Sirens are one of the most famous monsters from Greek mythology. Sirens are also known in the modern world thanks to numerous films, books, comics, and games that refer to ancient Greek history in a mythological vein. Let's look at them through a magnifying glass.

In the article:

Sirens - origin and characteristics

These creatures personify the beautiful, changeable and treacherous surface of the sea - sailors have more than once encountered the fact that the seemingly reliable depth turned out to be shallow or, even worse, fraught with sharp cliffs. Sirens refer to mixanthropic creatures - their bodies are half female, half bird. In some legends they have fish tails, which reminds them.

In the Odyssey, Homer wrote that there were two sirens, but he did not call them by name. Later there were three of them, like . The eldest was called Persinoia, the middle one was Aglaotha, and the youngest was Telskepia. The first was fluent in playing the cithara, the second had a beautiful voice, and the third was mesmerizing in playing the flute. In addition, they had a bewitching look. According to other myths, the sirens were called Parthenope, Ligeia and Leukosia.

It is not known for certain who gave birth to the creatures enchanting with their singing - it could have been Phorcys, or chthonic goddess Keto, or deity Ahelous. Sometimes legends call one of the muses their mother - Melpomene, Terpsichore or Calliope. In addition, myths indicate that the mother of the sirens could be Sterope, and Gaia.

Another possible father, Achelous, was a powerful river deity, a descendant of Tethys and Oceanus, or the son of Oceanus and Gaia, or Gaea and Helios. From the union of Achelous with Melpomene or Terpsichore, the sirens appeared. In his travels, Hercules fought with Achelous. God took the form of a bull to fight the hero, but Hercules broke one of his horns and saved Princess Deianira from an unwanted suitor.

Still from the film "Pirates of the Caribbean"

Phorcys also took on different forms - thus, the possible fathers of the sweet-voiced creatures were werewolves, hence the duality in the description of their animal parts. Post-Homeric tales of the Sirens describe them as maidens with the wings of birds, or women resembling mermaids, or maidens with human heads but bird bodies and legs. From their father they inherited a furious, spontaneous, unbridled disposition, and their mother, the muse, gave them her enchanting voice.

Some legends indicate that the sirens acquired a semi-animal appearance as a result of a curse. According to the legends, they were Persephone’s retinue, and after her abduction by Hades they wandered aimlessly around the earth. Eventually they joined Apollo. Angered by the loss of her daughter, Demeter cursed the sirens, causing them to grow bird wings.

There is another version of this legend - the gods turned the sirens into birds for their desperate search for the missing goddess, since Zeus himself allowed his brother to kidnap her. Or Aphrodite sent the curse because they rejected marriage. According to the third version, the new appearance was the desire of the sirens themselves, which was fulfilled by the gods.

Sirens in legends

"Orpheus and the Sirens", Herbert Draper, 1909

One of the legends describes a competition between sirens and muses in the art of singing in the city of Apter. Hera advised the sea maidens to challenge the muses to a duel - her goal is unknown, but perhaps Zeus liked one of the sirens, and the goddess of marriage became angry. One way or another, victory remained with the muses. They plucked their rivals, making victory wreaths out of feathers. Zeus gave the island of Anthemoessu to the humiliated sirens.

Post-Homeric legends described them as having incredibly beautiful voices. They lured sailors by singing, and when their ship was smashed on sharp coastal rocks, they looked for people washed ashore to tear them into pieces and eat them. The Argonauts managed to escape - Orpheus sailed with them, capable of drowning out the song of the sirens with his music. All the time the ship sailed past the disastrous island, Orpheus played the forming (lyre) and sang. One of the crew members, Booth, still had a chance to hear the voices of the sirens - he threw himself from the ship into the sea waves, trying to swim to the island, but Aphrodite saved him. Booth spent the rest of his days in Lilybaeum.

