They kept sailing back to Circe's island and they buried Elpenor. Circe gave them food and addressed them "Hearts of oak, did you go down/ alive into the homes of death? One visit/ finishes all men but yourselves, twice mortal!" Book 12, lines 25-7. They feasted late into the night and Circe told Odysseus about the Sirens and their bewitching song
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that makes men drive their boats ashore and perish. She advised him to fashion earplugs for his men from beeswax, but if he wanted to listen to their son he must be lashed to the mast or else he would jump ship to get to them.
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After the Sirens are the drifting rocks which must be avoided by taking a route that goes past Scylla, a six-headed monster, and Charybdis, a whirlpool. She advised him to sail near the cave of Scylla and take the chance of losing six men rather than all of them. After these obstacles would be the island of the cattle of the sun. She warned him not to touch them because that would clearly mean his doom.
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