In book twelve of the Odyssey, the goddess Circe warns Odysseus of the Siren song. On his journey he will encounter an island where Sirens- female-like monsters- will attempt to lure him and his men to their deaths. She gives him instructions to plug his men’s ears and tie himself up to resist their temptation. The goddess is doing Odysseus a favor by forewarning him because no man unprepared can survive the lure of the Sirens. In this passage we see again this common theme of the gods wanting to aid Odysseus, the great and unlucky hero. This passage presents the Sirens as such tempting figures that even the mighty Odysseus would not stand a chance. The book does this by using language such as words like “bewitch” and “seduce”. The word bewitch is derived from the greek word ἐξίστημι which means to literally put someone out of their mind. The word seduce has a negative connotation that leads one to imagine a helpless man in the grasps of an evil woman. Part of the danger of the Sirens is that they are not as they seem- at first they seem like beautiful women, when in reality they are ill-intending monsters. This is portrayed through setting. Circe tells Odysseus that they will be sitting in a meadow, which evokes images of peaceful grasses and flowers. Only later does she reveal that the Sirens are surrounded by the rotting bodies of men they killed. 

A major theme in this passage is that a woman’s beauty diminishes men to helplessness, and they are therefore no longer responsible for their actions. This is what the Sirens represent. Circe announces that if Odysseus’s men listen to the Siren’s voices, they will never return home and “…never make his wife and children happy…” (Wilson 302). What the goddess means by this is that they will die, but also she presents the misogynistic understanding that men are faultless and the woman is to blame. No matter how progressive we pretend to be in comparison to the Greeks, we see this idea in our current world as well in the case of cheating. For example, if a man cheats on his wife with another woman, the other woman is the “homewrecker” when in actuality it was the man’s actions that split his family apart. The Sirens are a key example in highlighting how misogyny has continued throughout time. Another example of this is how “The Sirens who sit there in their meadow will seduce him with piercing songs” (Wilson 302). This sentence paints the Sirens as completely evil. Using the word “will” leaves no room for the possibility that maybe the Sirens will choose not to seduce a man, and become good. In the context of the book, where they are just monsters this makes sense. However, if we think of the bigger picture where the Sirens, who represent the type of woman who embraces her sexuality, we realize that this is demonizing sexuality in women. One last example that portrays the Sirens as completely evil is when Circe says, “Around them lie great heaps of men, flesh rotting from their bones, their skin all shriveled up” (Wilson 302). Homer, by creating this bloody interaction with the Sirens, obviously wanted his listeners to have no sympathy for them. However, we are reading a translation by a woman so our understanding shifts a little. Emily Wilson makes sure to include such obviously sexist dialogue to expose these misogynistic ideas so her readers can better point them out. Knowing that the Sirens represent women and the double-standard we face, I cannot help but feel empathy for them and their story. 

This interaction between Circe and Odysseus not only shows how favored Odysseus is by the gods, but also exhibits the sexist themes in the Odyssey that can sometimes go unnoticed. Understanding these themes and how they shape the story can help us as readers protect ourselves from feeding into these ideas.