siren (mythology)

File:Greek - Vase in the Form of a Siren - Walters 482020.jpg

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 [http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?allowed_in_frame=0&search=Siren entry] in the Online Etymology Dictionary.{{better source needed|note=neither Wiktionary nor the Online Etymology Dictionary are reliable sources|date=October 2020}} 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.

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.{{cite book |last1=Mittman |first1=Asa Simon |title=The Ashgate research companion to monsters and the monstrous |last2=Dendle |first2=Peter J |publisher=Routledge |year=2016 |isbn=9781351894326 |location=London |page=352 |oclc=1021205658}} The circumstances leading to the commingling involve the treatment of sirens in the medieval Physiologus and bestiaries, both iconographically,{{sfnp|Holford-Strevens|2006|pp=31–34}} as well as textually in translations from Latin to vulgar languages,{{efn|Old High German {{lang|goh|meremanniu}} in the OHG Physiologus, and Middle English merman 'mermaid', in the ME Bestiary.}}{{sfnp|Pakis|2010|pp=126–127}} as described below.

File:Funerary siren Louvre Myr148.jpg, first century BC]]

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. It was Apollonius of Rhodes in Argonautica (3rd century BC) who described the sirens in writing as part woman and part bird.{{efn|Argonautica 4.891ff. Seaton tr. (1912): "and at that time they were fashioned in part like birds and in part like maidens to behold"}} By the 7th century BC, sirens were regularly depicted in art as human-headed birds.{{sfnp|Holford-Strevens|2006|pp=17–18}} 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.{{Cite journal |last=Tsiafakis |first=Despoina |date=2003 |title=Pelora: Fabulous Creatures and/or Demons of Death? |journal=The Centaur's Smile: The Human Animal in Early Greek Art |pages=73–104}}

The tenth-century Byzantine dictionary Suda stated that sirens ({{langx|grc|Σειρῆνας}}){{efn|The headword is accusative plural (Commentary to the Sudas entry).}} had the form of sparrows from their chests up, and below they were women or that they were little birds with women's faces.{{Cite web |title=Suda on-line |url=http://www.stoa.org/sol-bin//search.pl?search_method=QUERY&login=&enlogin=&searchstr=sigma,280&field=adlerhw_gr&db=REAL |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924112336/http://www.stoa.org/sol-bin//search.pl?search_method=QUERY&login=&enlogin=&searchstr=sigma,280&field=adlerhw_gr&db=REAL |archive-date=2015-09-24 |access-date=2010-01-30}}

Originally, sirens were shown as male or female, but the male siren disappeared from art around the fifth century BC.{{cite web|url=https://www.colorado.edu/classics/exhibits/GreekVases/essays/200637tsirens.htm|title=CU Classics – Greek Vase Exhibit – Essays – Sirens|website=www.colorado.edu|access-date=2017-10-20|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160625173807/http://www.colorado.edu/Classics/exhibits/GreekVases/essays/200637tsirens.htm|archive-date=2016-06-25|url-status=dead}}

File:Siren enchants sailors - Bestiary (1230-1240), f.47v - BL Harley MS 4751.jpg, {{circa|1235}}]]

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{{Refn|A mould made Megarian bowl excavated in the Ancient Agora of Athens, catalogued P 18,640. {{harvp|Rotroff|1982|p=67}} apud {{harvp|Holford-Strevens|2006|p=29}}; Thompson (1948), pp. 161–162 and Fig. 5}}{{Refn|A terracotta piece of a "mourning siren", 250 BC, according to Waugh.}} 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".{{harvp|Holford-Strevens|2006|p=29}}, quoting Orchard (1995)'s translation.{{cite web |last=Orchard |first=Andy |title=Etext: Liber monstrorum (fr the Beowulf Manuscript) |website=members.shaw.ca |url=http://members.shaw.ca/sylviavolk/Beowulf3.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050118082548/http://members.shaw.ca/sylviavolk/Beowulf3.htm |archive-date=2005-01-18 |url-status=dead}}

=== Medieval Iconography ===

{{Further|#Physiologus and bestiaries}}

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,{{Refn|name="berne-physiologus"}} as an early example, but continued to be illustrated with both bird-like parts (wings, clawed feet) and fish-like tail.{{sfnp|Holford-Strevens|2006|pp=3134}}

{{void|Parents = Achelous and Calliope, Melpomene, or Terpsichore or Phorcys and Ceto

|Siblings = Gorgons, Scylla, Echinda, Graeae, and Thoosa

}}

Although a Sophocles fragment makes Phorcys their father,Sophocles, [http://www.loebclassics.com/view/sophocles-fragments_not_assignable_any_play/1996/pb_LCL483.377.xml fragment 861]; Fowler, [https://books.google.com/books?id=scd8AQAAQBAJ&pg=PA31 p. 31]; 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, [http://www.theoi.com/Text/TzetzesChiliades1.html#14 1.14], line 338 & 348 MelpomeneApollodorus, Epitome [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:abo:tlg,0548,002:e:7:18 7.18]; Hyginus, Fabulae [https://topostext.org/work/206#0.2 Preface], [https://topostext.org/work/206#125 125] & [https://topostext.org/work/206#141 141]; Tzetzes, Chiliades, [http://www.theoi.com/Text/TzetzesChiliades1.html#14 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 = Fowler, p. 13 (2013) Sirens are found in many Greek stories, notably in Homer's Odyssey.

