Back to the Island of Circe

Back to the Island of Circe

Odysseus returns to the island of Circe after visiting the Land of the Dead

Circe gives further instructions to Odysseus on how to avoid the Sirens, get past Scylla and to avoid being sucked down by the whirlpool Charybdis.

Circe warns Odysseus about the Isle of Sirens which is where the Sirens live, hideous half-bird, half-women creatures who sing men to their deaths. Men who hear the beautiful singing of these wretched creatures will leap overboard to swim to the island to be closer to the music, but there they will die. The island is littered with the dried bones of those men who couldn’t resist the hideous creatures’ music.

Circe tells Odysseus that he should hear this music – he is after all Odysseus! - but that he should put beeswax in the ears of his men so they cannot hear. (Being ordinary men they would not be able to resist the Sirens’ music.) He should instruct the men to tie him firmly (to lash him) to the mast of the boat and if, while listening to the Sirens’ music, he is so overwhelmed by their seductive powers that he begs the men to untie him, then his men must tie him even more firmly to the mast.

Circe then warns him about the even more hideous Scylla. She has twelve legs, unjointed tentacles like an octopus. Scylla has serpent necks with six heads on each swaying neck. Each head has a mouth of triple serried teeth (like a knife).
Vocabulary:
Den: a cave where an animal or monster sleeps.
Abominably: So horrible as to be deserving of hatred.
Gullet: throat and esophagus (the tube that runs from the throat to the stomach).
From each ship she takes one man for each gullet.
Vocabulary:
Promontory: a high cliff overlooking a body of water.

Circe tells him that on the other side of the strait (narrow body of water between two land masses) lies Charybdis (Ka rib dis) which is a huge whirlpool that sucks down all the water three times a day and then vomits it back up (spews) like a geyser. Avoid it and stick as close as you can, Cire warns him, to the opposite side of the strait (close to Scylla) and away from Charybdis. Better you lose a few men than the entire ship.

Circe then warns him about the Island of Thrinakia, the Island of Helios, the sun god who sees all and hears all as he, in his chariot, drives his thundering steeds across the sky each day. Nothing escapes him. He keeps on his island cattle and sheep which he loves very much. These beeves and kine have never been born nor never die. Do not eat them, Circe warns Odysseus, for if you do you will meet certain death at the hands of the angry gods.