Greek PantheonStrait
Sirens' Strait
The waters of the Sirens in Odyssey 12, whose song promised knowledge and lured sailors to their deaths; Odysseus heard it bound to the mast while his crew rowed with wax-stopped ears.
About Sirens' Strait
Song on the bone-beach
Odyssey 12: Circe warns of the Sirens' meadow of moldering men. Odysseus stops his crew's ears with wax and has himself lashed to the mast. He hears the pitch (they claim knowledge of Troy) and cannot act. Homer does not give a city or a cult. Later vases show two birds with women's heads. The strait is a listening test. The danger is knowledge offered at the wrong time, not a navy.
On the map
Sirens' Strait among other places of the Greek Pantheon.
Sources and further reading
Source notes
These references are recorded in the catalog. Their passage wording and translation have not been checked, so quotations are not displayed here.
- Homer, Odyssey 12
About this entry
By Elizabeth Stein for Mythos Atlas. About the author. Editorial notes are grounded in the site's cited sources and can be challenged through the contact page.
Coordinates mark where the myths place a site, or where the tradition locates it today. Mythic realms are left off the map or marked as symbolic placements.
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