{{clear}}

Their number is variously reported as from two to eight.{{cite book |last1=Page |first1=Michael |last2=Ingpen |first2=Robert |title=Encyclopedia of Things That Never Were |date=1987 |publisher=Viking Penguin Inc |location=New York |isbn=0-670-81607-8 |page=211 }} 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 ThelxiepeiaApollodorus, Epitome [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:abo:tlg,0548,002:e:7:18 7.18]; Tzetzes on Lycophron, 7l2 or Aglaonoe, Aglaopheme and Thelxiepeia;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 followed Hesiod gives their names as Thelxinoe, Molpe, and Aglaophonos;Scholia on Apollonius, 4.892 = Hesiod, Ehoiai fr. 47 the Suda gives their names as Thelxiepeia, Peisinoe, and Ligeia;Suda, s.v. Seirenas Hyginus gives the number of the sirens as four: Teles, Raidne, Molpe, and Thelxiope;Apollodorus, Epitome [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:abo:tlg,0548,002:e:7:18 7.18]; Hyginus, Fabulae Preface p. 30, ed. Bunte Eustathius states that they were two, Aglaopheme and Thelxiepeia;Eustathius on Homer 1709 an ancient vase painting attests the two names as Himerope and Thelxiepeia.

Their names are variously rendered in the later sources as Thelxiepeia/Thelxiope/Thelxinoe, Molpe, Himerope, Aglaophonos/Aglaope/Aglaopheme, Pisinoe/Peisinoë/Peisithoe, Parthenope, Ligeia, Leucosia, Raidne, and Teles.Linda Phyllis Austern, Inna Naroditskaya, [https://books.google.com/books?id=5IBSGG9YegwC&dq=three+sirens+mythology&pg=PT27 Music of the Sirens], Indiana University Press, 2006, p.18William Hansen, William F. Hansen, [https://books.google.com/books?id=a-NmaO-kM2UC&dq=three+sirens+mythology&pg=PA307 Classical Mythology: A Guide to the Mythical World of the Greeks and Romans], Oxford University Press, 2005, p.307Ken Dowden, Niall Livingstone, [https://books.google.com/books?id=_XsN0O_BQ0cC&dq=three+sirens+mythology&pg=PA353 A Companion to Greek Mythology], Wiley-Blackwell, 2011, p.353Mike Dixon-Kennedy, [https://books.google.com/books?id=2U7okUE3PIcC&dq=three+sirens+mythology&pg=PA281 Encyclopedia of Greco-Roman Mythology], ABC-Clio, 1998, p.281

• Molpe ({{lang|grc|Μολπή}})
• Thelxiepeia ({{lang|grc|Θελξιέπεια}}) or Thelxiope ({{lang|grc|Θελξιόπη}}) "eye pleasing")

File:Sirena de Canosa s. IV adC (M.A.N. Madrid) 01.jpg characteristics, late fourth century BC]]

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).

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.[https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0160%3Abook%3D9%3Achapter%3D34%3Asection%3D3 Pausanias, Description of Greece, 9.34.3]Lemprière 768. 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 named after this event.[https://topostext.org/work/860#653 Tzetzes, Ad Lycophronem, 653] Furthermore, in one of his letters, Julian the Emperor mentions the Muses' victory over the sirens.[https://topostext.org/work/803#74 Julian the Emperor, Letters, 74]

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. Seaton, R. C. ed., tr. (2012), [https://books.google.com/books?id=ipANAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA354 p. 354ff].

File:Siren Painter ARV 289 1 Odysseus and the Sirens - three erotes (02).jpg, {{circa|475 BC}}]]

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 ordered the sailors to untie him but they bound him tighter. When they had passed out of earshot, Odysseus demonstrated with his frowns to be released.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.

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.

File:Mosaïque d'Ulysse et les sirènes.jpg)]]

Statues of sirens in a funerary context are attested since the classical era, in mainland Greece, as well as Asia Minor and Magna Graecia. The so-called "Siren of Canosa"—Canosa di Puglia is a site in Apulia that was part of Magna Graecia—was said to accompany the dead among grave goods in a burial. She appeared to have some psychopomp characteristics, guiding the dead on the afterlife journey. The cast terracotta figure bears traces of its original white pigment. The woman bears the feet, wings and tail of a bird. The sculpture is conserved in the National Archaeological Museum of Spain, in Madrid.

The sirens were called the Muses of the lower world. Classical scholar Walter Copland Perry (1814–1911) observed: "Their song, though irresistibly sweet, was no less sad than sweet, and lapped both body and soul in a fatal lethargy, the forerunner of death and corruption."Perry, "The sirens in ancient literature and art", in The Nineteenth Century, reprinted in Choice Literature: a monthly magazine (New York) 2 (September–December 1883:163). Their song is continually calling on Persephone.

