Sweet songs of the sirens. Odysseus knew from the words of Kirk that he would soon sail past the island where the sirens, half-women, half-birds, lived. With sweet-sounding songs they lure sailors to their island, and then tear them apart with sharp claws. Not a single person has ever passed this island alive.
Odysseus wanted to listen to extraordinary songs. And so he covered the ears of his comrades with wax so that they would not hear magical voices, and ordered himself to be tied to the mast with strong ropes and, no matter what he did, in no case to untie. The ship quickly rushed past the island, and wonderful sounds were heard from it:
To us. God-like Odysseus, great glory of the Achaeans, come to us with a ship; Enjoy the sweet singing of the sirens.
Here not a single sailor passes with his ship without listening to the heart-melting song in our meadow. But whoever heard us returns to the house, having learned a lot: We all know what is happening in the bosom of the multi-talented land.
So the sirens sang; Odysseus was subdued by their singing, began to break free of the ropes, and made signs for his comrades to free him. But they leaned even harder on the oars, and only then did they untie Odysseus, when the terrible island disappeared from sight and the singing could not be heard. Scylla and Charybdis.
And then a terrible noise was heard in the distance: it was Charybdis raging. Odysseus ordered his companions to stay close to another cliff, but did not say a word about Skill. Pale with horror, the travelers looked at Charybdis; waves bubbled around her mouth, and in her deep belly, like in a cauldron, sea mud and water boiled. At this time, the terrible Skilla stretched out all her necks and grabbed six of Odysseus’s comrades; their legs flashed in the air, a drawn-out scream died away... But now the terrible strait was left behind, and again there was a calm sea ahead.
A month on the island of Trinacria. Odysseus did not want to stop on the island of Trinacria, remembering what Tiresias warned him about. But Eurylochus said on behalf of the other sailors: “You are acting cruelly, Odysseus! You yourself seem to be cast from copper, you don’t know fatigue - we are simple people, we’ve been sleeping on the ship for many nights, and now we want to go ashore, rest there and refresh ourselves. And tomorrow at dawn we will continue our voyage.”
Odysseus understood that they could not avoid trouble, but did not argue with his comrades. They landed on the island and pulled the ship ashore. We spent the night here, but in the morning a terrible storm began, and there was no way to go out to sea. The winds blew for a whole month. Odysseus and his companions ran out of all their supplies; They were increasingly tormented by hunger. But Odysseus made sure that they did not touch the bulls of Helios. One day Odysseus fell asleep, and in the meantime his companions decided to kill the bulls, and so that Helios would not be angry, they would take the precious gifts to his temple after returning.
A crime against the gods. Odysseus woke up, smelled the smell of fried meat and realized that his companions had committed a crime before the gods and doomed themselves to death. He was especially convinced of this by the terrible sign that the gods sent: the skins of the bulls moved as if alive, and the meat made a plaintive moo. Odysseus's companions were saved from hunger, and soon the storm stopped and they could set off.
But as soon as the island disappeared from sight, the thunderer Zeus gathered heavy clouds over the ship. The wind came howling, the mast broke like a reed, lightning flashed - and only splinters remained from the ship. Odysseus managed to grab onto a piece of the mast and was carried along the waves. For nine days he carried him from end to end across the boundless sea, he almost fell into the mouth of Charybdis, and, fortunately, Skilla did not notice him. Finally, he washed up on some shore.
Odysseus finally saw the shadow of the hero Hercules, but it was only an aerial ghost, and he himself lived in the dwelling of the gods, on Olympus, as the husband of Zeus’s daughter Hebe; and the shadow of Hercules stood with a drawn bow, with an arrow on a tight bowstring, and it seemed as if he wanted to lower it, and the dead flew over him with a noise, like birds of prey flying; and on the shadow of Hercules there was a wonderful golden belt; lions, wild boars, bears, battles and victory over them were depicted on it. Seeing Odysseus, he recognized him, but soon the ghost of Hercules disappeared into the darkness.
Odysseus stood in amazement, waiting to see if any other of the great dead men would appear. He saw many famous heroes, saw Theseus and his friend Perithous; but at that time countless crowds of shadows of the dead appeared, Odysseus was horrified and in fear left the gloomy crevice and returned back to his ship on the deserted shore of the Ocean.