The most ancient source with references to these creatures is the Homeric "Odyssey". Homer described the location of the island of the Sirens - it was located between the possessions of Circe and the abode of Scylla. The island is littered with the withered skin and whitened bones of victims. Odysseus's team managed to escape thanks to Circe's warning and cunning - they covered their ears with beeswax, so they did not hear the songs. Odysseus himself, wanting to understand the destructive secret of the magic songs, ordered him to be tied to the mast. No matter how he raged, wanting to go to the source of the sound, the sailors did not untie him, and the ship safely passed the deadly island.

Long before these events, the sirens were predicted that death would come to them along with a ship that passed their island without casualties. When Odysseus's ship passed by unharmed, they went mad. Most of them threw themselves into the sea and turned into cliffs, and the rest tore out their feathers and drowned. But often a ship is called a deadly ship Jason and the Argonauts.

Sophocles claimed that he met the surviving Sirens who revealed to him the law of Hades. A fan of classical antiquity, Sophocles imagined them as good, wise virgins, each living in their own celestial sphere on the world spindle of the all-mother goddess Ananke. With their singing they generate majestic cosmic harmony. The home of the classic sirens is Hades. Later legends connect them with the Delphic Oracle and world harmony.

Over time, these creatures became close to and. Images of sirens can be found on tombstones of the late Greek period. Nikomon and Theopompus created comedies of the same name about these creatures. The southern Italian city of Surrente once had a magnificent temple in honor of the Sirens, and near Naples there is the tomb of the Elder Siren.

Sirens in the Middle Ages

With the beginning of the Middle Ages, the Christian vision intervened in the ancient vision of the universe and its monsters. Homeric myths began to be perceived from the point of view of Catholics, who saw biblical canons and interpretations in everything. The perception of the canonical myth of Odysseus has also changed.

IN "Physiologist", the very first work from which later bestiaries were written, the episode with the sirens was borrowed from the Homeric text. The author rewrote it in his own way:

The moralist says that sirens bring death. Their habitat is the sea, and their songs are mesmerizing. Sailors who hear the sirens lose consciousness, fall into the sea waves and die there. Up to the navel their bodies are female, and from the navel they are bird-like.

Thus, the author concluded that double-minded people are cunning in everything. And those who came to the church, but did not move away from their sins, are like sirens. With gentle words, sinners deceive the gullible and lead them to destruction.

Medieval authors compared Odysseus to Christ, and the mast to which he was tied to a cross. The ship became an allegory of the church, the siren - of carnal desires. Their sweet songs expressed worldly goods that were destructive to the soul. Only ropes symbolizing faith could keep Odysseus from falling into sin and eternal torment in the afterlife. The three siren sisters became an expression of greed, pride and debauchery. Ignoring the descriptions of Pliny and Ovid, medieval monks deprived the sirens of wings and bird legs, rewarding them with fish tails. The “heavenly” past of the virgins was forgotten.

Sirens in modern culture

In the modern world, images of sirens are common in many works of art. Often, authors turn directly to ancient primary sources to recreate an accurate image of the creature. The destroyer sea maidens are not forgotten these days.

Tananova Ekaterina

Sirens

Summary of the myth

Siren figure. Bronze. 8.1 cm. Etruscans, V century. BC.

Sirens are mythical female creatures, bird-women or mermaids. They were the product of one of the sea gods - either Phorkis or Achelous - and one of the muses, most likely Terpsichore. The sirens lived on one of the lifeless islands of Anfemoesse near Sicily.

According to legend, the sirens were originally nymphs surrounded by the young goddess Persephone. One day, when Persephone was walking in a meadow near Enna by Lake Perg, the god of the underworld, Hades, kidnapped her to make her his wife. The poor nymphs could not forgive themselves for not keeping track of their beautiful goddess. No one could tell them where Persephone had disappeared, so they decided to go find her on their own. Not finding the young goddess on land, they went to Persephone's mother, Demeter, for help. The desperate mother turned the nymphs into half-birds and half-fish so that they could look for Persephone in the air and water kingdom. But that didn't help either. When the sirens turned to ordinary people for help, mortals refused to help them. The sirens, in despair, moved to a deserted island and began to take revenge on the entire human race: the fish maidens, singing, pulled the sailors into the depths of the sea. The winged maidens sucked the blood of those who stopped to listen to them.