The term "siren song" refers to an appeal that is hard to resist but that, if heeded, will lead to a bad conclusion. Later writers have implied that the sirens ate humans, based on Circe's description of them "lolling there in their meadow, round them heaps of corpses rotting away, rags of skin shriveling on their bones."Odyssey 12.45–6, Fagles' translation. As linguist Jane Ellen Harrison (1850–1928) notes of "The Ker as siren": "It is strange and beautiful that Homer should make the sirens appeal to the spirit, not to the flesh."Harrison 198 The siren song is a promise to Odysseus of mantic truths; with a false promise that he will live to tell them, they sing,{{blockquote|Once he hears to his heart's content, sails on, a wiser man.
We know all the pains that the Greeks and Trojans once endured
on the spreading plain of Troy when the gods willed it so—
all that comes to pass on the fertile earth, we know it all!Odyssey 12.188–91, Fagles' translation.}}

"They are mantic creatures like the Sphinx with whom they have much in common, knowing both the past and the future", Harrison observed. "Their song takes effect at midday, in a windless calm. The end of that song is death."Harrison, 199. That the sailors' flesh is rotting away, suggests it has not been eaten. It has been suggested that, with their feathers stolen, their divine nature kept them alive, but unable to provide food for their visitors, who starved to death by refusing to leave.Liner notes to Fresh Aire VI by Jim Shey, Classics Department, University of Wisconsin

According to the ancient Hebrew Book of Enoch, the women who were led astray by the fallen angels will be turned into sirens.{{cite book|author=Robert Charles|title=The Book of Enoch|date=1917|chapter=XIX|url=https://sacred-texts.com/bib/boe/boe022.htm|publisher=SPCK|accessdate=2024-04-27}}

By the fourth century, when pagan beliefs were overtaken by Christianity, {{dubious-span|the belief in literal sirens was discouraged|date=September 2022}}

Saint Jerome, who produced the Latin Vulgate version of the bible, used the word sirens to translate Hebrew tannīm ("jackals") in the Book of Isaiah 13:22, and also to translate a word for "owls" in the Book of Jeremiah 50:39.

The siren is allegorically described as a beautiful courtesan or prostitute, who sings pleasant melodies to men, and is the symbolic vice of Pleasure in the preaching of Clement of Alexandria (2nd century).Clement. Protrepticus. quoted in {{harvp|Druce|1915|p=170}} Later writers such as Ambrose (4th century) reiterated the notion that the siren stood as a symbol or allegory for worldly temptations.Ambrose, Exposition of the Christian Faith, Book 3, chap. 1, 4. and not an endorsement of the Greek myth.

The early Christian euhemerist interpretation of mythologized human beings received a long-lasting boost from the Etymologiae by Isidore of Seville (c. 560–636):

{{blockquote|They [the Greeks] imagine that "there were three sirens, part virgins, part birds," with wings and claws. "One of them sang, another played the flute, the third the lyre. They drew sailors, decoyed by song, to shipwreck. According to the truth, however, they were prostitutes who led travelers down to poverty and were said to impose shipwreck on them." They had wings and claws because Love flies and wounds. They are said to have stayed in the waves because a wave created Venus.Grant, Robert McQueen (1999). Early Christians and Animals. London: Routledge, 120. Translation of Isidore, Etymologiae (c. 600–636 AD), Book 11, chap. 3 ("Portents"), 30.}}

The siren and the onocentaur, two hybrid creatures, appear as the subject of a single chapter in the Physiologus,{{sfnp|George|Yapp|1991|p=99}} as they appear together in the Septuagint translation of the aforementioned Isaiah 13:21–22, and 34:14.{{sfnp|Pakis|2010|p=118}}{{Refn|group="lower-alpha"|The sirens (seirenes) do figure in the earliest surviving versions (version G, Μ Γ and others).{{sfnp|Pakis|2010|pp=120–121}} But the siren did not figure in the earlier Greek version of the Physiologos (4th century, preserved by Epiphanius) nor the Armenian translation from Greek originals.}} They also appear together in some Latin bestiaries of the First Family subgroup called B-Isidore ("B-Is").{{sfnp|Pakis|2010|pp=125–126}}{{sfnp|George|Yapp|1991|p=99}}

{{multiple image

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| image1 = BnF Latin 6838 B, fo.025v-syrenes.jpg

| alt1 = Siren in a bestiary, Bibliothèque Nationale, Latin 6838 B

| caption1 = Siren. {{right|{{small|―BnF Latin 6838 B, fol. 25v}}}}

| image2 = Siren 3244.jpg

| alt2 = Siren in the bestiary, British Library, MS 3244

| caption2 = Siren. {{right|{{small|―Bestiary bound in a theological miscellany. British Library, Harley MS 3244}}}}

| footer =

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file:Morgan M.81, f.017r-sirene.jpg M.81}}]]

file:Sloane278, fol.47r-sirena&onocentaurus.jpg

The siren's bird-like description from classical sources was retained in the Latin version of the Physiologus (6th century) and several subsequent bestiaries into the 13th century,Physiologus "B" text and its derivative. {{harvp|Holford-Strevens|2006|p=29}} et sqq. but at some time during the interim, the mermaid shape was introduced to this body of works.{{harvp|Holford-Strevens|2006|p=31}}: There were "those who introduced the mermaid into the Latin Physiologus and the bestiaries thence derived".

