Ulysses was one of the bravest men that ever lived. He was afraid of no man and no beast, yet he was very much afraid of some women on an island that he had to pass on one of his journeys.
They were called Sirens. They did not fight with anybody, and yet they were more dangerous than a hundred storms. All they did was to sing-to sing so sweetly that any sailor who passed by their island and heard them could not help going on shore to listen.
You may think there was no harm in that. But that was not all. When the sailors came ashore, they sat and heard and heard and heard. They did nothing else; they did not work, they did not speak, they did not eat; they did nothing but listen. Well, yes, there was one other thing they did. They died-died of hunger. For it always comes to pass that those who do not eat die.
Round about the place where the Sirens sat and sang were heaps and heaps of bones that had been left there by sailors who had listened themselves to death.
Nobody had ever heard the Sirens" song and lived. Ulysses wished very much to hear the song, but he did not wish to die; so, when his ship was coming near the island, he got some softwax, and put it into the ears of his men. This prevented them from hearing anything distinctly; so the Sirens" song could not have any effect upon them.
Then he made his men tie him with strong ropes to the mast. Before this, he had told them not to touch the wax in their ears, nor to let him loose till they were far past the island, no matter what he said.
When the ship came near the island, the Sirens thought they were sure of more prey, for no ship had ever yet been able to escape; so they began singing. While the ship was coming nearer the island, Ulysses was quite pleased; but, when the island was passed and the ship was going away, he felt uneasy.
So did the Sirens, for never before had a ship passed them in this way . They began to think that may b e their singing was lacking in power, and they started to sing more loudly and more sweetly than ever. UlyssesFrom a painting by J. W. Waterhouse in the National Gallery, MelbourneUlysses and the Sirens
now made up his mind that he must hear more, and ordered the man at the helm to turn the ship.
But the man at the helm had wax in his ears, and paid no attention. The other sailors saw how red in the face Ulysses was turning, and how he struggled to get free from the ropes; but they only looked the other way, for they knew their orders. By and by he became quieter, and the sailors knew that the danger was passed.But they did not loose him or take the wax out of their own ears till the Sirens" island was quite out of sight.
Then Ulysses was glad that he had been afraid; for, if he had not been afraid, he would certainly have added his bones to the pile round the Sirens.
Ulysses was a brave man; but there are some things it is well for even the bravest of men to fear.
Author.-Homer, greatest of epic poets, was born about 1,000 B.C. in Greece. His exact birthplace is uncertain; it may have been Chios (Scios)- "the blind old man of Sciso" rocky isle. " He is known by the great epic poems, The Iliad and The Odyssey, which may, however, be of different authorship. They existed before the introduction of writing and were first handed down by word of mouth. The Odyssey deals with the adventures of Ulysses, or Odysseus, the Iliad with the siege of Troy, or Ilium.
General.-It is said that the word "siren " originally meant bird andthat the notion of sirens as beautiful singing women came later. With the legend of the sirens compare the fables of mermaids, water-wraiths, andthe Lorelei of the Rhine in Heine"s famous poem.