“Deaf as Ulysses to the Sirens Song”: The Story of a Forgotten Topos*

Abstract

Avaunt, Inchantress! - I am deaf as Adders;Deaf asUlyssesto theSireniSong,Who strove in vain to lure him to Destruction.— Lewis TheobaldRichly suggestive on a variety of levels, Odysseus's encounter with the Sirens in Homer'sOdysseyremains one of the best-known episodes in world literature. This article exhumes a once popular variant of that story and tells how wise Ulysses, contrary to the ancient myth, came to stop his own ears against all allurements.