;As woman-fish or mermaid

{{further|Mermaid#Sirens}}

The siren was illustrated as a woman-fish (mermaid) in the Bern Physiologus dated to the mid-9th century, even though this contradicted the accompanying text which described it as avian.{{Refn|name="berne-physiologus"|Berne, Bürgerbibliotek Cod. 318. fol. 13v. Rubric: "De Natura Serena et honocentauri".}} An English-made Latin bestiary dated 1220–1250 also depicted a group of sirens as mermaids with fishtails swimming in the sea, even though the text stated they resembled winged fowl ({{lang|la|volatilis habet figuram}}) down to their feet.{{Refn|Oxford, MS Bodley 764, fol. 74v.{{sfnp|Hardwick|2011|p=92}}{{harvp|Holford-Strevens|2006|pp=31–32}}, Fig. 1.4}}{{Refn|group="lower-alpha"|There is another entry for "siren", as a winged white serpent of Arabia.{{sfnp|Barber tr.|1993|p=150}}}}

Illustrating the siren as a pure mermaid became commonplace in the "second family" bestiaries, and she was shown holding a musical instrument in the classical tradition, but also sometimes holding apparently an eel-fish.{{sfnp|Clark|2006|loc=p. 57 and n50}} An example of the siren-mermaid holding such a fish is found in one of the earlier codices in this group, dated the late 12th century.{{efn|Brit. Lib. Add. 11283, late 12c., {{harvp|Clark|2006|p=21}}, fol. 20v{{sfnp|Clark|2006|loc=p. 52 and Fig. 20}}}}{{sfnp|Druce|1915|loc=pp. 174–175, Pl. X, No. 2}}

;As bird-like

A counterexample is also given where the illustrated sirens (group of three) are bird-like, conforming to the text.{{Refn|Oxford, MS Bodley 602, fol. 10r. 12th century.{{harvp|Holford-Strevens|2006|pp=31–32}}, Fig. 1.3}}

;As hybrid

The siren was sometimes drawn as a hybrid with a human torso, a fish-like lower body, and bird-like wings and feet.Harley 3244, and others MSS.; {{harvp|Clark|2006|p=21}}Cambridge University Library, MS Ii. 4. 26, fol. 39r. {{harvp|Holford-Strevens|2006|pp=33–34}} While in the Harley 3244 (cf. fig. top right) the wings sprout from around the shoulders, in other hybrid types, the style places the siren's wings "hanging at the waist".{{Refn|Cambridge University Library Ii.4.26, fol. 39v.{{harvp|Holford-Strevens|2006|p=33}}, Fig. 1.5}}{{Refn|Compare Northumberland bestiary (Getty MS 100) (olim Alnwick bestiary, Alnwick Castle MS 447). Comment of "webbed feet" in the two examples{{sfnp|George|Yapp|1991|p=99}} seems false for the CUL ms., while "webbed feet of an aquatic animal" is corroborated for the Northumberland bestiary.}}

;Comb and mirror

Also, a siren may be holding a comb,{{sfnp|George|Yapp|1991|p=99}}{{Refn|Or there may be three sirens drawn, two holding fish and third a mirror, as in Getty MS. 100 (olim Alnwick ms.){{sfnp|George|Yapp|1991|p=99}} A similar composition occurs on the Morgan M.81, cf. fig. right.}} or a mirror.{{Refn|British Library Ms. Royal 2.B.Vii, fol. 96v.{{sfnp|George|Yapp|1991|p=99}}}}

Thus the comb and mirror, which are now emblematic of mermaids across Europe, derive from the bestiaries that describe the siren as a vain creature requiring those accoutrements.{{sfnp|Waugh|1960|p=77}}{{cite book|last=Chunko-Dominguez|first=Betsy |author-link= |title=English Gothic Misericord Carvings: History from the Bottom Up |publisher=BRILL |date=2017 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Jo1ZDgAAQBAJ&pg=PA82 |pages=82–84 |isbn= 9789004341203}}

Later, bestiary texts appeared which were modified to accommodate the artistic conventions.{{sfnp|Holford-Strevens|2006|p=34}}

It is explained that the siren's "other part" may be "like fish or like bird" in Guillaume le clerc's Old French verse bestiary (1210 or 1211),{{Refn|"l'altre partie est figuree / Come peisson ou con oisel" (vv. 1058–1059).}}{{sfnp|Waugh|1960|p=77}} as well as Philippe de Thaun's Anglo-Norman verse bestiary (c. 1121–1139).{{sfnp|Holford-Strevens|2006|p=34}}

There also appeared medieval works that conflated sirens with mermaids while citing Physiologus as their source.Bartholomew Anglicus, De proprietatibus rerum XCVII, c.1240, "And Physiologus saith it is a beast of the sea, wonderly shapen as a maid from the navel upward and a fish from the navel downward"; quoted in translation by {{harvp|Mustard|1908|p=22}}{{Refn|Hugh of St. Victor (d.1240), De bestiis et aliis rebus XCVII, quoted in Latin by {{harvp|Mustard|1908|p=23}}, and in translation by {{harvp|Holford-Strevens|2006|p=32}}: "sirens.., as the Physiologus describes them have a woman's form above down to the navel, but their lower part down to the feet has the shape of a fish". The work continues "excerpts from Servius and Isidore" to say: "three Sirens, part maids, part fish, of whom one sang,..etc.". But despite attribution to Hugh, this work had so heavily interpolated that it has been a 16th century compilation, and dubbed a "problematic" bestiary. Cf. {{harvp|Clark|2006|pp=10–11}}: Chapter 1: The Problematic De bestiis et aliis rebus.}}

