Destruction In The Odysseus And The Sirens

Sirens are beautiful creatures that lure the sailors with their beautiful voices to their doom. There is one encounter with sirens in The Odyssey where Odysseus, advised by Circe, made his men tie him up to the ship and told his men to plug their ears with wax so they could not hear the “beautiful” song. He told them that no matter how much he begged, they should not untie him, because he wanted to be the first man to hear the sirens and survive. In the painting, Ulysseus and the Sirens, John WIlliam Waterhouse uses the sirens trying to seduce the men to their deaths to show that distractions can lead to destruction, while in the poem “Siren Song”, Margaret Atwood uses the same scenes to show that losing focus can lead to consequences.
John William Waterhouse’s painting Ulysseus and the Sirens demonstrates the idea that distractions can lead to destruction. In the painting, the sirens are trying to seduce the men and bring them to their deaths. They are using distraction in an evil way to get the men off their course. Ulysseus is tied up to the pole because he wants to be the first man to hear the sirens and not get distracted or killed by them. He was brave for doing this and should feel accomplished for completing his goal. If the men

could hear and Ulysseus wasn’t tied up, they would have gotten distracted and it would have led to their deaths.
John William Waterhouse was born on April 6, 1849.

He was born in Rome, Italy. His family called him Nino, which was short for Giovannino. His mom’s name was Isabelle Mackenzie. His siblings were Edwin (1851), Jessica (1853), and Charles (1855)(Hobson 11). He was a Romantic Classicist. He was popular for his art in the 19th and 20th century (Hobson 9). His first paintings were on old reused canvases. He was taught by his father, and a working apprenticeship in his father’s studio led to his entry into the Royal Academy School (Hobson 11). Later, he was admitted as a Probationer in the Sculpture School on July 28th 1870. F.R. Pickersgill became his obligatory sponsor in 1857 and was his obligatory sponsor for many years (Hobson

12).
Much like Waterhouse’s painting, the poem “Siren Song” by Margaret Atwood communicates the idea that losing focus can lead to consequences. Atwood writes “the song nobody knows because anyone who has heard is dead.” This shows that the men are gullible because they let themselves be tricked. The poet also stated the song is “irresistible” and “works every time.” This demonstrates that most people fall into the temptation of distractions and they almost always end badly. The man got seduced by the siren, and it lead to his death.
Margaret Atwood was born on November 18th, in Ontario, Canada, though she moved to Toronto with her family at a young age (Adamson 23). She is the daughter of Carl and Margaret Killam Atwood (Hutcheon). She was five when she started writing. Once she graduated high school, she attended Victoria College and the University of Toronto. She received a Woodrow Wilson Fellowship to begin graduate work at Radcliffe (Adamson 23). She also, took her A.M. at Radcliffe College of Harvard University, in 1962. In 1964, She moved to Vancouver, where she taught English at the University of British Columbia. She taught there for one year. Today she is one of Canada’s most public personalities. She has made her reputation as much by being versatile as by being controversial. Her Canadian nationalism and feminism in her writing have been undoubtedly the most controversial elements in her writing (Hutcheon). Throughout her life she has won many awards including The Union Poetry Award, The Bess Hopkins Prize, and The St. Lawrence Award for fiction (Adamson 23).
Margaret Atwood and John WIlliam Waterhouse both used very similar ideas in their works of art and literature. The idea that, distractions/losing focus can lead to destruction/consequences. The sirens are distracting the men causing them to lose focus which will end in the consequence of destruction. This idea commonly happens in our everyday lives.