The Sirens were predicted that they would die when any of the travelers passed by their island without succumbing to temptation. When Odysseus sailed his ship past the island of Anthemoess, he heeded Circe's warning and ordered everyone on the ship to cover their ears with wax, and he himself was tied to the mast. Only thanks to this trick, Odysseus’s ship remained intact, and the sirens rushed into the sea and turned into cliffs.

Images and symbols of myth

Waterhouse John William
Siren, 1900

The image of the siren in ancient Greek mythology represents an alluring but destructive beauty. Sirens are accompanied by numerous symbolism, which makes the image complete. I would like to highlight the main symbols in the myth of the sirens.

Bird and fish bodies symbolize that part of the sirens' nature that is animalistic and embittered.

The beauty of sirens shows us how deceiving appearances can be. Often bad thoughts and intentions are hidden behind a beautiful, pleasant face.

Odysseus and the Sirens. Drawing from an antique vase

The singing of the sirens attracts men and forces them to face certain death. The singing of sirens symbolizes danger and threat. It’s not for nothing that in the modern world a siren is a signal used to warn about something.

Sirens are almost always found at sea. Perhaps this is due to the fact that on water spaces travelers become defenseless and more easily succumb to the spell of sirens.

Communicative means of creating images and symbols

Herbert Draper. Odysseus and the Sirens. 1909

The first surviving mention of sirens is in Homer's Odyssey. According to him, they live between the land of Circe and Scylla on the rocks of the island, strewn with the bones and dried skin of their victims. They killed many people, whose bones are white in the meadow. Sirens with enchanting songs lure travelers sailing by, who, forgetting about everything in the world, swim to the magical island and perish along with the ships.

In ancient times, sirens were perceived as the muses of another world. They were often carved on stone tombstones in the form of angels of death singing funeral songs to the sound of a lyre.

Siren sculpture
Gold. 3x4 cm
Late 4th century BC

In the Middle Ages, sirens were also very popular as symbols; they were widely used in coats of arms noble families. They were depicted not only with birdlike features and a fish tail, but even with the body of a four-legged animal.

Fountain "Sirens" F. F. Shchedrin
1805 Petrodvorets

Paintings and sculptures from the pre-classical and classical eras also depict sirens with the bodies of birds, and they are quite difficult to distinguish from harpies. Sirens were often depicted on ancient classical tombstones and could symbolize the souls of the dead or the spirits that accompany the soul to the god of the underworld Hades (Hades).

American researcher John Pollard points out that works of art that have come down to us indicate a connection between sirens and a number of associations and symbols preserved in literature, not counting images of sirens on tombstones and those that Odysseus and his companions encountered. Sirens are depicted next to Theseus, Artemis, Hera, Athena, Dionysus; Although most sirens are female, some, especially from earlier eras, have beards. They not only foretell death or lead to death, but also bring unearthly pleasure with their singing and symbolize animal strength.

Social significance of the myth

Edward Boutibonne. Sirens. 1883

In Greek mythology, sirens are demons in female form. Sirens represent the deceptive but charming surface of the sea, under which sharp cliffs or shoals are hidden. The siren is a symbol of deceit, seduction, the disastrous temptation of the material world, tempting the spirit on its way to the goal.

Frederic Leighton
Fisherman and Siren
1858

In general, the image of sirens actualizes the motif of disastrous female beauty, characteristic of Greek culture at a certain stage (during the transition from matriarchy to patriarchy). Sirens are associated with destruction and death.

Also, remembering the sirens, the ancient Greeks often talked about their double-mindedness and saw this as a great danger, because you never know how they will behave: like a beautiful girl or like an animal.

However, there are not only negative associations associated with sirens. The image of sirens can be endowed with positive connotations (in the context of the interpretation of music and singing as symbols of world creation). In Plato, for example, the sirens are located on the eight spheres of the cosmic spindle of the goddess Ananke, creating harmony in the world with their sweet-sounding singing.