Italian poet Dante Alighieri depicts a siren in Canto 19 of Purgatorio, the second canticle of the Divine Comedy. Here, the pilgrim dreams of a female who is described as "stuttering, cross-eyed, and crooked on her feet, with stunted hands, and pallid in color."{{Cite book|last=Dante Alighieri|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/32430822|title=The divine comedy of Dante Alighieri|date=1996–2013|publisher=Oxford University Press|others=Robert M. Durling, Ronald L. Martinez|isbn=978-0-19-508740-6|location=New York|oclc=32430822}} It is not until the pilgrim "gazes" upon her that she is turned desirable and is revealed by herself to be a siren. This siren then claims that she "turned Ulysses from his course, desirous of my / song, and whoever becomes used to me rarely / leaves me, so wholly do I satisfy him!" Given that Dante did not have access to the Odyssey, the siren's claim that she turned Ulysses from his course is inherently false because the sirens in the Odyssey do not manage to turn Ulysses from his path.{{Cite book|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/193827830|title=Lectura Dantis: Purgatorio|date=2008|publisher=University of California Press|others=Allen Mandelbaum, Anthony Oldcorn, Charles Ross|isbn=978-0-520-94052-9|location=Berkeley|oclc=193827830}} Ulysses and his men were warned by Circe and prepared for their encounter by stuffing their ears full of wax,{{Cite book|last=Homero|first=s. IX a. C.|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/57058042|title=Odisea|date=2004|publisher=Alianza|others=Carlos García Gual, John Flaxman|isbn=84-206-7750-7|location=Madrid|oclc=57058042}} except for Ulysses, who wishes to be bound to the ship's mast as he wants to hear the siren's song. Scholars claim that Dante may have "misinterpreted" the siren's claim from an episode in Cicero's De finibus. The pilgrim's dream comes to an end when a lady "holy and quick" who had not yet been present before suddenly appears and says, "O Virgil, Virgil, who is this?" Virgil, the pilgrim's guide, then steps forward and tears the clothes from the siren's belly which, "awakened me [the pilgrim] with the stench that issued from it." This marks the ending of the encounter between the pilgrim and the siren.

In Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Regum Britanniae ({{circa|1136}}), Brutus of Troy encounters sirens at the Pillars of Hercules on his way to Britain to fulfil a prophecy that he will establish an empire there. The sirens surround and nearly overturn his ships until Brutus escapes to the Tyrrhenian Sea.{{cite wikisource | author=Geoffrey of Monmouth | wslink=Six Old English Chronicles/Geoffrey's British History | chapter=Book 1 | plaintitle=Historia Regum Britanniae | at=Chapter 12 }}

By the time of the Renaissance, female court musicians known as courtesans filled the role of an unmarried companion, and musical performances by unmarried women could be seen as immoral. Seen as a creature who could control a man's reason, female singers became associated with the mythological figure of the siren, who usually took a half-human, half-animal form somewhere on the cusp between nature and culture.{{cite book|last1=Dunbar|first1=Julie C.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Fq5rDQAAQBAJ|title=Women, Music, Culture|date=2011|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1351857451|page=70|access-date=9 August 2019}}

Leonardo da Vinci wrote of them in his notebooks, stating "The siren sings so sweetly that she lulls the mariners to sleep; then she climbs upon the ships and kills the sleeping mariners."

However, in the 17th century, some Jesuit writers began to assert their actual existence, including Cornelius a Lapide, who said of woman, "her glance is that of the fabled basilisk, her voice a siren's voice—with her voice she enchants, with her beauty she deprives of reason—voice and sight alike deal destruction and death."Longworth, T. Clifton, and Paul Tice (2003). A Survey of Sex & Celibacy in Religion. San Diego: The Book Tree, 61. Originally published as The Devil a Monk Would Be: A Survey of Sex & Celibacy in Religion (1945). Antonio de Lorea also argued for their existence, and Athanasius Kircher argued that compartments must have been built for them aboard Noah's Ark.Carlson, Patricia Ann (ed.) (1986). Literature and Lore of the Sea. Amsterdam: Editions Rodopi, 270.

Charles Burney expounded {{circa|1789}}, in A General History of Music: "The name, according to Bochart, who derives it from the Phoenician, implies a songstress. Hence it is probable, that in ancient times there may have been excellent singers, but of corrupt morals, on the coast of Sicily, who by seducing voyagers, gave rise to this fable."Austern, Linda Phyllis, and Inna Naroditskaya (eds.) (2006). Music of the Sirens. Bloomington, IN: University of Indiana Press, 72.

John Lemprière in his Classical Dictionary (1827) wrote, "Some suppose that the sirens were several lascivious women in Sicily, who prostituted themselves to strangers, and made them forget their pursuits while drowned in unlawful pleasures. The etymology of Bochart, who deduces the name from a Phoenician term denoting a songstress, favours the explanation given of the fable by Damm.Damm, perhaps Mythologie der Griechen und Römer (ed. Leveiow). Berlin, 1820. This distinguished critic makes the sirens to have been excellent singers, and divesting the fables respecting them of all their terrific features, he supposes that by the charms of music and song, they detained travellers, and made them altogether forgetful of their native land."Lemprière 768. Brackets in the original.

