[...]... Even the meadow from which the Sirens sing has erotic associations in Greek poetry, as does the word thelgousin (from the verb thelgo, meaning to touch with magic power), which Kirke uses to describe the beguiling effects of the Sirens song, and which also describes the effects of Kirke’s potions.15 The Odyssey includes a total of four renditions of the Siren story, each rehearsing and refining the. .. after the Siren episode in the chronology of events, but prior to it in the circuitous narrative of the epic, for Odysseus narrates his encounter with the Sirens in his own recital of his wanderings since the Iliad Thus the Sirens song is both the first and last singing of Iliadic stories in the Odyssey, and this epic-scale temporal knot is tightened in the entwining of past and future in the words of their... sustainable The ropes that bind him mark the meeting of two seemingly opposed forces, the psychosexual reach of the Sirens song and the psychosocial magnet of homeland and family The Sirens song exposes the porous nature of mind, body, and humanly determined boundaries, calling into question the desire to remain bound by these Odysseus knows beforehand the dangers of listening: these include the rupture of. .. splendid toils of the Iliad,”21 Homer forces his subject to stay on course, binding him to the mast of the ship, hence to the agenda of the present epic But what of that tightly trussed body? The metanarratives of heroic transcendence or authorial self-reflection do not account for the attention paid to the scene of the hero’s bondage and his utter failure of mind in the presence of this music Indeed,... the performed epic, the audience, along with the crew, sails past the meadow of the Sirens without stress or restraint, knowing only that 16 songs of the sirens they have not really heard the Sirens song They may notice the euphony of melainei (black) and meligerun (honey-sweet) in the Sirens song, which recalls the honey-sweet wax (meliedea) that protects the crew of the ship from its effects—that... in the Iliad, however, Odysseus does not sing, and his “triumph” over the Sirens is also a milestone in the story of his resocialization back into the domestic sphere; it is a step forward in the reconciliation of the individual and his social and domestic responsibilities But in spite of the enchantment that betrays a “readiness to leave the wandering of the Odyssey in favor of the splendid toils of. .. (2) technologies of sign systems, which permit us to use signs, meanings, symbols, or signification; (3) technologies of power, which determine the conduct of individuals and submit them to certain ends or domination, an objectivizing of the subject; (4) technologies of the self, which permit individuals to effect by their own means, or with the help of others, a certain number of operations on their... of this scene in which Odysseus is made to look markedly unheroic In the standard depictions, Odysseus is bound back to mast, bravely facing the Sirens; here, in contrast, he is bound front to mast, feet dangling below the heads of his crew, who look at him and the Sirens in bewilderment Their gaze marks both Odysseus and the Sirens as queer for the viewer of the illustration.22 In the context of the. .. This book, too, begins with Odysseus and the Sirens But rather than trying to read the song of the Sirens (either what they sang or what people have said about it), I am here suggesting what the song’s function might be to invite an imagining of what things would be like if they were different The fact that the Sirens are reported in myth as singing suggests that the imagining works best in musical form... “proletarians,” and their encounter with the Sirens as a critical moment in which the rational cunning of the individual conquers the mythical powers of the Sirens song.2 Odysseus becomes enlightened by listening to it, for he is made to struggle with, and overcome, a self-destructive desire to return to the past But his crew hear nothing; they are left out of enlightenment For these authors, the separate . Listening to the Sirens The publisher gratefully acknowledges the generous contribution to this book provided by the Hull Memorial Publication Fund of Cornell University. Listening to the Sirens Musical. Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Peraino, Judith Ann. Listening to the sirens : musical technologies of queer identity from Homer to Hedwig / Judith A. Peraino. p. cm. Includes bibliographical. Sirens Musical Technologies of Queer Identity from Homer to Hedwig Judith A. Peraino UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS Berkeley Los Angeles London The following excerpts are used by permission of Oxford