05/13/2026
Sirens Call (Homer, Odyssey 12.185-192). Bettina Joy de Guzman, singing Ancient Greek with traditional goatskin drum and Ancient Greek lyre replica on Spotify, Apple, Amazon, YouTube, etc! 😃
“‘Come here… stay your ship
that you may listen to us…
until one hears the sweet voice from our lips,
but indeed he rejoices and goes his way much wiser.
For we know all the toils… endured through the will of the gods,
and we know all things which come to pass on the fruitful earth.”
“δεῦρ᾽ ἄγ᾽ ἰών… νῆα κατάστησον,
ἵνα νωιτέρην ὄπ ἀκούσῃς…
πρίν γ᾽ ἡμέων μελίγηρυν ἀπὸ στομάτων ὄπ᾽ ἀκοῦσαι,
ἀλλ᾽ ὅ γε τερψάμενος νεῖται καὶ πλείονα εἰδώς.
ἴδμεν γάρ τοι πάνθ᾽... θεῶν ἰότητι μόγησαν,
ἴδμεν δ᾽, ὅσσα γένηται ἐπὶ χθονὶ πουλυβοτείρῃ.”
No, they do not eat the men. Nor do they have fish tails, for they are not ocean nymphs.
But the men, enthralled by their voices, beach their ships and never come back. They will listen, enraptured by the sirens’ songs until they die of thirst in delirious bliss.
As Odysseus himself was once warned by the goddess Circe:
“Whoso in ignorance draws near to them and hears the Sirens’ voice, he nevermore returns, that his wife and little children may stand at his side rejoicing, but the Sirens beguile him with their clear-toned song, as they sit in a meadow, and about them is a great heap of bones of mouldering men, and round the bones the skin is shrivelling.”
www.BettinaJoyDeGuzman.com
N.B. I changed the Ancient Greek words somewhat to sing to all men, not just Odysseus… 😁
