Book 12 of Homer’s Odyssey

 

 

In Book 12 of Homer’s Odyssey, Circe warns that any man who hears the bewitching Sirens’ voices as he passes them on a ship will never reach his homeland.  While Odysseus prevents his men from hearing the Sirens’ voices by plugging their ears with wax, he does not plug his own and instead ties himself to the mast of the ship in order to hear them.  What does his decision to accept himself in order to hear the Sirens suggest about Odysseus’ relationship with his shipmates and, consequently, his values and priorities?  Are there events in the other Books assigned for this course that support your assessment of his relationship with his crew and, thus, his priorities?   Use examples (quotations) from these books in your explanation.

 

Answer: In Homer’s Odyssey, Circe gave a warning that whoever listens to the luring song of Sirens would die. The Greeks believed that the sounds of the sirens compel sailors to wreck their ships, but their sounds promise wisdom and indication of the future. The need to get the ultimate knowledge about each phenomenon of nature and have the supreme power over all the mankind urged Odysseus to listen to the sirens.

 For this purpose, when he and his crewmembers were passing the area of the sirens, he ordered his crewmembers to plug in wax in their ears to prevent themselves from the magical derailing. Odysseus ordered his ship mates to plug in ear wax to prevent themselves from the danger of the sounds of sirens. The sounds of the sirens are believed to compel sailors to hit their ships in the rocks and get killed by the beautiful sirens. The crewmembers did the same and the sirens appeared, circling around Odysseus and inviting him to join them on their island. The sirens promised peace, love and knowledge to Odysseus and wanted him to live with them. The song of the sirens is as following:

“Odysseus, bravest of heroes,

Draw near to us, on our green island,

Odysseus, we’ll teach you wisdom,

We’ll give you love, sweeter than honey.

The songs we sing, soothe away sorrow,

And in our arms, you will be happy.

Odysseus, bravest of heroes,

The songs we sing, will bring you peace”

Odysseus ordered his men to tie himself to the mast of the ship and hold him back with ropes. The crewmen did the same and when they passed through the area of sirens, they started singing but as Odysseus was tied with ropes he did not jumped into water.

Odysseus struggled to unbind the ropes and in doing so, he teared his flesh in anger and lust, but his crew members having wax in their ears kept him tied and rowed fast to escape the sirens. The crewmembers struggled hard and kept Odysseus bound to the mast to prevent the danger of the sound of sirens and its impact on the senses of Odysseus.

At last the Ship went past the sirens and the crewmembers unplugged the wax from their ears. The Odysseus came back to his senses and the crewmembers untied him. That was the whole experience of Odysseus with the sirens and he was thankful to the advice of Circe to pass the sirens and defend his ship and crewmembers from their attack.

 

 

 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Automatic Micro Expression Recognition and Analysis

 Automatic Micro Expression Recognition and Analysis Introduction: With the advancement in technology and the machine learning methods various automatic processes are possible to predict human behavior and his emotions. Micro Expression Recognition as addressed in this research is also a machine dependent process which can reveal the hidden information and the intentions behind a micro-expression. These micro expressions of human beings which are otherwise very deceitful and hard to predict can be automatically monitored and the meaning behind them can be predicted with machine learning techniques. This technological advancement allows to uncover various hidden intentions and the affiliated emotions with micro expressions as to predict better about human beings. The research will focus on the machine learning methods and use of Spontaneous Micro Expression Database (SMIC) for the prediction of hidden emotions and revealing the truth behind the micro expressions. Problem Statement: ...
Read more

Optimization of Electrical Distribution System Reliability: A Case Study on Mazoon Electricity Company

    1.0 Introduction 1.1 Background Knowledge According to Oman's Commercial Companies Law, Mazoon Electricity is a closed joint stock electricity provider that is registered. The company's main responsibility is to carry out the controlled supply and distribution of power in the territories of Shargiya, South Al Batinah, and Dakiliya. Since 2014, the number of Mazoon Company customers has expanded yearly at a pace of 10–15%, and the number of regulated units produced and distributed to consumers in the regions has increased to roughly 6,708GWh (Wallnerström et al. 2012). Mazoon Company has experienced average decline of 10 % in the distribution chain in recent years. The major losses are seen in summer session due to increase on demand side. The electrical distribution network is experiencing major variations due to different kind of dependability events (Hashemi-Dezaki et al., 2015). These dependability events include variations on the load side, effective losses in the distr...
Read more

Datafication Literature Review

  Literature Review Information/Data are not pure or common articles with their very own pith. They exist in a unique circumstance, taking on importance from that specific situation and the point of view of the viewer. How much those unique circumstances and implications can be addressed impacts the adaptability of information, as outlined in the subsequent incitement. This part investigates endeavors to characterize data in hypothetical and operational terms, closing with a functioning definition. Data are regularly characterized as a visual cue, like realities, numbers, letters, and images (National Research Council 1999). Arrangements of models are not definitions since they don't build up clear limits between what is constantly excluded from an idea. The definition offered by (Peter Fox and Ray Harris, 2013) is common: "'Data' incorporates, at the very least, advanced perception, logical checking, information from sensors, metadata, model out-put and situations, ...
Read more