Odysseus' ship passing the Sirens. The hero has been tied to the mast so that he can hear their beautiful song. Painting on an Athenian jar in the British Museum; late 6th/early 5th century BC.

During this voyage he had to pass the rocky shores of the sirens. This scene is depicted on the Greek stamp to the right. You can see Ulysses tied to the mast, as the sirens where known to lure sailors to jump overboard with their songs. The ears of his crew were stuffed with wax as well. Thus prepared, Ulysses safely avoided the dangerous temptations of the sirens and continued his voyage. Sierra Leone issued another block in the serie 'Fantasy of the Seas' with Odysseus, bound to the mast.

The Song of the Sirens presents something of a puzzle, since music is generally thought to be pleasing and soothing, not threatening and destructive. ...It should also be noted that the word "Siren" means in Greek "twinkler", if it is correctly derived from the rare verb 'seriazein' "to twinkle"... Perhaps it was the "twinkling" or accelerated beats of the music which seem so absorbing to the Greeks, much in the way that the musical third-interval, which produces about twenty beats per second, seemed un-calming and frenzied to l4 th century Church officials, who outlawed it from official church use. William Harris, Greek Myth