready for the monsters Scylla and Charybdis.

Homer depicts the Sirens as intriguing and desirable because he considers Odysseus as valiant. Homer describes Odysseus’ “'heart inside

As Odysseus travels through the epic, he is constantly trying to maintain his image, always bragging about his wisdom and talents. The Sirens expose and exploit this weakness of his when he encounters them. Their “honeyed voices pouring from [their] lips” (Homer, Odyssey, p. 277, 12.203) is a sticky trap that reveals just how much Odysseus yearns for glory and fame. They call him “Archaea’s pride and glory” and tell him to “come closer, famous Odysseus” (Homer, Odyssey, p. 277, 12.200). By making “famous” the new epithet to his name, they have already won his heart. They then proceed to tempt him in with promises of more wisdom. Odysseus had to literally be tied down so that he would not jump off the ship. All the while, the Sirens most definitely knew that humans are inherently greedy and susceptible to temptation.

Odysseus is warned by Circe that the sweet voices of the Sirens’ bewitch anybody who comes near to them and that “there is no homecoming for the man who draws near them unawares and hears the Sirens’ voices” (Pauline Nugent). As curious as Odysseus is she knows he can’t pass up the opportunity of getting to hear the sweet seductive voices of the Sirens’. Circe knowing very much how Odysseus so helps him devise a plan so that he can hear the Sirens, and his fellow shipmen cannot. She tells Odysseus to have his men melt beeswax and plug there ear and if he wants to listen “...make them bind you hand and foot on board and place you upright by the housing of the mast, with the ropes ends lashed to the mast its self”(12;48-51). Odysseus