There are still many mysteries left in ancient Greek mythology. Among them is the mystery of the appearance and existence of sirens. These wondrous creatures of divine or demonic origin leave a double impression. They are beautiful nymphs with a charming voice, but bloodthirsty and merciless.

Mythology of creatures

Myths say that sirens are women very similar to nymphs. They were on an island in the sea and lured sailors passing by. Charming girls sang songs of extraordinary beauty, complementing the melody by playing the lyre and other delicate musical instruments. Their song became so attractive that the men could not resist the temptation to swim closer to the beautiful creatures. Their brains became completely foggy, they did not see anyone or anything around them, they were pulled with great force towards the island.

But then they were disappointed: on the way to the shore, the ship hit sharp, merciless rocks, underwater reefs and was broken into pieces. The entire island on which the sirens were located was strewn with the bones of former sailors and captains, and the wreckage of their ships.

According to some reports, Zeus gave the island of Anthemoessu to the wonderful sirens. It was located between the domains of Circe and Sicily. It was a fairly rocky sea area that was of little interest to humans. They preferred to swim past it (before creatures settled on it).

They had an agreement with the gods - as soon as at least one mortal sails past their shore and does not die from their singing, then they themselves must die. Odysseus later turned out to be such a mortal.

The number of sirens that existed is unknown. It varied from 2-3 to dozens. People have interpreted the image in different ways. They carved their images on tombs and tombstones, considering them angels of death who sing sad funeral songs to the lyre.

It is a struggle for survival, competition and predatory force. Beautiful singing should alert the traveler; poisonous flowers are also very beautiful and smell pleasant. It is not for nothing that in the modern world the signal that indicates a threat is called a siren.

Sirens are always found at sea. This is due to the fact that the sea disarms the traveler, tiring him, which is why men succumb to their trick. For them, this is something new, unusual in a series of gray everyday life. They have long been unaccustomed to female affection; it is difficult for them to resist beautiful girls with wonderful singing.

Appearance

The exact descriptions of the appearance of the mythical creatures differ slightly: some say that they are very beautiful girls with wings and bird-like legs with large claws. Others say that it is a creature whose upper body is human, and whose lower body is like the tail of a fish. They have long hair, a beautiful figure, a gentle voice, which they inherited from their mother.

In folklore, the image of a mysterious siren represents the collective traits of women who are too unpredictable.

The fact that these creatures had extraordinary beauty is not just that. You should never trust the shell; a vessel may be beautiful on the outside, but absolutely empty on the inside. Sirens are characterized by changeable character, tenderness and deceit, fragility and power. The following parts of the body symbolize the animal nature in them:

• tail;
• scales;
• claws;
• feathers;
• wings.

Legends of origin

In mythology, the image of a siren is found quite often, so there are many legends, myths, tales about their origin and way of existence:

1. One of the ancient hypotheses says that the sirens were created by the deity Phocius through a natural merger with Kaliope, Melpomene or Terpsichore. This assumption justifies their unnatural attractiveness and alluring voice.
2. The second legend says that sirens were previously ordinary earthly girls who showed their proud disposition and inaccessibility, which terribly angered the goddess of beauty. As punishment, she turned them into birds. They were very angry with the men and tried to take revenge on them in the depths of the sea.
3. There is an idea that having a wonderful voice, the nymphs became arrogant and were not afraid to challenge the muses to a competition. They lost and were punished by exile to an island in the middle of the sea in the form of sirens. It was Demeter who turned the young nymphs into birds.
4. There is also a version in which the nymphs were created to serve the young goddess Persephone, but the evil Hades decided to kidnap Persephone so that she could live with him. The young nymphs could not forgive themselves for not saving their mistress. They looked for her on land in all the places they could, but they could not find out exactly where she had disappeared. Completely desperate, they came to Demeter, the mother of the missing goddess. She was in deep despair and gave the young nymphs wings and fish tails so that they could find her daughter. They did not have enough strength to search. They decided to ask people for help, but they refused. They remembered this ignoble act, settled on an abandoned island in the middle of the ocean and promised to take revenge on all men, dooming them to death.
5. There is even one version similar to fantasy in mythology, which few people know about. The Universal Mind decided to create an experimental living being. He wanted to create a man, but he didn’t succeed the first time - a siren appeared, something between a woman and a bird. This did not stop the experimenter. The second time he succeeded in creating a man, he no longer needed the siren. He destroyed all the sirens, but the exact number of nymphs created was not known, so there was a possibility that not all of them were destroyed. There were a few of them left, they lived on an island uninhabited by people and sang sad songs, envying people.

