The Odyssey Bookmark — The Siren Vase

The Odyssey bookmark: The Siren Vase. Homer's epic on a translucent silk organza bookmark, printed with Attic red-figure stamnos, c. 480 BC, framed in silk-wrapped cord. A gift for the reader, the classics student, the teacher, or anyone swept up in the story on every screen this year.

The oldest picture of the mast scene: an Athenian red-figure vase painted about 480 BC, Odysseus bound, the sirens circling. Terracotta and black on sheer organza, so the vase seems to hang in the air above the page. This is the first design of the collection to be made, and the one in the video.

Hold it to the page and the words read through the picture. That is the point of organza: the bookmark never hides the line you stopped at.

Why You'll Love It

• A real bookmark for a real book: sheer, light, and it stays put between the pages
• Odyssey art you can give: Attic red-figure stamnos, c. 480 BC, in the public domain, printed with care, not a mass-market print on card
• Translucent organza catches the light and shows the text beneath, so it photographs beautifully on a reading pile
• One of ten designs in the collection: collect the voyage, or send one to every reader you know
• Under £30, and arrives ready to give

The Collection

01 Bound to the Mast · 02 Circe's Cup · 03 The Poisoner of the Sea · 04 The Siren Climbs Aboard · 05 The Wanderer · 06 Escape at Dawn · 07 The Siren Vase · 08 Penelope at Her Loom · 09 The Ulysses Butterfly · 10 The Wine-Dark Sea

Product Details

Size: 11.5 cm x 3.5 cm

Material: sheer silk organza panel; frame of silk-wrapped cord

Print: the artwork is printed directly onto the organza (direct-to-garment print), so the colours sit in the fabric rather than on top of it. Not embroidered.

Arrives gift-ready, one bookmark per pack

Care: keep flat inside a book; do not fold; wipe with a dry cloth

Design after the Attic red-figure stamnos known as the Siren Vase, c. 480 BC, artwork in the public domain.

Gift Ideas

Book lover, English or classics teacher, a student starting the Odyssey, a book club, a stocking for a reader, or a small thank-you that is not another candle. The story on every screen this year, in the pages of the book that started it.

About The Images

The video shows the real Siren Vase bookmark from this collection, in this material and size. The product images are visualisations of this design built from that real bookmark; the scene images are staged digitally around it. The finished print can differ slightly in crop and colour. The artwork is in the public domain and credited above; the bookmark design, product and images are © Royal Chou.

Dispatched from the UK within 1–3 working days. Designed and prepared in our London studio.