The French impressionist composer, Claude Debussy, composed the orchestral work Nocturnes in which the third movement, "Sirènes", depicts sirens. According to Debussy, "'Sirènes' depicts the sea and its countless rhythms and presently, amongst the waves silvered by the moonlight, is heard the mysterious song of the Sirens as they laugh and pass on".{{cite web |title=The story of... Debussy's Nocturnes |url=https://www.classical-music.com/articles/debussys-nocturnes-story |website=Our Media Ltd |date=19 August 2016 |publisher=BBC Music Magazine |access-date=5 November 2023}}

In 1911, French composer Lili Boulanger composed "Les sirènes" for mezzo-soprano soloist, choir, and piano.{{cite web |title=Obscure Music Monday: Boulanger's Les Sirenes |url=https://www.performersedition.com/content/obscure-music-monday-boulangers-les-sirenes/ |website=Performer's Edition |publisher=Performer's Edition LLC |access-date=25 December 2023}}

Contemporary British composer and former child prodigy, Alma Deutscher, composed "Waltz of the Sirens", an orchestral work based on the mythology creature.{{cite web |last1=Harris |first1=Garrett |title=Alma Deutscher takes a stand in Vienna |url=https://www.sandiegoreader.com/news/2023/mar/24/alma-deutscher-takes-stand-vienna/ |website=San Diego Reader |access-date=25 December 2023}}

English artist William Etty portrayed the sirens as young women in fully human form in his 1837 painting The Sirens and Ulysses, a practice copied by future artists.{{cite book|last=Robinson|first=Leonard|title=William Etty: The Life and Art|year=2007|publisher=McFarland & Company|location=Jefferson, NC|isbn=9780786425310|oclc= 751047871}}

{{Gallery

|title=Sirens in 19th and 20th-century paintings

|width=160 | height=170

|align=center

|File:The Sirens and Ulysses by William Etty, 1837.jpg

|alt1=Painting of Ulysses tempted by sirens

|The Sirens and Ulysses (1837) by William Etty

|File:Ulysses And The Sirens by Léon Belly.jpg

|alt2=Painting of Ulysses tempted by sirens

|Odysseus and the Sirens (1867) by Léon Belly

|File:Armitage Siren.JPG

|alt3=Painting of a siren

|The Siren (1888) by Edward Armitage

|File:WATERHOUSE - Ulises y las Sirenas (National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, 1891. Óleo sobre lienzo, 100.6 x 202 cm).jpg

|alt4=Painting of Ulysses tempted by sirens

|Ulysses and the Sirens (1891) by John William Waterhouse

|File:John William Waterhouse-The Siren-1900.jpg

|alt5=Painting of a siren depicted as a fish-chimera

|The Siren ({{circa|1900}}) by John William Waterhouse

|File:Draper Herbert James Ulysses and the Sirens.jpg

|alt6=Painting of Ulysses tempted by sirens

|Ulysses and the Sirens ({{circa|1909}}) by Herbert James Draper

}}

{{clear}}

{{Columns-list|colwidth=11em|

• Alkonost
• Banshee
• Circe
• Enchanted Moura
• Harpy
• Heloi
• Hulder
• Iara
• Kelpie
• La Llorona
• Les Démoniaques
• Lorelei
• Lilith
• Melusine
• Mermaid
• Merman
• Merrow
• Morgen
• Naiad
• Nix
• Nymph
• Ondine
• Pincoya
• Rusalka
• Selkie
• Seraphim
• Sihuanaba
• Sirena
• Sirin
• Slavic fairies
• Song to the Siren
• Succubus
• Syrenka
• Trauco
• Ubume
• Uchek Langmeidong
• Undine
• Water sprite
• List of avian humanoids

}}

{{notelist}}

{{Reflist|30em|refs=

{{cite web|url=http://access.bl.uk/item/viewer/ark:/81055/vdc_100055965341.0x000001 |title=British Library Add MS 11283 |website=British Library |access-date=2022-09-06}}

{{cite web |url=https://www.bl.uk/catalogues/illuminatedmanuscripts/record.asp?MSID=6467&CollID=16&NStart=20207 |title=Detailed record for Royal 2 B VII (Queen Mary Psalter) |website=British Library |access-date=2022-09-06 |archive-date=2022-10-17 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221017104335/https://www.bl.uk/catalogues/illuminatedmanuscripts/record.asp?MSID=6467&CollID=16&NStart=20207 |url-status=dead }}, [https://www.bl.uk/catalogues/illuminatedmanuscripts/ILLUMIN.ASP?Size=mid&IllID=52724 fol. 96v] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220911143924/https://www.bl.uk/catalogues/illuminatedmanuscripts/ILLUMIN.ASP?Size=mid&IllID=52724 |date=2022-09-11 }}

{{cite web |url=http://mandragore.bnf.fr/jsp/switch.jsp?division=Mix&cote=Latin+6838+B |title=Bibliothèque nationale de France, ms. Latin 6838 B |website=Mandragore |access-date=2022-09-10 |archive-date=2021-09-18 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210918042521/http://mandragore.bnf.fr/jsp/switch.jsp?division=Mix&cote=Latin+6838+B |url-status=dead }}

{{cite web|url=https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/ecf96804-a514-4adc-8779-2dbc4e4b2f1e/surfaces/ee2bf789-7152-449b-9760-fa864718e2d0/ |title=Bodleian Library MS. Bodl. 764 |website=Oxford University, the Bodleian Libraries |access-date=2022-09-09 }}, fol. 074v.

