"The Silence of the Sirens" (German: "Das Schweigen der Sirenen") is a short story by Franz Kafka.
Max Brod selected stories and published them in the collection Beim Bau der Chinesischen Mauer.
He ordered his crew to stop their ears with wax, so that they would not be tempted by the siren song to steer the ship into the rocks on which the creatures perched.
Finally, Kafka mentions an additional possibility that has been "handed down": that Ulysses knew the Sirens were not singing, but pretended not to notice it in order to protect himself from divine wrath over his victory.
[3] Kafka himself (in English translation) introduces the story as, "Proof that inadequate, even childish measures, may serve to rescue one from peril."