 Also in 1836 Etty began work on The Sirens and Ulysses , which he considered among his greatest works , and which is his largest surviving painting . Measuring 442 @.@ 5 cm by 297 cm ( 14 ft 6 in by 9 ft 9 in ) Sirens was based on a passage from Homer 's Odyssey in which sailors resist the irresistible song of the Sirens . The theme and scale of the painting were probably suggested to Etty by Thomas Myers , who had been encouraging Etty to paint very large canvases . Myers 's suggested theme appealed to Etty , who later wrote that it illustrated " the importance of resisting Sensual Delights " . Etty made every effort to ensure realism in the picture , going as far as to visit mortuaries to sketch corpses in varying stages of decay to ensure the accuracy of the cadavers on the beach . 
