Answer:
“‘Now, then, stay here for the rest of the day, feast your fill, and go
on with your voyage at daybreak tomorrow morning. In the meantime
I will tell Ulysses1 about your course, and will explain everything to
him so as to prevent your suffering from misadventure either by
land or sea.’
“We agreed to do as she had said, and feasted through the livelong
day to the going down of the sun, but when the sun had set and it
came on dark, the men laid themselves down to sleep by the stern
cables of the ship. Then Circe took me by the hand and bade me be
seated away from the others, while she reclined by my side and asked
me all about our adventures.
“‘So far so good,’ said she, when I had ended my story, ‘and now
pay attention to what I am about to tell you—heaven itself, indeed, will
recall it to your recollection. First you will come to the Sirens who
enchant all who come near them. If any one unwarily draws in too
close and hears the singing of the Sirens, his wife and children will
never welcome him home again, for they sit in a green field and warble
him to death with the sweetness of their song. . . . Therefore pass
these Sirens by, and stop your men’s ears with wax that none of them
may hear; but if you like you can listen yourself, for you may get the
men to bind you as you stand upright on a cross piece half way up the
mast, and they must lash the rope’s ends to the mast itself, that you
may have the pleasure of listening. If you beg and pray the men to
unloose you, then they must bind you faster. . . .