{{cite book|ref={{SfnRef|Barber tr.|1993}}|editor-last=Barber |editor-first=Richard |editor-link= |chapter=Sirens |title=Bestiary: Being an English Version of the Bodleian Library, Oxford M.S. Bodley 764 : with All the Original Miniatures Reproduced in Facsimile |location=|publisher=Boydell Press |year=1993|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=94opjX2vfjQC&pg=PA150 |page=1150 |isbn= 9780851157535}}

{{cite web|url=https://www.getty.edu/art/collection/object/109B24 |title=Ms. 100 (2007.16), fol. 14. Sirens. about 1250–1260 |website=Getty Museum |access-date=2022-09-10}}. "serene" fol. 20v

{{cite book|last=Harrison |first=Jane Ellen |author-link=Jane Ellen Harrison |title=Myths of the Odyssey in Art and Literature |location=London |publisher=Rivingtons |year=1882|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1CkGAAAAQAAJ |pages=169–170; Plate 47a}}

{{cite book|last=Knight |first=Virginia |author-link= |title=The Renewal of Epic: Responses to Homer in the Argonautica of Apollonius |publisher=E. J. Brill |year=1995 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=292mDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA201 |page=201|isbn=9789004329775}}

{{cite journal|last=Leclercq |first=Jacqueline |author-link= |title=De l'art antique à l'art médièval. A propos des sources du bestiaire carolingien et de se survivances à l'époque romane |trans-title=From ancient to mediaeval Art. On the sources of Carolingian bestiaries and their survival in the romance period |journal=Gazette des Beaux-Arts |volume=113 |date=February 1989 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JYBLAAAAYAAJ&q=siren |page=88 |doi=10.2307/596378 |jstor=596378 |quote=The chapter devoted to the Siren and the Centaur is an excellent example of this because the Siren is represented as a woman-fish whereas she is described in the form of a woman-bird..}} {{inlang|fr}} (summary in English); {{cite journal|last=Leclercq-Marx |first=Jacqueline |author-link= |title=La sirène dans la pensée et dans l'art de l'Antiquité et du Moyen Âge: du mythe païen au symbole chrétien |journal=Publication de la Classe des Beaux-Arts. Collection In-4O |publisher=Classe des beaux-arts, Académie royale de Belgique |date=1997 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=N2qix5cCTdgC |page=62ff |issn=0775-3276}}

{{cite web|url=https://www.themorgan.org/collection/worksop-bestiary/21 |title=Workshop Bestiary MS M.81, fols. 16v–17r |website=Morgan Library and Museum |date=27 February 2018 |access-date=2022-09-09}}

{{cite book|editor1-last=Muratova |editor1-first=Xénia |editor1-link= |editor2-last=Poirion|editor2-first=Daniel |editor2-link=:fr:Daniel Poirion |translator1=Marie-France Dupuis |translator1-link= |translator2=George E. J. Powell |translator2-link= |title=Le bestiaire |publisher=Philippe Lebaud |date=1988 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uYBiAAAAMAAJ&q=peisson |page=33 |isbn=9782865940400}}

{{cite journal|last=Mustard |first=Wilfred P. |author-link= |title=Mermaid—Siren |journal=Modern Language Notes |volume=23 |date=1908 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Sv8mAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA21 |page=22|doi=10.2307/2916861 |jstor=2916861 }}

{{cite book|author=Philippe de Thaun |author-link=Johannes Jonston |editor-last=Wright|editor-first=Thomas |editor-link=Thomas Wright (antiquarian) |title=The Bestiary of Philipee de Thaun |work=Popular Treatises on Science Written During the Middle Ages: In Anglo-Saxon, Anglo-Norman and English |location=London |publisher=Historical Society of Science |year=1841 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-RYJAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA98 |page=98}}, fol. 59r, [http://access.bl.uk/item/viewer/ark:/81055/vdc_100062419814.0x000001 Cotton MS Nero A V] digitized @ British Library.

{{cite book|last=Rotroff |first=Susan I. |author-link=Susan I. Rotroff |title=Hellenistic Painted Potter: Athenian and Imported Moldmade Bowls, The Athenian Agora 22 |publisher=American School of Classical Studies at Athens |year=1982 |url= |page=67, #190; Plates 35, 80 |isbn=978-0876612224}}

{{cite web |url=https://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/Viewer.aspx?ref=sloane_ms_278_fse008r |title=British Library Sloane MS 278 |website=British Library |access-date=2022-09-19 }}{{Dead link|date=January 2025 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}, fol. 47r.