Who managed to escape from the sirens?

Almost all Greek ships that sailed near the ominous island sank and the crew died. There were exceptions. Only those who knew about the power of the sirens and how to fight it could avoid falling under their power.

1. A wise sea crew of mythical individuals who were saved by Orpheus, drowning out the fatal voice of the sirens with his powerful, beautiful singing.
2. The comrades, whose commander was Odysseus, also sailed past successfully. He was warned about the imminent meeting with the sirens, so he was worried about the safety of the entire team. Having ordered that the ears of all members of the ship be sealed with wax, he tied himself tightly with ropes to the Greek ship so that he would not be overcome by the desire to rush to the nymphs. And he succeeded. All crew members remained alive and unharmed, and the ship did not crash on the reefs. After such humiliation, the sirens died - they threw themselves off the cliff.

Nobody knows if sirens exist. Lonely sea wolves sometimes hear the wondrous sound of harps on a wild island, but no one will believe them, mistaking it for the plot of a fantasy novel. There is no need to be skeptics - the world still holds many secrets.

The Complete Encyclopedia of Mythological Creatures. Story. Origin. Magical properties of Conway Dinna

Sirens

Although sirens were associated with the ocean and water in Greek mythology, they were originally birds with human characteristics. Their name comes from a Greek root word meaning “to bind or bind.” This word came to Latin as sirena, and in French it was transformed into sereine; therefore, these female sea nymph-birds were sometimes called seirens. Their temple was located in Sorrento.

Various sources claim that there were two, three, four and even eight sirens. These sea nymphs with bird-like features had a bird-like body the size of a human, as well as the heads, arms and breasts of women. With their beautiful, seductive voices, they lured sailors to their death on huge coastal cliffs. Their loved ones musical instrument there was a lyre or double flute. Sitting on the cliffs, the sirens sang love songs, and anyone who heard them sing was instantly enchanted by them. He jumped overboard and drowned. Sirens, like the Minotaur, loved human meat.

There are many conflicting legends about the origin of sirens. According to one of them, they were once sea nymphs, daughters of the river god Achelous and the nymph Calliope. Ceres turned them into half-birds and half-women. In addition, they may have some connection with Persephone, the ruler of the underworld.

The most common names they were given were Aglaophon (with a brilliant voice), Felxepea (enchanting with words), Peisinoe (persuasive) and Molpa (song). Other authors also add the names Parthenope, Ligeia and Leukosia.

The myth tells that the vanity and pride of the sirens because of their voices and musical talents was so great that one day they challenged the Muses to a competition in music.

The Muses won and punished the sirens by plucking all the feathers from their wings. Ashamed of their appearance, these half-birds, half-women left the springs and valleys where they lived and hid among the steep coastal cliffs southern Italy. They settled on Cape Pelorus, Capri, the island of Antemuse and the Sirenuse Islands.

When Ulysses had to sail past the islands where the Sirens lived, he covered the ears of his crew with wax, and then ordered them to tie him to the mast. So the Greek hero could hear the song of the sirens, but could not jump overboard and swim to them.

Greek myths tell of only one more hero who managed to escape the spell of the Sirens - the Argonaut Jason. On the ship of Jason and the Argonauts was Orpheus, a skilled musician who played the harp. When the Argonauts' ship reached the island of the Sirens, Orpheus began to play his harp and sing, and all but one of the Argonauts were able to resist the temptation of these sea nymphs. Only Buto jumped overboard, but Aphrodite saved him.

According to an ancient prophecy, when the sirens fail to lure sailors to their deaths, they will turn into huge cliffs. When they failed to attract the Argo sailors, the Sirens jumped into the ocean and became dangerous underwater rocks. Tradition says that the body of one of them, Parthenope, was washed ashore in the place where Naples was later built.

