“O man of many toils, we are waiting for you and will sing you to sleep, and charm all your cares away for ever.”
But quicker and quicker the sailors rowed on, till at last they had passed the island. And the Sirens saw that Ulysses was going away; but yet again they sang.
“Come back, Ulysses, come back and rest in our cool green caves, O man of many griefs and wanderings.” But the sound of their sweet song was now faint before it reached the ship of Ulysses, and he could only just hear them say:
“Will you leave us, will you leave us? Ah, Ulysses, you do not know what you are losing. Come to our cool green caves; we are waiting—we are waiting.”
But the power of the Sirens’ song grew weaker as the ship went further away; and Ulysses began to think how foolish and silly he had been. He could not hear any more the words of the song, as they called him by his name; but still he half wished to go back to the Sirens’ land, while yet he heard the sound of their singing, as it came faint and weak through the hot and breathless air. Soon it was all ended. The sky was still; the waves were all asleep; the clouds looked down drowsily on the water; and Ulysses thought that he could die, he was so tired and spent with struggling.
So when the sailors saw that Ulysses did not struggle any more, they went and set him free, and took the wax out of their ears. And Ulysses said, “O friends, it is better not to hear the Sirens’ song; for if but two or three of us had heard it, we should have gone to them, and our ship would have been sunk in their green caves.”
And they said, “It is indeed better not to hear it. You were so busy listening to their song that you could not see what we saw. All the way as we passed by the island, logs of wood and bits of masts were floating on the water; and these must have been pieces from ships which have been broken on the rocks, because the sailors heard the Sirens’ song.”
NAUSICAA RESCUES ULYSSES
By Alfred J. Church