Siren Song

For this activity, students will write a free-verse poem in the first-person voice of a female character from Greek mythology.

There is a popular trend in women’s literature to give voice to the women of Greek mythology. Atwood does so with “Siren Song.” In the poem “Penelope,” Dorothy Parker gives voice to Odysseus’s wife, Penelope. Madeline Miller gives voice to Circe in the novel of the same title.

• First, choose a woman from Greek mythology and research her story. You might consider Pandora, Helen of Troy, Medea, Clytemnestra, Eurydice, or Calypso.
• Once you have selected and researched your speaker, consider what she might say about her circumstances. What are Pandora’s thoughts about being the scapegoat for all the evils in the world? What does Helen think about being identified as the cause of the Trojan War? Why does Medea kill her children when Jason leaves her? Why does Clytemnestra murder Agamemnon? What might Eurydice say to Orpheus? How does Calypso react to Odysseus’s abandonment?
• Next, use a first-person narrative voice and pick up the story after the woman’s most notorious deed. You might use Atwood’s poem as a model for writing, but feel free to be inventive.

The goal is to examine the stories of Greek mythology to give voice to the women whose perspectives are rarely addressed in the original telling, and to think about what the stories of these women have to say about modern relations between men and women or between women and other women.