In Greek mythology, sirens (Ancient Greek: singular: ; plural: ) are female humanlike beings with alluring voices; they appear in a scene in the Odyssey in which Odysseus saves his crew's lives.Scholiast on Homer, Odyssey 12.168 with Hesiod as the authority, translated by Evelyn-White Roman poets place them on some small islands called Sirenum Scopuli. In some later, rationalized traditions, the literal geography of the "flowery" island of Anthemoessa, or Anthemusa,"We must steer clear of the sirens, their enchanting song, their meadow starred with flowers" is Robert Fagles's rendering of Odyssey 12.158–159. is fixed: sometimes on Cape Pelorum and at others in the islands known as the Sirenuse, near Paestum, or in Capreae.Strabo i. 22; Eustathius of Thessalonica's Homeric commentaries §1709; Servius I.e. All such locations were surrounded by cliffs and rocks. While some versions have depicted Sirens as woman-headed birds, other versions depict them as mermaids.

Sirens were used in Christian art throughout the medieval era as a symbol of the dangerous temptation embodied by women. "Siren" can also be used as a slang term for a woman considered both very attractive and dangerous.

Nomenclature

The etymology of the name is contested. Robert S. P. Beekes has suggested a Pre-Greek origin.Robert S. P. Beekes, Etymological Dictionary of Greek, Brill, 2009, p. 1316 f. Others connect the name to σειρά (seirá, "rope, cord") and εἴρω (eírō, "to tie, join, fasten"), resulting in the meaning "binder, entangler",Cf. the entry in Wiktionary and the entry in the Online Etymology Dictionary. i.e. one who binds or entangles through magic song. This could be connected to the famous scene of Odysseus being bound to the mast of his ship, to resist their song.Homer, Odyssey, book 12. Marcel Cohen suggested that sirens are related to the Biblical word sir'a, which means wasp. Wasps, and metaphors containing wasps, appear in the Bible when armies are put in danger.Germain, Gabriel. "The Sirens and the Temptation of Knowledge." Homer: A Collection of Critical Essays, edited by George Steiner and Robert Fagles. Prentice Hall, 1962, pp. 91-99.

Sirens were later often used as a synonym for mermaids and portrayed with upper human bodies and fish tails. This combination became iconic in the medieval period. The circumstances leading to the commingling involve the treatment of sirens in the medieval Physiologus and bestiaries, both iconographically, as well as textually in translations from Latin to vulgar languages, as described below.

Iconography Classical iconography

The sirens of Greek mythology first appeared in Homer's Odyssey, where Homer did not provide any physical descriptions, and their visual appearance was left to the readers' imagination. By the 7th century BC, sirens were regularly depicted in art as human-headed birds. Apollonius of Rhodes in Argonautica (3rd century BC) described the sirens in writing as part woman and part bird. They may have been influenced by the ba-bird of Egyptian religion. In early Greek art, the sirens were generally represented as large birds with women's heads, bird feathers and scaly feet. Later depictions shifted to show sirens with human upper bodies and bird legs, with or without wings. They were often shown playing a variety of musical instruments, especially the lyre, kithara, and aulos.

The tenth-century Byzantine dictionary Suda stated that sirens ( - ) had the form of sparrows from their chests up, and below they were women or that they were little birds with women's faces.

Originally, sirens were shown as male or female, but the male siren disappeared from art around the fifth century BC.

Early siren-mermaids

Some surviving Classical period examples had already depicted the siren as mermaid-like. The sirens are described as mermaids or "tritonesses" in examples dating to the 3rd century BC, including an earthenware bowl found in Athens and a terracotta oil lamp possibly from the Roman period.

The first known literary attestation of siren as a "mermaid" appeared in the Anglo-Latin catalogue Liber Monstrorum (early 8th century AD), where it says that sirens were "sea-girls... with the body of a maiden, but have scaly fishes' tails"., quoting Orchard (1995)'s translation.

Medieval iconography

The siren appeared in several illustrated manuscripts of the Physiologus and its successors called the bestiaries. The siren was depicted as a half-woman and half-fish mermaid in the 9th century Berne Physiologus, as an early example, but continued to be illustrated with both bird-like parts (wings, clawed feet) and fish-like tail.

