Beware Of The Sirens And Charybdis Analysis

Beware of the Sirens, Scylla, and Charybdis A Greek poet named Homer wrote a famous epic poem called The Odyssey. The epic poem was about a brave lord, Odysseus, and his men encountering a few arduous obstacles during their journey back to Ithaca. In Book 12, “Beware of the Sirens, Scylla, and Charybdis,” translated by Robert Fitzgerald, Odysseus has to make a difficult decision about losing all his men to Charybdis’ whirlpool or only six to Scylla’s ferocious head. This story can relate to the poem, “The Sirens,” written by James Russell Lowell. Both men being compelled by sirens’ singing. A visual connection to the story and poem is Herbert Draper’s painting, “Ulysses and the Sirens,” the sirens compelling Odysseus. All in all, these three different representation of the story can have the tone of tense, disheartening, and malicious.

According to Fitzgerald, “Better to mourn/ six men than lose them all…” (172-173). Circe explained to Odysseus, he will lose all men taking the path he accordingly planned, but he will only lose six if he takes another path. Another example is “But I sent them on toward Scylla, I/ told them nothing, as they could do nothing” (Fitzgerald 256-257). With this in mind, Odysseus took his men on the path where he will lose only six of his men.

The tone in the poem “The Sirens” by James Russell Lowell, can be described as disheartening. For instance, “The sea is lonely, the sea is dreary, /The sea is restless and uneasy” (Lowell 1-2). Similar to the story, a description of the area, “bones /of dead men rotting in a pile beside them /and flayed skins shrivel around the spot” (Fitzgerald 132-134). In addition, “Voices sweet, from far and near, /Ever singing low and clear, /Ever singing longingly” (Lowell 42-44). Odysseus was compelled by the sirens’ voices, “...made me crave to listen...” (Fitzgerald