Ulysses Unbound

Formerly of McGill University, Krzysztof Pelc is now the University of Oxford’s Lester B. Pearson Professor in International Relations. On November 12, 2025, he delivered the Lester B. Pearson Inaugural Lecture, “Passions, Preferences, and the Politics of Self-Binding,” from which the following is adapted.

Here’s a question I often bat around with graduate students in my International Political Economy seminar: In book 12 of the Odyssey, how do the shipmates know which Ulysses to trust?

You know the story. Ulysses and his crew have been on Circe’s island for a year. They’re finally about to depart when the goddess takes Ulysses aside and warns him of the dangers that await them. The first of these is the “piercing songs” of the Sirens. “So listen,” she says, “I will give you good instructions; another god will make sure you remember.”

Circe tells Ulysses to put wax in his...