| Yesterday
Odysseus became the first man to hear the beautiful but deadly singing of the Sirens and
live to tell the tale. Odysseus and his crew encountered the Sirens after they had left
Hades. "Circe had warned me about them and I knew just what to do," the hero
told us.
The Sirens are half woman, half bird with sharp talons. They have
beautiful faces and voices. These creatures lived above the rocks and ate drowning people
from shipwrecks and left their bones. The Sirens sang so sweetly that if sailors heard
them they would be distracted and would crash into the rocks. Odysseus did not want his
ship, and crew, to suffer the same fate as other passers-by. But he did want to hear the
beautiful song of the Sirens.
He followed Circe’s instructions. He told his crew to put wax in
their ears and to tie him to the mast. When he sailed past the Sirens began their
wonderful singing but it had no effect on the men as their ears were blocked. But what an
effect on Odysseus! He heard their voices and longed to go to them. He begged his men to
untie him. He screamed at them. But they did not hear him. |
|
He threatened them but they
kept on rowing past the island. Soon they were safely past it and were able to free
Odysseus, his fit of madness over.
The Sirens were so angry and dismayed that
Odysseus and his men had escaped them that they threw themselves into the sea and turned
into rocks. But more dangerous monsters await our hero in the form of the Scylla and
Charybdis.
Reporters: Lee
& Alex
Odysseus hears the Sirens sing |
