Resisting Temptation Is Hard (As The Ancient Greeks Knew)

“Mortals not only overestimate our ability to resist temptation, we also tend to miscalculate the amount of temptation we can handle. Homer was onto it: Odysseus put wax in his shipmate’s ears and had himself tied to the ship’s mast before being exposed to the Sirens’ song. But humans today may need a sociological study to understand that our abilities to control impulses are not what we think they are.”