ipl-logo

Compare And Contrast Siren Song And Odyssey's

467 Words2 Pages

Sirens are a Greek myth. They are winged women who lure sailors to their death. Margaret Atwood's "Siren Song" and Homer's "Odyssey" both describe the myth of the Sirens through point of view, imagery, and tone. Atwood's story is told from a siren, a hunter, while Homer's is from a sailor who uses cleverness to escape his death.

Imagery in the literary works are incredibly different. Atwood's imagery is feminine and gives a more satirical picture. The siren talks of a "bird suit" (12) and "with these two feathery maniacs" (16) portray humor in this dark poem. The poem also brings in an element of pity and empathy as the siren makes the sailors she is singing too feel bad for her. She sings "I don't enjoy it here" (13) and "I don't enjoy …show more content…

Homer's imagery is masculine, dominant and ready for action. "Now with a sharp sword I sliced ...worked by my strength" (3-5) shows a man who is ready to fight. The sailor is not going to sail peacefully past the sirens, he is not going to give up easily. The sailor describes the sirens voices and song, "their ravishing voices" (19) and "high, thrilling song" (13). The song makes Odysseus's heart throb giving the song and sirens a sexual nature about them.
In Atwood's piece the sailors get sucked into their death while in Homer's the sailors make it out alive.

Both works are deceitful and witty, but the tones are also very different. The tone

Show More
Related

  • Comparing The Odyssey 'And Siren Song'

    110 Words  | 1 Pages

    Some of the things in the text are similar, but some things are absent within the text. In “The Odyssey”, the Sirens are not bird-like, there is no skulls and bodies laying around everywhere, and nobody on the boat is killed(Homer). “O’Brother, Where Art Thou?” removes the ocean setting, Odysseus heroism, and the men having wax in their ears. Within the stanzas of the poem “Siren Song”, the story lacks the men and Odysseus, the heroism of Odysseus, and the men “fall for it everytime” (Atwood). Authors of these stories removed these things so that their more appealing to the eye.

    Read More

  • O Brother Where Art Thou And The Odyssey Comparison

    133 Words  | 1 Pages

    In the beginning of the Odyssey, the invocation of the muse brought the reader into the book. In O Brother, Where Art Thou? , it started the mood of the movie. In the Odyssey, Odysseus he 's tremendous pride which can serve as a negative factor in many situations, In the movie, Everett has pride of what people think about him with his over care of his hair.

    Read More

  • Essay Comparing The Odyssey And Sundiata

    447 Words  | 2 Pages

    Sundiata and The Odyssey are two out of the many great great orally told tales in all of mankind history. In writing, comparing your work to another similar text is extremely important for making your paper understandable to any audience. In this case, I will be comparing the two similar texts, The Odyssey and Sundiata: An Epic of Old Mali. Both of these two tables show the characters, Sundiata and Odysseus, long quests of pursuing and accomplishing a certain objective. To reach their goal, both characters encounter obstacles and enemies who want to stop them on their prolonged journey.

    Read More

  • The Role Of The Sirens In Homer's Odyssey

    255 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the “Odyssey”, Homer introduces the expedition Odysseus goes through to return to his native land. At one point he and his comrades must take the path that leads them to the island of the Sirens. The notorious sirens sing their sickeningly sweet tune to entice men to their eradication. Poet Atwood depicts the sirens in a calamitous facet. Both Homer and Atwood convey the idea that the Sirens pose a detrimental role through the application of imagery and diction.

    Read More

  • Sirens In The Odyssey

    1322 Words  | 6 Pages

    The Odyssey, one of the oldest texts known to mankind, has made a permanent mark in the heart of Greek art and literature forever. The Odyssey is known as the story of a long forgotten king, Odysseus, exploring the seas, going on his long quest to make his way back to his homeland. One grand encounter Odysseus faces are the mythical creatures known as the sirens. The sirens are notorious for the beautiful song they sing, but this song leaves a deceiving effect on anyone who hears the words, and anyone who’s heard the song has either been killed or does not remember. The only way Odysseus could return home is if he sailed passed the sirens.

    Read More

  • The Sirens In The Odyssey And Siren Song

    583 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Odyssey and the poem "Siren Song" both portray sirens ;however, in The Odyssey, the focus is on resolving the "problem" of the sirens, no differently than any other obstacle on his journey, whereas "Siren Song" focuses on the siren as more than merely an obstacle. They share, however, the preying of the siren upon hubris and the desire to be special, as well as, by what happens, illustrating the allure of the sirens in the spite of the pain that may be suffered to get there. The Odyssey initially describes the actions of Odysseus much more than the sirens. The beginning discussion does describe the sirens at all;it merely states that they were approaching the island of the sirens, and then for the first ten lines it does not even begin to consider the sirens.

    Read More

  • Similarities Between Odyssey 'And O Brother Where Art Thou?'

