Week 3 Story

Odysseus and his crew have spent years trying to find their way home.  Their most recent journey took them to the Realm of Hades, where Odysseus was told how to get home.  Unfortunately, the quickest way home takes them right by the Isle of the Sirens.  The Sirens are tricky beings, with the ability to know what you want to hear the most in the world and make you believe that they have it.  As Odysseus’s ship grew closer to the island, his crew became more and more uneasy.

Odysseus decided that he wanted to hear the Sirens’ song.  He had his crew tie his hands and feet to a mast on the ship, then had them all plug their ears with wax so they would not be distracted by the Sirens.  Slowly, they started to row past the island.   The Sirens started to sing to Odysseus.  The song was sweet and sad; it spoke of home and his wishes to be with his wife and family.  Then it started to change.  The song became more lively, sounding like a folk song back home, and as Odysseus turned his head toward the island he saw his house, and his family.  His wife and son were waving from the edge of the water, welcoming him home.  Thrilled, Odysseus started struggling against his restraints, trying to get to shore.  He started yelling at his crew mates, saying that they were home and to stop rowing away from the island.  One of his friends got up to tighten the restraints. When he was close enough, Odysseus head butted him and with a final pull, broke free of the restraints.  He dove into the water, heading for shore.  When he was half-way there, some of his crew dove in after him.  They called to him, telling him to come back, that it was a trick.  By the time they had all reached shore, the wax had fallen out of the crew’s ears, and they too heard what they most wanted to hear. 

For many years the crew stayed there, believing that their dreams had come true.  The Sirens kept them under their spell, feeding off of their joy.  One day the god Hermes appeared in front of Odysseus.  Hermes told Odysseus that he was not home, but was indeed the Sirens’ prisoner.  Of course, Odysseus did not believe him, because he was still under the Sirens’ spell.  Hermes handed Odysseus a drink, saying that they must toast to him finally reaching home.  The drink contained herbs that warded against enchantments.  As Odysseus drank, the warm fuzzy feeling that he had started to fade away, until he saw the island for what it was: a prison.  Mortified, he ran to the rest of his crew, having them all drink and waking them all up from the spell.  After they all had realized what had happened, they ran for the beach.  Their boat was nowhere to be seen.  Remembering that they had all abandoned the boat to chase Odysseus, they started building a raft to sail away on.  The sirens were angry, and tried to lure them back, but their songs no longer had any effect.  After a couple of days, Odysseus and his crew were able to sail away, hoping to reach their real home soon.  

The Call of the Sirens, by Felix Ziem Source:Wikimedia Commons

Homer's Odyssey, by Tony Kline Link to the story

Authors Note: Homer's Odyssey is about a man named Odysseus who is trying to find his way home after winning the Trojan War.  He spends 20 years on this quest.  I modified this story after some of his adventures heading home.  In one of his stories he spends a long time on the island of a goddess named Circe, where Circe feeds him and his men drugs to keep them happy.  In that story, Hermes gives Odysseus something that will nullify Circe's drugs before Odysseus makes it to her house.  He and his crew end up spending over a year there.  The second story that I used as inspiration was the Sirens.  In the story, Odysseus does want to hear the song, so he plugs up his crew's ears and has them restrain him.  However, in that story, they were able to make it safely by without any incident.  I thought it would be fun to combine elements of both stories, because having them make it safely by the Sirens is not very interesting, and seems odd that they would include that in the story if nothing exciting came out of it.  Sirens in mythology are not normally so hospitable, so some of their characteristics came from Circe and her household.