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Circe warns Odysseus about the Sirens: You will come first of all to the Sirens, who are enchanters of all mankind and whoever comes their way; and that man who unsuspecting approaches them, and listens to the Sirens singing, has no prospect of coming home and delighting his wife and little children as they stand about him in greeting, but the Sirens by the melody of their singing enchant him. They sit in their meadow, but the beach before it is piled with boneheaps of men now rotted away, and the skins shrivel upon them. You must drive straight on past, but melt down sweet wax of honey and with it stop your companions' ears, so none can listen; the rest, that is, but if you yourself are wanting to hear them, then have them tie you hand and foot on the fast ship, standing upright against the mast with the ropes' ends lashed around it, so that you can have joy in hearing the song of the Sirens; but if you supplicate your men and implore them to set you free, then they must tie you fast with even more lashings."
There is a conflict between Odysseus and himself in this part of the epic. When he is tied to the mast and he hears the Siorens song he wants to stay and listen forever but, deep down Odysseus knows that he wants to stay and to get home to Ithica. The Sirens symbolize temptations. It could be the tempatation of anything! This is teaching you that no matter how tempting something may be or how good the offer may seem its always better to step away from temptation. The climax of the Sirens would have to be when Odysseus is listening to the Sirens song and hes begging and plaeding with his men to him go but, they simply get up and tie him tighter. There is a lot of foreshadowing with this aprt of the epic because Circe told Odysseus of the Sirens and there dangers.
The Sirens
Odysseus shows that he's an epic hero because he puts himself in danger by listening to the Sirens song alone and not alloowing his men to suffer with him. Also he shows this because he does suffer. Epic heroes are human and there for have flaws. He wanted to stay and listen to the Sirens song and feeling the pain of being ripped away from it.
An example of an epithet is 'the singing nymph with sunbright hair which is Circe.
