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PinkMonkey.com Digital Library - PinkMonkey.com - The Odyssey by Homer
BOOK XII

“AFTER we were clear of the river Oceanus, and had got out into the open sea, we
went on till we reached the Aeaean island where there is dawn and sunrise as in other
places. We then drew our ship on to the sands and got out of her on to the shore, where
we went to sleep and waited till day should break.

“Then, when the child of morning, rosy-fingered Dawn, appeared, I sent some men to
Circe’s house to fetch the body of Elpenor. We cut firewood from a wood where the
headland jutted out into the sea, and after we had wept over him and lamented him we
performed his funeral rites. When his body and armour had been burned to ashes, we
raised a cairn, set a stone over it, and at the top of the cairn we fixed the oar that he had
been used to row with.

“While we were doing all this, Circe, who knew that we had got back from the house of
Hades, dressed herself and came to us as fast as she could; and her maid servants came
with her bringing us bread, meat, and wine. Then she stood in the midst of us and said,
‘You have done a bold thing in going down alive to the house of Hades, and you will
have died twice, to other people’s once; now, then, stay here for the rest of the day,
feast your fill, and go on with your voyage at daybreak tomorrow morning. In the
meantime I will tell Ulysses about your course, and will explain everything to him so as
to prevent your suffering from misadventure either by land or sea.’

“We agreed to do as she had said, and feasted through the livelong day to the going
down of the sun, but when the sun had set and it came on dark, the men laid
themselves down to sleep by the stern cables of the ship. Then Circe took me by the
hand and bade me be seated away from the others, while she reclined by my side and
asked me all about our adventures.

“’So far so good,’ said she, when I had ended my story, ‘and now pay attention to what
I am about to tell you-heaven itself, indeed, will recall it to your recollection. First you
will come to the Sirens who enchant all who come near them.

If any one unwarily draws in too close and hears the singing of the Sirens, his wife and
children will never welcome him home again, for they sit in a green field and warble
him to death with the sweetness of their song. There is a great heap of dead men’s
bones lying all around, with the flesh still rotting off them.

Therefore pass these Sirens by, and stop your men’s ears with wax that none of them
may hear; but if you like you can listen yourself, for you may get the men to bind you
as you stand upright on a cross-piece half way up the mast, and they must lash the
rope’s ends to the mast itself, that you may have the pleasure of listening. If you beg
and pray the men to unloose you, then they must bind you faster.

“’When your crew have taken you past these Sirens, I cannot give you coherent
directions as to which of two courses you are to take; I will lay the two alternatives
before you, and you must consider them for yourself. On the one hand there are some
overhanging rocks against which the deep blue waves of Amphitrite beat with terrific
fury; the blessed gods call these rocks the Wanderers. Here not even a bird may pass,
no, not even the timid doves that bring ambrosia to Father Jove, but the sheer rock
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PinkMonkey.com Digital Library - PinkMonkey.com - The Odyssey by Homer



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