Odysseus's companions quickly boarded the ship and took the oars together. Their black ship sailed calmly along the waters of the Ocean, soon a fair wind rose, and they continued sailing. Remembering the promise made to Elpenor, Odysseus returned back to the island of Eyu; he sent his friends to Circe’s home so that they could take from there the body of the deceased Elnenore; At this time, the Achaeans lit a fire on the seashore, and when the body of Elpenor was brought, they burned it along with the armor, and then, having buried it, they erected a burial mound and placed an oar on it.
Circe, having learned that Odysseus had returned from the underworld, came to the ship, brought bread, wine and meat to the Achaeans and said:
“Rest today, and hit the road tomorrow morning.” I'll show you the way.
The Achaeans rested all day and, after spending the night on the island of Eya, set off early in the morning. Circe sent them a fair wind, and the ship sailed calmly across the sea.
Odysseus told his companions what Circe had predicted to him. They had to pass by the island of sweet-sounding sirens; with their songs they enchanted everyone who had to sail past their shores, and, forgetting about their homeland, enchanted by the song, the sailors moored to the island, and their death awaited them there - the bones of dead people, carried ashore by the song of the sirens, lay in whole heaps on the island. Odysseus explained that they should stay away from the flowering shores of the island of the Sirens and only he, Odysseus, as Circe said, could listen to their songs.
Sailing to the island of the Sirens, Odysseus covered the ears of his companions with wax, and ordered himself to be tied to the mast so that he could not throw himself into the sea and swim to the Sirens.
Soon the tailwind died down. The sea became smooth and blue; The Achaeans had to lower the sails and take up the oars in order to quickly guide their ship past the dangerous place. But the sirens noticed a ship sailing past, sat down on the shore and sang a wonderful song about the campaign against Troy, calling on the sailors to approach their island and enjoy their singing.
Fascinated by the sounds of the song, Odysseus did not want to sail further; he begged his companions with signs to untie him, but they tied him even more tightly to the mast and took hold of the oars more closely.
The Achaeans happily passed the island of the Sirens and soon saw cliffs standing in the sea in the distance, high waves crashing against them with foam and noise. Great danger awaited Odysseus's ship ahead.
The high floating rocks of Plankta already appeared in front of him; Not a single bird could fly past them, even the doves carrying ambrosia to Zeus crashed on these cliffs, and all the ships perished, crashing on sharp floating rocks, and only the Argonauts' ship Argo was saved from death once.
Hearing the sound of the waves and seeing a huge whirlpool, the Achaeans were horrified, and the oars fell out of their hands, and the ship stopped.
But Odysseus began to encourage his companions, he approached each one and said a cheerful word to each:
“Don’t be afraid of trouble, we are experienced in long voyages, we will overcome danger, just as we overcame the Cyclops in the cave.” Double your strength, rowers, and you, helmsman, double your attention, steer towards this cliff, otherwise our ship will perish.
Odysseus's companions took courage, and the helmsman directed the ship to the cliff that Odysseus pointed out to him, and soon the dangerous Plankts remained aside; but Odysseus kept silent about the monster Skilla, who lived on this rock. Now they had to enter a narrow strait between two rocks; one of them rises almost to the sky, and clouds lie on its sharp top; not a single person had ever climbed it, and in the middle of that rock there was a cave in which the terrible Skilla lived; the heads of this monster stuck out;
Skilla barks incessantly; she has twelve legs, and on her shaggy shoulders six flexible necks rise, and on each of them there is a head, and in her mouth she has three rows of frequent and sharp teeth; Skilla sticks all six of his heads out of the cave and paws along the rock; she catches dolphins and seals with them. Opposite this rock there was another rock within an arrow's flight distance, but significantly lower than the first; a wild fig tree grows on it, and beneath it the sea is agitated by a huge black whirlpool of Charybdis, which appears three times a day; a ship that falls into this Charybdis dies, being carried into the depths of the sea. When Charybdis spews out water, it boils as in a huge cauldron, and the foam flies up to the top of both cliffs; and when Charybdis absorbs the waves of the sea, the abyss of the sea opens up like a huge mouth, and black sand and mud bubble up below.
An Achaean ship entered this terrible strait; Odysseus put on strong armor, took two sharp spears, but, forgetting Circe’s instructions, approached the ship’s bow, believing that from this side he could quickly attack Skill’s ship; but the monster did not come out of the cave. Moving between the rocks and peering with horror into the terrible whirlpool of Charybdis, Odysseus first took the ship closer to Charybdis, but, noticing that he was beginning to be carried away by the current, he turned to Skilla, and unnoticed they approached the cliff where a terrible monster was waiting for them. In an instant, Skilla grabbed six of the Achaeans, the strongest and most courageous. Odysseus looked back and managed to notice how those captured by the monster were already floundering in his jaws, calling on Odysseus for help. At the entrance to the cave, Skilla immediately devoured them all.
