I’ll admit, whatever grade it was where I learned about Greek mythology, I must not have paid that close of attention. So prior to seeing Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey, my understanding of the story was vague at best and heavily influenced by the Coen brothers movie O Brother, Where Art Thou? That said, I know about the sirens — everyone knows about the sirens. Along with the cyclops, the sirens are one of the most famous parts of The Odyssey. Yet when I saw Nolan’s movie, I was surprised by just how little screen time they occupied. It was so little, in fact, that I wondered if Nolan cut anything out of the original story.
Warning: Spoilers below for The Odyssey.
In the movie, Tiresias (James Remar) warns Odysseus (Matt Damon) about the sirens. The blind prophet reveals that while sailing past their island, men are known to be lured to their doom by their beautiful song. Odysseus decides to stuff wax in all the ears of his men, then they’ll row right past the island. However, Odysseus wants to hear their song, so he has his men tie him to the mast of the ship and he says that, no matter how hard he struggles or begs, they must not untie him. So they tie him up and begin rowing past the sirens, seen as beautiful women in flowing dresses, sitting atop the rocks at the edge of their island, chilling with some seals.
As the men row and Odysseus hears their song, he screams and writhes in pain, desperate to be unleashed. One of his men even removes the wax from his ears and jumps in, never to be seen again. As for the rest of the men, they make it past the sirens and Odysseus survives having heard the sirens’ song, something no one before him has ever done.
This whole sequence occupies just a few minutes in the movie before Nolan moves on to the next monster. So after the movie, I wondered, “Is that it?”
Turns out that, yes, it is.
In the original text of The Odyssey, the sirens are a small part of the story. In the online translation of The Odyssey featured on Poetry in Translation, the whole sirens chapter occupies just three paragraphs. The original story doesn’t even have that one guy who succumbs to the temptation of it all. The men just sail right past the sirens and untie Odysseus afterwards. Then they continue on their journey.
In the original poem (translated, of course), this is what the sirens sing to Odysseus: “Famous Odysseus, great glory of Achaea, draw near, and bring your ship to rest, and listen to our voices. No man rows past this isle in his dark ship without hearing the honeysweet sound from our lips. He delights in it and goes his way a wiser man. We know all the suffering the Argives and the Trojans endured, by the gods’ will, on the wide plains of Troy. We know everything that comes to pass on the fertile Earth.”
The reason why the sirens’ song is a particularly well known part of The Odyssey is not because it’s an extended part of the overall story, it just happens to be an especially relatable one. The sirens’ song is all about temptation. It’s most often equated with sexual temptation, but in the original text, the sirens also know the future, so Odysseus is also struggling to resist their knowledge. No matter what that temptation is in regards to, that feeling of temptation is a universal one and it has remained universal throughout the centuries that have passed since Homer wrote The Odyssey. That’s why it’s such a well-known portion of the story. I should have known better than to doubt Christopher Nolan.