Classical literature Family tree

Although a Sophocles fragment makes Phorcys their father,Sophocles, fragment 861; ; Plutarch, Quaestiones Convivales – Symposiacs, Moralia 9.14.6 when sirens are named, they are usually as daughters of the river god Achelous,Ovid XIV, 88. either by the Muse Terpsichore,Apollonius of Rhodes, Argonautica 4.892; Nonnus, Dionysiaca 13.309; Tzetzes, Chiliades, 1.14, line 338 & 348 MelpomeneApollodorus, Epitome 7.18; Hyginus, Fabulae Preface, 125 & 141; Tzetzes, Chiliades, 1.14, line 339 & 348 or CalliopeServius, Commentary on Virgil's Aeneid 5.864 or lastly by Sterope, daughter of King Porthaon of Calydon.Apollodorus, 1.7.10

In Euripides's play Helen (167), Helen in her anguish calls upon "Winged maidens, daughters of the Earth (Chthon)." Although they lured mariners, the Greeks portrayed the sirens in their "meadow starred with flowers" and not as sea deities. Epimenides claimed that the sirens were children of Oceanus and Ge.Epimenides, fr. 8, suppl = Sirens are found in many Greek stories, notably in Homer's Odyssey.

List of sirens Their number is variously reported as from two to eight. In the Odyssey, Homer says nothing of their origin or names, but gives the number of the sirens as two.Homer, Odyssey 12.52 Later writers mention both their names and number: some state that there were three, Peisinoe, Aglaope, and Apollodorus, Epitome 7.18; Tzetzes on Lycophron, 7l2 or Aglaonoe, Aglaopheme, and Thelxiepea;Tzetzes, Chiliades 6.40 Parthenope, Ligeia, and Leucosia;Eustathius, l.c. cit.; Servius on Virgil, Georgics 4.562; Strabo, 5.246, 252; Lycophron, 720–726; Tzetzes, Chiliades 1.14, line 337 & 6.40 Apollonius, like Hesiod, gives their names as Thelxinoe, , and Aglaophonos;Scholia ad Apollonius Rhodius, 4.892 = Hesiod, Ehoiai fr. 47 the Suda gives their names as Thelxiepea, Peisinoe, and Ligeia;Suda, s.v. Seirenas Hyginus gives the number of the sirens as four: Teles, Rhaidne, Molpe, and Thelxiope;Apollodorus, Epitome 7.18; Hyginus, Fabulae Preface p. 30, ed. Bunte Eustathius states that they were two, Aglaopheme and Thelxiepea;Eustathius on Homer 1709 an ancient vase painting attests the two names as Himerope and Thelxiepea.

Their names are variously rendered in the later sources as Thelxiepea/Thelxiope/Thelxinoe, Molpe, Himerope, Aglaophonos/Aglaope/Aglaopheme, Pisinoe/Peisinoë/Peisithoe, Parthenope, Ligeia, Leucosia, Rhaidne, Teles, etc.Linda Phyllis Austern, Inna Naroditskaya, Music of the Sirens, Indiana University Press, 2006, p. 18William Hansen, William F. Hansen, Classical Mythology: A Guide to the Mythical World of the Greeks and Romans, Oxford University Press, 2005, p. 307Ken Dowden, Niall Livingstone, A Companion to Greek Mythology, Wiley-Blackwell, 2011, p. 353Mike Dixon-Kennedy, Encyclopedia of Greco-Roman Mythology, ABC-Clio, 1998, p. 281 Molpe () Thelxiepe(i)a () or Thelxiope () "eye pleasing") or Thelxinoe (Θελξινόη) Himerope (Ἱμερόπη) Aglaophonos (Ἀγλαόφωνος) or Aglaope (Ἀγλαόπη) or Aglaopheme (Ἀγλαοφήμη) Peisinoe (Πεισινόη) or Peisithoe (Πεισιθόη) Parthenope (Παρθενόπη) Ligeia (Λίγεια) Leucosia (Λευκωσία) Rhaidne (Ῥαίδνη) Teles (Τέλης) Telchter(e)ia (Θελχτήρεια) +Comparative table of sirens' names, number and parentageRelationNamesSources rowspan="2" rowspan="2" rowspan="2" rowspan="2" rowspan="2" colspan="2" rowspan="2" rowspan="2" colspan="2" rowspan="2" rowspan="2" rowspan="2" colspan="2" rowspan="2" rowspan="2" rowspan="2" ParentageOceanus and Gaea✓Chthon✓Achelous and Terpsichore✓✓Achelous and Melpomene✓✓✓✓✓Achelous and Sterope✓Achelous and Calliope✓Phorcys✓Number2✓✓✓✓3✓✓✓✓✓✓✓✓4✓Individual nameThelxinoe or Thelxiope✓✓✓Thelxiepe ✓✓Thelxiep(e)ia ✓✓✓✓✓Aglaophonus ✓✓Aglaope ✓✓Aglaopheme✓✓Aglaonoe✓Molpe✓✓✓✓Peisinoe or Pisinoe✓✓✓✓Parthenope✓✓✓✓Leucosia✓✓✓Raidne✓Teles✓Ligeia✓✓✓Himerope✓