    472 Words  | 2 Pages

    First, Odysseus and Everett share an abundance of epic hero qualities. Everett shows his courage when he disguised as KKK to free Tommy. This parallels to when Odysseys and his crew hide under the sheep and defeats the mighty Polyphemus. Everett is a cunning, quick-tongued, sharp leader, which is the same as Odysseus. Also, Pete and Delmar appear to be as dumb as the crew written in the Odyssey.

    Read More

  • Similarities Between The Odyssey And The Siren Song

    77 Words  | 1 Pages

    The Odyssey written by Homer and the Siren Song, by Margaret Atwood both use imagery, symbolism, different tones and different point of view to depict Sirens. The Odyssey surrounds a man who hears the Sirens song, but uses different tactics to survive it, although the Siren Song is written as if the written is a siren trying to prey on the readers. The difference of narrators tells the story of the Sirens in two very different

    Read More

  • Figurative Language In Homer's The Odyssey

    1124 Words  | 5 Pages

    The Odyssey would be less memorable without Homer’s masterful use of figurative language. This poem can only stand the test of time when the figurative language is used to help readers relate to the text no matter what time period they come from. Figurative language in the text has made the story as a whole more interesting and has made countless readers engaged by this tale of, in Homer’s own words, “that man skilled in all ways of contending.” (p. 813,

    Read More

  • The Role Of Women In Homer's The Odyssey

    954 Words  | 4 Pages

    In the epic poem, The Odyssey, by Homer, there are many female characters who play the role of a villain. Calypso, Scylla, Charybdis, and the sirens are among the women with the largest, negative impacts on Odysseus’ journey home. Though some women, such as Athena, Eurycleia, and Penelope, are loyal to Odysseus throughout the poem. With such a wide range of female characters, they all contribute different things throughout the book, whether the impact of their actions is negative or positive. Regardless of the outcomes, Homer has quite a modern view of female representation in his poem.

    Read More

  • Women's Role In The Odyssey Essay

    522 Words  | 3 Pages

    “The Odyssey,” written by Greek poet Homer is an epic tale depicting the brutally enduring quest home of the Greek hero, Odysseus. Within this heroic story, women play a very large and pivotal role in Odysseus’s trip home from the Trojan War. In his attempt to get back to his wife, Penelope, Odysseus’s progress is constantly hindered by the intervention of women who will do anything in order to either convince the heroic figure to stay with them or have him killed. The intentions of the women in the epic are all very different but one of the most prominent roles lies in the seductresses and the alluring women who will deeply influence Odysseus. Most importantly, Penelope plays a large role in portraying the importance of women’s roles in the story.

    Read More

  • Oppression Of Women In Homer's Odyssey

    780 Words  | 4 Pages

    In many societies today, individuals are led to believe that the concept of women possessing their own strength or independence is abnormal. As a result, women experience the world in a constrained way in comparison to men, even if they are in higher classes of society. However, these extensive aspects of females are contradicted in some ancient Greek literature. In the epic poem, The Odyssey, Homer portrays women as a vital and powerful force through the characters Penelope and Circe, who counter the normality of misogyny in Homer’s time. Penelope’s character displays how some women are able to exceed society’s standards and show strength and cleverness when it is necessary.

    Read More

  • What Are The Similarities Between The Princess Bride And The Odyssey

    1536 Words  | 7 Pages

    Westley and Odysseus`s success is dependent upon other character archetypes they encounter on their journey in The Princess Bride and The Odyssey. First of all, in both sources of media - The Princess Bride and The Odyssey - there are mentors for both heroes: Westley and Odysseus. The mentor provides each hero with motivation, inspiration, training, guidance, and gifts for their journey. The mentor brings valuable information for the actors that can come in handy later on their journey. Mentors are inspired by wisdom as they are similar to the voice of God.

    Read More

  • The Odyssey Essay: The Role Of Women In Homer's Odyssey

    1255 Words  | 6 Pages

    In spite of the fact that Homer’s Odyssey is an epic story of a man’s gallant journey, women play a huge part throughout. Their unique yet controversial personalities, intentions, and relationships are vital to the development of this epic and adventurous journey of Odysseus. The poem by Homer was written at a time when women had an inferior position in society, yet that didn’t stop them from being any less influential. All of the women throughout the Odyssey possess different qualities, but all of them help to define the role of the ideal woman.

    Read More

  • What Is Zeus's Role In The Trojan War

    754 Words  | 4 Pages

    The Greek gods viewed the Trojan War as an elaborate chess game, where the gods and goddess have the role of a chess player and the humans are the game pieces and pawns. The gods have the ability to influence the decisions of each human or pawn. Zeus seems to be playing the role similar to that of an antagonist as he was the one who started the war or we can say the “game of chess”. This is a competition between the gods.

    Read More

More about Compare And Contrast Siren Song And Odyssey's

Open Document