Much information about the sirens is contained in the works of Aristotle, Pliny, Ovid and Hyginus, as well as in the Physiologus (circa 2nd century AD) and medieval bestiaries.

Perhaps the sirens lived not only in Greece. Columbus, during one of his travels, recorded that he and his people saw sirens.

Psychological characteristics: The temptation to spend too much time delving into paranormal and spiritual matters, which leads to imbalance in a person's personal life.

Magic properties: singing; love spells.

Sirens

From the book Encyclopedic Dictionary (C) author Brockhaus F.A.

Sirens Sirens (SeirhneV, Sirenes) - in Greek mythology, sea muses, personifying the deceptive but charming sea surface, under which sharp cliffs or shoals are hidden. The first mention of S. is in the Odyssey. They live in the west, on an island between the earth

From the book Exotic Zoology author Nepomnyashchiy Nikolai Nikolaevich

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When and why did the sweet-voiced sirens commit suicide? Sirens - half birds - half women - had a divine voice. They lived on a rocky island and with their singing lured travelers, whom they ate. Some blame the sirens for their suicide on

From the book The Complete Encyclopedia of Mythological Creatures. Story. Origin. Magic properties by Conway Deanna

From the author's book

Sirens Sirens personify both danger and irresistible charm. Legends say that at night these beautiful creatures call sailors to return to the sea. Unfortunately, the term “siren” has little application to the unfortunate creatures that medicine

From the author's book

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Sirens Although sirens were associated with the ocean and water in Greek mythology, they were originally birds with human characteristics. Their name comes from a Greek root word meaning “to bind or bind.” This word came to Latin as sirena,

When was the last time you heard a civil defense siren?

In Austria, the answer to this question at any time of the year is “as recently as last week.”

After World War II, Austria was so intimidated that they covered the entire country with a network of sirens and since then they have been testing it every week at exactly 12:00 on Saturday. Every Saturday for half a century now. All over the country, to the farthest corners. Farmers in mountain villages have long been in the habit of setting their watches using these signals.

How then do you distinguish real anxiety from an unscheduled test? - I ask my colleague.
- So the signal will be different.
- Do you know the types of signals?
- Well, yes, everyone at school is forced to go through them - and he listed all five types for me. Well done guys, I thought and immediately forgot these signals.
- So, in your memory, have you ever turned it on?
- They say that it was turned on during the Chernobyl disaster. And again in the 2000s, when there was a threat of strong winds in Austria.

It's clear. Gradually I got used to the signals and began to check the time using them myself.

Today, as usual, on Saturday at noon the standard test signal sounded: “15 seconds of a single tone.” However, after about ten minutes, the siren howled again, only not for 15 seconds, but much longer. A minute or two... the siren still sounds the same tone. I look out the window. In the window, people continue to go about their business, no one panics. What the?.. I connect the FM radio, start turning the stations - nothing anywhere. At this time, the siren finally stops. “Some kind of bug,” I thought.

About five minutes later it starts working again and again with a non-standard signal. What the hell... I go on the Internet, look for what the types of signals mean and finally come across a paragraph on Wikipedia: “Every year on the first Saturday of October, the entire range of signals is launched - both for testing and to introduce the population to them.” Yep, today is October 4th, Saturday, phew.

Types of sirens from Wikipedia:

1: Test: 15 seconds (usually there is a half-minute pause after this, and the test is repeated)

2: Fire. 15 second beep at very short intervals (7 seconds). At the signal, all fire brigades and volunteers (there are a lot of volunteer brigades here) must arrive at the unit. I have never heard it, because there are many other ways to notify firefighters.

3: DANGER! A three-minute signal (it was the first signal after the test today) means imminent fuck-up. It is recommended to turn on television and radio to find out exactly how you are about to die.

4: A siren with a constantly changing tone without pauses (like an ambulance or police) - means that a nuclear missile is already approaching and it would not hurt to start moving towards the nearest shelter. Well, or at least defrost