ODYSSEY MAP · STOP 9/14
Where Is the Island of the Sirens?
The only man to hear the song that kills all who hear it
Bones whiten in the Sirens’ meadow: no sailor who heard that song ever reached home. On Circe’s advice Odysseus seals his crew’s ears with beeswax — and has himself lashed to the mast, not to be untied for any plea.
He hears the song — the voice that promises all the secrets of Troy and all the knowledge of the world — and begs with his brows to be released. His men only tighten the knots and keep rowing. The line between curiosity and death is exactly one rope thick.
Where is it in the real world?
Tradition places the Sirens off Italy’s Amalfi coast: the Li Galli islets between Positano and Capri were known in antiquity as the “Sirenusai” — the Islands of the Sirens.
What awaits you in the game?
In the game it is your arithmetic: how many ears the wax will cover, who holds the rope, and what the curiosity of listening will cost. One of the purest roads to kleos (glory) runs through here — if you survive it.
Quick facts
- Position on the route
- 9 / 14
- Previous stop
- The Underworld · 180 nautical miles · ≈ 1 months under sail
- Next stop
- Scylla and Charybdis · 150 nautical miles · ≈ 7 sail days
- Modern location
- Li Galli islets (Sirenusai), Amalfi coast, Italy
- Region
- Tyrrhenian Sea, Sorrento–Capri line
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