This too is an adventure Odysseus told himself. At a feast in a strange country, on the night he gave his name (chapter 8). It happens after his journey to the land of the dead (chapter 14).
The ship went back once more to the island of the witch Circe (chapter 13). On the night before they left Circe called him aside, meaning to go over every place they were about to pass.
“First you will pass the Sirens. Nobody who heard those voices has ever gone by.” Around their island, she said, the bones of men lie heaped.
What Circe Told Him
Circe also told him how to live through it. The ears of his men were to be stopped with beeswax, and then the song would not reach them at all.
“And what will you do?” Circe knew that he wanted to hear it. “If you would hear it, be bound to the mast. Beg to be loosed and let nobody loose you.”
So there were two ways. One was not to hear, the other was to hear and be unable to move. Odysseus took the second.
Wax and Rope
The sea went suddenly still. The wind died and the waves stopped, as though someone had cleared a road for the song to carry.
Odysseus cut up a lump of beeswax and worked it in his hands. Softened in the sun, he laid it into the ears of his men one by one, and only his own ears he left open.
Then he had the men bind him to the mast. “If I tell you to loose me, tie me tighter.” The men took hold of the oars and began to row.
The Song They Sang
The Sirens began to sing. And that song was not a love song. They began with the name of Odysseus.
“Come here, glory of the Greeks. We know everything that happened at Troy. Whatever occurs upon the earth, we know it.”
The bait was not beauty but knowing. It was the bait best fitted to a man who had lived by his wits, and it took precise aim at the wish to know.
Odysseus begged with his eyes to be let loose. He twisted his body and tried to break the ropes, and two of his men rose and wound the ropes tighter.
After They Passed
The singing fell away behind them. The ship had cleared the island, and the men took out the wax and untied him.
He became the first man to hear that song and live. He was the first to hear it and not turn his ship, but it was not a thing done by holding out.
Had he resolved to hold out, he would have gone to the island that day. What he did was to know in advance when he could not hold out, and to bind his hands and feet so that holding out was not needed.
Today, the One Who Binds Himself Beforehand
Most of us trust our will in front of temptation. We think we will hold out when the moment comes, but Odysseus did not trust his own will.
He finished his preparation before the song began. The strongest person is not the one who is strong in that moment but the one who acts before the moment arrives.
There is one more thing. He did not give up hearing altogether. Those who were to be sealed were sealed, and the one who was to hear heard, bound.
Some things in the world are better not heard at all. Others must be arranged so you can hear them without being dragged along, and telling the two apart is the homework this scene leaves behind.