The Odyssey - Book 12 - Odysseus recounts his odyssey: Three Perils

• Odysseus and the Sirens

• No Beeswax: Odysseus could have stopped up his ears with beeswax as he did his men's. Why did he choose instead to be tied to the mast? What do you think this might symbolize about Odysseus? Has he made similar choices in previous experiences? [Discuss Ody Bk12 Q01]

• The triple threat.

• A Gambling Man: Circe next warns Odysseus about the triple threat that lies beyond the Sirens. Notice that she says she will not tell him how to get past the next dangers — "A choice of routes is yours.…you must decide for yourself." (62)
  • The first is the tall cliffs called the Clashing Rocks (Planctae). The only ship to survive going past that hazard was Jason and the Argonauts, because he was helped by the goddess Hera. (The story of Jason was a competing story of Homer's Odyssey at the time. Does he mention it here to say that HIS Odysseus will get past all these dangers because Odysseus is greater than Jason?)
  • On the other side are two dangers — Scylla and Charybdis. Circe (119) thinks the better choice her is to sail closer to Scylla and lose six men in the process rather than risk more loss by steering closer to Charybdis, who is more dangerous. Odysseus' reply is so in character: "Deadly Charybdis—can't I possibly cut and run from her and still fight Scylla off when Scylla strikes my men?" Isn't that perfect Odysseus: he calculates but wants to see how much he can win.
  • So, as Dimock notes (p. 167), Odysseus's choice is NOT between Scylla and Charybdis, as the choice is usually framed, but between "Jason's exploit and something peculiarly Odysseus's own. To do it Jason's way and succeed is to be the world's luckiest, or, in Homeric terms, most god-favored man.This is certainly a type of heroism, but most of us would probably admire more the man who is willing to accept suffering for the sake of a statistically better chance of success. This is what Scylla and Charybdis represent." As you read the section of Scylla and Charybdis (lines 218-282), especially the section when the six men are killed, reflect on that aspect of Odysseus's character by which he deliberately selects the well-considered risk, knowing as he does that some loss is inevitable. [Discuss Ody Bk12 Q02]

• The well-warned danger: the cattle of the sun god:

• The Well-warned Danger: No danger in the whole epic is as well-warned as the next: the island of the sun god. Book 1.9 speaks of it; Teiresias warns Odysseus about it; and Circe emphasizes it. Yet here Odysseus loses the last of his men. While Odysseus is sleeping, Eurylochus and the men, starving as they are, choose to slay the cattle despite their knowing it is forbidden. Reflect on how you interpret the symbolism of their choice and the fact that now Odysseus alone remains of all the men. [Discuss Ody Bk12 Q03]