Odysseus and his companions sobbed loudly, but it was no longer possible to help their comrades.
Then, foaming the dark waters with their oars, they quickly swam further, so that they could quickly get out of the strait of the terrible Charybdis and Skilla.
On the island of Trinacia
The Achaeans happily passed the double danger and, having avoided the gloomy Charybdis, they soon approached the island of Thrinacia, where the herds of the luminous god Helios grazed.
They were guarded by the daughters of Helios, beautiful nymphs. Approaching Thrinacia, already from afar, on the sea, Odysseus heard the mooing of bulls and the bleating of goats. Remembering that Elder Tiresias and Circe had warned him, he turned to his companions:
- Friends, we must quickly get past this island, big trouble awaits us on it.
But this proposal upset the tired sailors, and Eurylochus answered him:
- Odysseus, you are too harsh and do not know fatigue! We are all exhausted, but you don’t let us land on the shore and tell us to swim further. We could go ashore, cook dinner and relax. And you advise sailing past a flowering island into an unknown sea on a cold night. The winds rage at night and are dangerous for the ship. No, it’s better let’s go ashore, and tomorrow morning, having rested, we’ll go further.
All the Achaeans agreed with Eurylochus, and then Odysseus realized that it was in vain to argue, and thus answered him:
“You are forcing me to give in; I alone cannot resist everyone.” But give me an oath that if you meet bulls or rams on this island, on its green meadows, you will not kill them. After all, Circe provided us with food abundantly.
The companions swore an oath to Odysseus, and, entering the bay, they landed on the shore. Having found spring water nearby, we prepared a delicious dinner. Having enjoyed the drink and food, they began to remember the comrades torn to pieces by Skilla, and many cried in grief, but, tired, they soon fell asleep.
Suddenly at night, when the stars were already beginning to lean toward the zenith, the thunderer Zeus sent a terrible storm to sea and land. When dawn rose from the darkness, the Achaeans brought their black ship under the arches of a high sea cave; Odysseus invited all his companions to a council and announced to them:
- Friends, we have water, wine and large supplies of food on the ship. Do not touch the bulls so that misfortune does not befall us. They belong to Helios, who sees and hears everything.
And everyone promised not to touch those bulls.
But the strong wind Noth blew continuously all month, all other winds were silent at this time, only sometimes the eastern wind Eurus rose.
She told what further dangers lurk on the way:
First of all, you will meet sirens who are singing
Everyone deceives people, no matter who meets them.
Whoever, unknowingly approaches them, hears their voice,
He will never return home. Neither spouse nor children
They will never run towards him with a joyful cry.
The sirens will enchant him with their sonorous song,
Sitting on a soft meadow. All around there are huge smoldering
Piles of human bones covered with wrinkled skin.
Drive your ship past. Cover your comrades' ears,
Softened the honey-sweet wax so that no one could hear them
Satellite. And if you want, you can listen.
Let only your comrades tie your hands and feet tightly,
Standing, they will tie you to the base of the mast,
So that you can enjoy, both listening to the sirens.
If you start asking and order them to untie yourself,
Let them wrap even more belts around you.
(Homer "Odyssey", canto 12)
In ancient Greek mythology, sirens are demonic creatures born of the river Achelous and one of the muses (sirens inherited a divine voice from their mother). Sirens were half-birds, half-women (or half-fish, half-women). The first ship that sailed safely past the island of the Sirens was the Argo with the Argonauts, among whom was Laertes, the father of Odysseus. The Argonauts were saved by Orpheus, who was sailing with them, and drowned out the singing of the sirens with his singing and playing the lyre.
To save himself from death, Odysseus did as Circe advised: he covered the ears of his companions with wax, and he himself ordered himself to be tied to the mast. Odysseus heard this song of the sirens:
Come to us, Odysseus of great fame, great pride of the Achaeans!
Stop your ship to listen to our singing.
For no one in his ship will pass us without this,
So as not to listen to our flowing sweet songs from our lips
And you won’t return home delighted and having learned a lot.
