The Myth Of The Sirens In Homer's Odyssey

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This poem starts with the narrator explain that the “song” of the siren makes men “leap overboard in squadrons.” The siren says that no one ever listens to her song because whoever does ends up dying. The narrator is then invited to learn the secret in exchange for the opportunity to rid her of the fact that she is a siren. The poem then talks about how it’s like being a siren and it doesn’t seems as glamorous or mythical as said in the story of Odysseus. The siren tells us to come close so we can learn the secret because we’re special and unique unlike the rest of the people who died. However, by the end, the speaker is also dead because of the siren’s song. The original myth about the sirens was mentioned in the story Odysseus. The sirens are considered enemies that would drive Odysseus’ crew to death if they listened. Odysseus was determined to hear their song though so he instructed his men to tie him firmly to the mast of the ship while everyone else had plugged …show more content…

It doesn’t shed any new light onto the sirens besides the fact that they will lie to kill the sailors that still continue to find themselves into the sirens’ domain. They sing sweet words to lull the sailor that they might be able to save them but alas at the end it is too late when the sailors realize they have died. In conclusion, the siren in this poem is sarcastic, modern, humourous, and a trickster to do its job which is to kill sailors. In the Odyssey, there wasn’t much mention of trickery on the siren’s part to kill the sailors; they just sang their song and let all unsuspecting sailors die. In this poem, the sirens asks for sympathy and acts as a damsel-in-distress. The readers believe her, and even up with the same old fate as everyone else who listens: death. The outcome is the same and the meaning isn’t any different from the