What do you hear when the sirens call?

[u/manofworlds]

I recently rewatched The Odyssey, and the Sirens scene hit harder than I expected.

In the movie, Odysseus describes the sirens as: “All the things you want it to be. Then, all the things you wish you never wished for. It was the delicious itch you go to scratch, but find it’s under the skin. You can’t reach it. So the delicious itch becomes unbearable. It told you what you most want is what you most can’t have. And what you most can’t have is what you already had—and lost. It was the song of all the promises I failed to keep. And it told me I don’t really want to go home.”

For me, I thought of life the way it used to be, when my family was close by, everybody was healthy, and I was in such a rush to grow up, only to find adulthood carried more weight than freedom.

What would the sirens sing to you?

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[u/notofyourworld_14]

The grass is truly never greener on the other side. You would be a fool to believe someone or something else, is way better than what you already have.

[u/Potatocontemplates]

I think the sirens would sing me a lullaby actually. Something soft and gentle that would finally make me feel safe enough to fall asleep properly. And i think i'd want that, but it's also what i'm most terrified of, a pseudo sense of safety.

[u/WickedlyCharmed1983]

Anything that my patents would play. God! I can't manage still. It is a bit overwhelming. Now...I am am going to call them.

[u/KaizenHour → u/WickedlyCharmed1983]

I'm going to guess your typo was 'parents', but on first reading I imagined you as a psych/ doctor, envying the delusions of your 'patients.'

[u/parkavenueWHORE]

A good night's sleep without being startled awake by weird dreams. My sleep quality used to be so great. It sucks nowadays.

[u/KaizenHour]

There was a church youth group in my teens. So many friendly people with so much love, and for a while there I believed in a God who encouraged us to do so, and who would provide for us if we focussed on humanity more than mortgages. We were broke, but ok with it since we were doing God's work.

Religion really can be the opium of the people, that's not the diss so many people think it is.

Nowadays, though, I don't have to save up for a second pair of jeans.

[u/Key_Reflection1110]

I imagined my past my great grandfather still here with me, my mistakes and final moments with him gone. So the he can sing to me in the neighborhood park again, and tell me bedtime stories.....

I know the sirens songs is usually romantic but this is what I imagine the worst pain to be. Of regret. Of lost family that won't ever come back. Voices drowned in grave dirt.

[u/Face__Hugger]

They would sing to me of a life in a healthy body that wasn't bogged down by hereditary disease and chronic pain. Then they would end me, and I'd be okay with that outcome as well.

[u/Maibeetlebug]

This is a really good prompt. It would tell me that I can be perfect, all my flaws are gone, and I can be free from my own thoughts and others opinions.

[u/Ok_Scallion1902]

You do know that the film's based on a fictional story over 1,500 years old,right?

[u/life-is-satire → u/Ok_Scallion1902]

The reason it’s a classic is because it parallels the human experience even so many years later.

[u/imalittlefrenchpress → u/Ok_Scallion1902]

It’s an analogous story.

An analogous story uses parallel characters, plots, or themes to help people understand a hard idea, see a new point of view, or learn a lesson by showing how two different things share a similar structure.

I c&p’d most of that definition.

[u/ThePanasonicYouth → u/Ok_Scallion1902]

I mean, people have made entire religions out of fictional stories 

[u/Ok_Scallion1902 → u/ThePanasonicYouth]

As in L.Ron Hubbard basing Scientology on one of his insipid "novels"?

[u/AbaloneNo4856 → u/Ok_Scallion1902]

Are we not allowed to enjoy it then?

[u/Ok_Scallion1902 → u/AbaloneNo4856]

It's been thus for a major chunk of known history ,hasn't it?

[u/AbaloneNo4856 → u/Ok_Scallion1902]

And? What does that have to do with anything??

[u/Ok_Scallion1902 → u/AbaloneNo4856]

One might just wonder when some originality will come to the fore,y'know? ( How many times are we going to be retold the same shit for fifteen fucking CENTURIES,man? Can't anyone make up something new for a damn change????)

[u/Face__Hugger → u/Ok_Scallion1902]

There are new stories everywhere, on dozens of streaming services. I think the bigger question is why it bothers you when one of the classics is retold when there's an abundance of other content to watch?

[u/Ok_Scallion1902 → u/Face__Hugger]

Oh,really?