We all know the works that are in extensive Troy
By the will of the gods, the Argives, as well as the Trojans, suffered.
We also know what is happening throughout the land of life.
Odysseus ordered to untie himself, but his companions only tied him tighter. After this, Odysseus's ship sailed safely from the island of the Sirens.
After the island of the Sirens, there was a new danger on Odysseus’s path - Scylla and Charybdis, about whom Circe also warned:
Two on the road, the second one has a cliff. One reaches
The sharp peak of the sky, the clouds crowd around it
Black. They never go away, at the top
The air there is never clear either in summer or autumn.
A mortal could not ascend the cliff or descend back.
Even when I could control twenty arms and legs, -
This rock is so smooth, as if it had been hewn by someone.
Gloomy there is a large cave in the middle of the cliff.
Its entrance faces the darkness, to the west, towards Erebus.
Send your ship past her, noble Odysseus.
Even the strongest shooter, aiming his bow from a ship,
I could not reach the hollow cave with my arrow.
The terribly growling Scylla lives in a rock cave.
Her voice sounds like a young puppy. The very same -
Evil monster. There is no one who, having seen her,
I felt joy in my heart, even if God had encountered it
Scylla has twelve legs, and all of them are thin and liquid.
Six long necks writhe on the shoulders, and on the necks
On the head of a terrifying, in the mouth of each in three rows
Abundant, frequent teeth full of black death.
In the lair she sits half her body,
Six heads protrude out over the terrible abyss,
They fumble along the smooth rock and grab the fish under it.
There are dolphins and sea dogs here; they grab big ones too
Monsters that Amphitrite grazes in abundance.
None of the sailors could boast that they passed
He and the ship passed unharmed: he's missing his husband
With each head she draws you into her cave.
There is another rock, Odysseus, you will see, lower,
Close to that one. He is only a bow shot away from her.
A fig tree with lush foliage grows wildly on that rock.
Directly below it from the divine Charybdis are black waters
They are raging terribly. She eats them three times a day
And it spews out three times. Look: when it absorbs -
Don't come any closer! Even the Landlord himself couldn’t save you here!
Stay close to the rock towards Scillina and as soon as possible
Drive a fast ship past. It's incomparably better
To lose six people from a ship is to lose them all.
Odysseus asked Circe if it was possible to repel Scylla’s attack without losing six comrades, to which he received the answer:
Know this: not mortal evil, but immortal Scylla. Fierce,
Terribly strong and wild. Fighting her is impossible.
You can't take it by force. The only salvation is in flight.
When Odysseus's ship found itself not far from Scylla and Charybdis, Odysseus told the helmsman to avoid the whirlpool generated by Charybdis, and ordered the oarsmen to row with all their might, while Odysseus hid the existence of Scylla from his comrades, fearing that, having learned the danger awaiting them, they would hide inside the ship and refuse row. When the ship sailed past Scylla's cave, the monster grabbed six sailors, but the ship and the rest escaped.
Odysseus sent some of his friends to the nymph's dwelling to take Elpenor's body from there. The rest, meanwhile, were cutting down the wood for the fire, and when the body was brought, they burned it along with the armor, erected a high burial mound over it and, at the request of the deceased, planted an oar on that hill. As soon as Circe learned that Odysseus and his friends had returned from the world of shadows, she came to the ship and brought bread, wine and meat to the guests. “All day long,” she told them, “enjoy food and drink, tomorrow at dawn, set off. I will show you the way and tell you about everything that can happen to you, so that you, through your foolishness, do not suffer new troubles at sea.” or on land." They feasted all day and set off on their journey the next morning. The beautiful-haired goddess sent them a fair wind, and the ship sailed calmly, obeying the helm and the wind. Odysseus told his companions about everything that Circe had predicted for him.
Odysseus at the Island of the Sirens. Attic vase, ca. 480-470 BC.
First of all, they had to sail past the island of sweet-sounding sirens. These nymphs with their wonderful songs enchant everyone who approaches their shore on a fast ship, they make everyone forget about their dear homeland, about their wife and children; Enchanted, the swimmer hurries to land on the island of the Sirens, where certain death awaits him and the smoldering bones of the unfortunate sailors, carried away by the crafty maidens, lie in heaps. And Odysseus and his companions must avoid the sirens and stay away from the flowery shores of their island. Only Odysseus, said Circe, can listen to singers.