Mythology Demeter

According to Ovid (43 BC–17 AD), the sirens were the companions of young Persephone.Ovid, Metamorphoses V, 551. Demeter gave them wings to search for Persephone when she was abducted by Hades. However, the Fabulae of Hyginus (64 BC–17 AD) has Demeter cursing the sirens for failing to intervene in the abduction of Persephone. According to Hyginus, sirens were fated to live only until the mortals who heard their songs could pass by them.Pseudo-Hyginus, Fabulae 141 (trans. Grant).

The Muses In the sanctuary of Hera in Coroneia was a statue created by Pythodorus of Thebes, depicting Hera holding the sirens. According to the myth, Hera persuaded the sirens to challenge the Muses to a singing contest. After the Muses won, they are said to have plucked the sirens' feathers and used them to make crowns for themselves.Pausanias, Description of Greece, 9.34.3 According to Stephanus of Byzantium, the sirens, overwhelmed by their loss, cast off their feathers from their shoulders, turned white and then threw themselves into the sea. As a result, the nearby city was named Aptera ("featherless") and the nearby islands were called the Leukai ("the white ones").Caroline M. Galt, "A marble fragment at Mount Holyoke College from the Cretan city of Aptera", Art and Archaeology 6 (1920:150). John Tzetzes recounts that after defeating the sirens, the Muses crowned themselves with the sirens' wings, except for Terpsichore who was their mother, adding that the city of Aptera was named after this event.Tzetzes, Ad Lycophronem, 653 Furthermore, in one of his letters, Julian the Emperor mentions the Muses' victory over the sirens.Julian the Emperor, Letters, 74

Argonautica In the Argonautica (third century BC), Jason had been warned by Chiron that Orpheus would be necessary in his journey. When Orpheus heard their voices, he drew out his lyre and played his music more beautifully than they, drowning out their voices. One of the crew, however, the sharp-eared hero Butes, heard the song and leapt into the sea, but he was caught up and carried safely away by the goddess Aphrodite.Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica IV, 891–919. Robert Cooper Seaton ed., tr. (2012), p. 354ff.

Odyssey

Odysseus was curious as to what the sirens sang to him, and so, on the advice of Circe, he had all of his sailors plug their ears with beeswax and tie him to the mast. He ordered his men to leave him tied tightly to the mast, no matter how much he might beg. When he heard their beautiful song, he signaled with his frowns for the sailors to untie him but they bound him tighter. When they had passed out of earshot, his men released him.Odyssey XII, 39. Some post-Homeric authors state that the sirens were fated to die if someone heard their singing and escaped them, and that after Odysseus passed by they therefore flung themselves into the water and perished.Hyginus, Fabulae 141; Lycophron, Alexandra 712 ff.

Pliny The first-century Roman historian Pliny the Elder discounted sirens as a pure fable, "although Dinon, the father of Clearchus, a celebrated writer, asserts that they exist in India, and that they charm men by their song, and, having first lulled them to sleep, tear them to pieces."Pliny the Elder, Natural History X, 70.

Sirens and death