{{cite web|url=https://blogs.getty.edu/iris/the-enchantress-of-the-medieval-bestiary/ |last=Tandjung |first=Beverly |author-link= |title=The Enchantress of the Medieval Bestiary |website=Getty Museum |date=11 May 2018 |access-date=2022-09-06}}

{{cite journal|last=Thompson |first=Homer A. |author-link=Homer Thompson |title=The Excavation of the Athenian Agora Twelfth Season |journal=Hesperia: The Journal of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens |volume=17 |number=3, The Thirty-Fifth Report of the American Excavation in the Athenian Agora |date=July–September 1948 |url=https://www.ascsa.edu.gr/uploads/media/hesperia/146874.pdf |pages=161–162 and Fig. 5 |doi=10.2307/146874 |jstor=146874}}

{{cite journal|last=Waugh |first=Arthur |author-link=Arthur Waugh (author) |title=The Folklore of the Merfolk |journal=Folklore |volume=71 |number=2 |date=1960|pages=78–79 |doi=10.1080/0015587x.1960.9717221 |jstor=1258382}}

{{cite journal|last=Schafer |first=Edward H. |author-link= |title=The Physiologus of Bern: A Survival of Alexandrian Style in a Ninth Century |journal=The Art Bulletin |volume=12 |number=3 |date=September 1930 |url= |at=Fig. 22 and p. 249|jstor=3050780}}

}}

{{refbegin}}

• {{cite book|last=Clark |first=Willene B. |author-link= |title=A Medieval Book of Beasts: The Second-family Bestiary: Commentary, Art, Text and Translation |location= |publisher=Boydell Press |date=2006 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0olPRmCoE8MC&q=mermaid |page=|isbn=9780851156828}}
• {{citation|last=Druce |first=G. C. |author-link=:en:George Claridge Druce |title=Some Abnormal and Composite Human Forms in English Church Architecture |journal=The Archaeological Journal |volume=72 |year=1915 |doi=10.1080/00665983.1915.10853279 |at=The Bird-siren, 169–172; The Fish-siren, pp. 172–177 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pKM8AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA169}}
• Fowler, R. L. (2013), Early Greek Mythography: Volume 2: Commentary, Oxford University Press, 2013. {{ISBN|978-0198147411}}.
• {{cite book|last1=George |first1=Wilma B. |author1-link= |last2=Yapp |first2=William Brunsdon |author2-link=William Brunsdon Yapp |title=The Naming of the Beasts: Natural History in the Medieval Bestiary |publisher=Duckworth |date=1991 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qtoPAQAAMAAJ&q=sirena |pages=99–100 |isbn=9780715622384}}
• {{citation |last=Hardwick |first=Paul |author-link= |title=English Medieval Misericords: The Margins of Meaning |location= |publisher=Boydell Press|date=2011 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UjODkjR1aKgC |pages= |isbn=9781843836599}}
• Harrison, Jane Ellen (1922) (3rd ed.) Prolegomena to the Study of Greek Religion. London: C.J. Clay and Sons.
• {{citation |last=Holford-Strevens |first=Leofranc |author-link=Leofranc Holford-Strevens |chapter=1. Sirens in Antiquity and the Middle Ages |editor1-last=Austern |editor1-first=Linda Phyllis |editor1-link= |editor2-last=Naroditskaya |editor2-first=Inna |editor2-link= |title=Music of the Siren |location=Bloomington |publisher=Indiana University Press |date=2006 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5IBSGG9YegwC&pg=PT25 |pages=16–50 |isbn=9780253112071}}
• Homer, The Odyssey
• Lemprière, John (1827) (6th ed.). A Classical Dictionary;.... New York: Evert Duyckinck, Collins & Co., Collins & Hannay, G. & C. Carvill, and O. A. Roorbach. as mentioned in the scriptures
• {{cite journal|last=Pakis |first=Valentine A. |author-link= |title=Contextual Duplicity and Textual Variation: The Siren and Onocentaur in the Physiologus Tradition |journal=Mediaevistik |volume=23 |date=2010 |url=https://www.ingentaconnect.com/contentone/plg/med/2010/00000023/00000001/art00004?crawler=true |pages=115–185 |doi=10.3726/83014_115 |jstor=42587769}}
• Sophocles, Fragments, Edited and translated by Hugh Lloyd-Jones, Loeb Classical Library No. 483. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1996. {{ISBN|978-0-674-99532-1}}. [http://www.loebclassics.com/view/LCL483/1996/pb_LCL483.v.xml Online version at Harvard University Press].

{{refend}}

• Siegfried de Rachewiltz, De Sirenibus: An Inquiry into Sirens from Homer to Shakespeare, 1987: chs: "Some notes on posthomeric sirens; Christian sirens; Boccaccio's siren and her legacy; The Sirens' mirror; The siren as emblem the emblem as siren; Shakespeare's siren tears; brief survey of siren scholarship; the siren in folklore; bibliography"
• "Siren's Lament", a story based around one writer's perception of sirens. Though most lore in the story does not match up with lore we associate with the wide onlook of sirens, it does contain useful information.

{{Commons category|Sirens}}

• [https://web.archive.org/web/20150924121933/http://www.stoa.org/sol-bin/search.pl?db=REAL&search_method=QUERY&login=guest&enlogin=guest&user_list=LIST&page_num=1&searchstr=sigma%2C280+&field=adlerhw_gr&num_per_page=100 The Suda (Byzantine Encyclopedia) on the sirens]
• [https://books.google.com/books?id=60y7fnXqq7sC&q=Sirens&pg=PA325 A Mythological Reference by G. Rodney Avant]
• [https://iconographic.warburg.sas.ac.uk/category/vpc-taxonomy-000302 The Warburg Institute Iconographic Database (images of Sirens)]

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