“Odyssey” and Margaret Atwood’s “Siren Song”

Have you ever been tricked into doing something? If you have then you can understand “The Odyssey” and “Siren Song” that the evil creatures have the most beautiful voices, Sirens, trick sailors into going to their island for them. In “The Odyssey” you get the Odyssues’s point of view who is a sailor and in the “Siren Song” you get the point of view from the Sirens. In each section there are things that are missing and emphazised that are key to understanding each text.

In fact, the point of view from each text. The point of view from both texts gives the reader a better understanding and perspective of the Sirens and sailors.

To start off, in the text “The Odyssey” you only get the sailor’s point of view. At first Odysseus is smart enough to know what the Sirens do. So he puts beeswax in his men’s ears so they don’t fall for the Siren’s song. But since there voices are so beautiful and irresistible they can’t help but listen. “So they sent their ravishing voices out across the air and the heart inside me throbbed to listen longer (The Odyssey)”. The sailors end up listening to the Sirens and get tricked into taking the wax off their ears to listen more to the beautiful voice. “My stedfast crew was quick to remove the wax I used to seal their ears and loosed the bonds that lashed me (The Odyssey).”

Secondly, the text “Siren Song” gives the reader the Siren’s point of view and how the Siren use their song to trick men into jumping overboard. They use phrases like “Come closer” and “this song is a cry for help” to decive men into thinking they want to help to get off the island and it works. “The song that forces men to leap overboard (Atwood)”. Also in this text you don’t hear about the sailors at all so the reader will just focus on what the Sirens do and is very important the reader knows how they trick the men.

In conclusion, both texts have different point of views but both work together and help the reader understand the Sirens using both “The Odyssey” and “Siren Song”. In fact, the point of views from both texts give the reader the sailor’s perspective and the Siren’s perspective which is very important in helping the reader understand. They are both missing some things from each but emphasized other things like what sailors do when they the voices or what Sirens say exactly to trick men.

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