Odyssey: A Daily Odyssey through Homer’s The Odyssey
Aug 30, 2026 · 9 min · 6 segments
Foreknowledge is no comfort — but silence would be worse. Odysseus chooses to tell his crew what waits ahead. In *The Odyssey*, Book 12, Odysseus leaves Circe’s island at dawn, carried onward by a…
Landon SolanoHost
But I departed to my ship and roused my men themselves to mount the vessel and loose the hawsers.
And speedily they went aboard and sat upon the benches, and sitting orderly smote the gray water with their oars.
And in the wake of our dark-prowed ship she sent a favoring wind that filled the sails, a kindly escort.
And straightway we set in order the gear throughout the ship, and sat us down, and the wind and the helmsman guided our barque.
Then I spake among my company with heavy heart: "Friends, for as much as it is not well that one or two alone should know the oracles that Circe, the fair goddess, spake unto me, therefore I will declare them, that with foreknowledge we may die, or haply shunning death and destiny, escape.
First, she bade us to avoid the sound of the voice of the wondrous Sirens, and their field of flowers.
So bind ye me in a hard bond, that I may abide unmoved in my place, upright in the masthead, and from the mast let the rope-ends be tied.
And if I beseech and bid you to set me free, then do ye straighten me with yet more bonds." Hold up.
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But I departed to my ship and roused my men themselves to mount the vessel and loose the hawsers.
And speedily they went aboard and sat upon the benches, and sitting orderly smote the gray water with their oars.
And in the wake of our dark-prowed ship she sent a favoring wind that filled the sails, a kindly escort.
And straightway we set in order the gear throughout the ship, and sat us down, and the wind and the helmsman guided our barque.
Then I spake among my company with heavy heart: "Friends, for as much as it is not well that one or two alone should know the oracles that Circe, the fair goddess, spake unto me, therefore I will declare them, that with foreknowledge we may die, or haply shunning death and destiny, escape.
First, she bade us to avoid the sound of the voice of the wondrous Sirens, and their field of flowers.
So bind ye me in a hard bond, that I may abide unmoved in my place, upright in the masthead, and from the mast let the rope-ends be tied.
And if I beseech and bid you to set me free, then do ye straighten me with yet more bonds." Hold up.
