A luxurious Odyssey

Amalfi’s Sirens, cathedrals and scenic views have a luxurious charm. Where else can you stay in a 13th-century hotel carved into a cliff?

- VIR SANGHVI

In all the excitement about the forthcoming release of Christopher Nolan’s film of The Odyssey, one question remains unanswered. Will the Sirens feature in the movie?

Those of you who paid attention at school when they were explaining the plots of such ancient Greek epics as The Iliad (now best known as an early concept note for the movie Troy) and The Odyssey (about Odysseus’s long voyage back home after the Trojan War) will know all about the Sirens.

In Homer’s epic, they were beautiful women who sang haunting songs to the ships at sea. The sailors liked the songs so much that they sailed at once to the island of the Sirens where they found themselves trapped and unable to do very much.

The story has been attacked in our woke times as being anti-women, but it remains such an important part of popular culture that there is endless speculation about where the Sirens were supposed to live.

One interesting theory is that the Sirens weren’t Greek at all. They were Italians.

How? Why?

Well, because Odysseus was lost so he could well have ended up on the Italian coast. And besides, the countries of Greece and Italy did not exist in that era, and the South of today’s Italy was ruled by Greeks.

Moreover, there is a historical basis to the songs of the Sirens. The port of the ancient town of Amalfi was so foggy that sailors often lost their way. They would be guided home by the sound of the songs of the women of the town who would stand by the sea and sing/chant loudly.

So, Amalfi is the original land of the singing women and it is possible that Homer heard about it and put it into his text.

In Amalfi, they are proud of the epic reference because they interpret the story to mean that people come to Amalfi from all over the world, are seduced by the music and the beauty, want to laze around all day doing nothing and never leave.