“Is there no way,” said I, “of escaping Charybdis, and at the same time keeping Scylla off when she is trying to harm my men?”
~ The Odyssey - Book XII (Samuel Butler Translation. p251)
Book 12 of The Odyssey is quite action-packed as Ulysses and his men go from one danger to another. I thought there were many essential life lessons in the chapter - a) the importance of advice (Circe’s instructions saved their lives), b) how one needs help to fight temptation, c) sometimes all the paths lead to death, d) bad things happen when directives are not listened to, and so forth. I’ll focus on two that are important, especially in the current age.
The first is regarding temptation. Ulysses stuffs wax into the ears of his crew so that they don’t hear anything and asks them to tie him to the mast. Because of this, they escape from the most enchanting music of the ‘Sirens’. Many people discount the importance of external intervention for people with addiction. The pull of the substance is so strong that they do need help from others, even if they disagree. It is best to have policies that prevent people from getting addicted in the first place.