Odysseus and the Sirens. Painting by J. W. Waterhouse, 1891
And so, when the ship was approaching the island of the Sirens, Odysseus, remembering the advice of Circe, covered the ears of his companions with wax and ordered himself to be tied to the mast so that he would not be able to throw himself into the sea and swim to the fatal shore. The fair wind instantly died down and a wide, unshakably smooth sea spread out before the Achaeans. Then Odysseus's companions took off their sails and took up the oars. At the same time, the sirens on the island sang their wondrous song:
To us, God-equal Odysseus, great glory of the Achaeans,
Come to us with your ship and enjoy the sweet singing of the sirens:
Here no sailor passes with his ship.
I didn’t listen to the heart-melting singing in our meadow;
Whoever heard us returns to the house. I have known a lot.
We all know what happened in Trojan land and what
The fate of the Trojans and Achaeans suffered at the behest of the immortals.
We all know what is happening in the bosom of the multi-talented land.
Enchanted by the wondrous sounds of the sirens' song, Odysseus did not want to sail any further. He rushed to the sirens on the island and begged his comrades with signs to free him. But, obeying the command previously given to them, they tied Odysseus even more tightly to the mast, hit the oars even harder and rowed until the island of the Sirens was left far behind.
Odysseus and the Sirens. Painting by G. Draper, c. 1909
The intended location is the Galli Islands in the Tyrrhenian Sea. When the travelers were leaving the island of Aea, Circe warned of the danger awaiting the heroes near the island of the Sirens. These creatures mesmerize mortals with their wonderful singing, and they remain in their power forever. Approaching the island, Odysseus ordered his companions to plug their ears with wax, and tied himself to the mast. As soon as he heard the sirens singing, Odysseus tried to free himself, but his companions did not allow him to do this. The ship safely passed the dangerous island.
Homer was the first to mention sirens. But in the Odyssey all that is said about them is that sailors must be wary of the singing of the “wonderful voices,” otherwise they will not return to their homeland. This barely outlined image inflamed the imagination of the listeners of the poem. In Ancient Greece, the myth of the sirens acquired more and more new details. Firstly, they had a pedigree. They inherited the siren's voice from their mother-muse and at first were no different from ordinary women. But the aunt-muses, fearing for their position on Parnassus, disfigured the newly-minted warblers, turning them into a hybrid of humans and birds.
According to another version, the sirens became friends with Persephone, whom Hades dragged into the kingdom of the dead. The friends did not suspect this and begged the gods to give them the opportunity to look for the missing one on earth, in the sky and under water. So the sirens divided into half birds and half fish. The following string of myths explained why sirens are dangerous to people. Mortals refused to help them look for Persephone, and then the sirens decided to take revenge. The fish maidens, singing, drew the sailors into the depths of the sea. The winged maidens sucked the blood of those who stopped to listen to them.
With this, the plot suggested by Homer was exhausted. And then the myth of the death of the sirens was born. Odysseus was declared the savior from this scourge. He was the only one who did not land on the island; this was the first time the songbirds had made a mistake. Out of despair, the bird maidens rushed into the sea and turned into rocks. At first they forgot about the fish maidens, but in the Middle Ages the peoples of Europe borrowed this image in tales about treacherous mermaids and undines. The siren birds also resurrected, turning, for example, into the characters of Slavic legends - the birds Sirin and Phoenix.
Where did the events that gave rise to the myths about the sirens take place? You can, of course, look for their “graves” in the Mediterranean Sea - rocks sticking out alone from the water. But a much more interesting version is that Homer could consider the singing of sirens to be sounds associated with the natural features of a certain place on the coast. For example, in the Gulf of Salerno there is the Galli archipelago. The configuration of the coastal rocks here is such that they amplify the sounds coming towards the sea. The cries of the seals that have taken a liking to the islands, passing through this megaphone, can easily be mistaken for the sounds of a human voice...
Homer did not specify how many sirens there were on the island. The Greeks usually depicted three. The myth says that they drowned themselves after a mishap with Odysseus. The body of one of them washed ashore where Naples is now located.
As soon as Odysseus passed the ominous island of the Sirens, troubles began again. It was necessary to swim between the rocks, where the bloodthirsty monster Scylla with six dog heads and the goddess Charybdis lived, drawing in and then spewing out sea waters. The ancient Greeks believed that these creatures lie in wait for sailors on both sides of the Strait of Messina: Scylla off the coast of the Apennine Peninsula, Charybdis off the island of Sicily.
