Siren (mythology)
In Greek mythology, sirens (Ancient Greek: singular: Σειρήν, Seirḗn; plural: Σειρῆνες, Seirênes) are humanlike beings with alluring voices; they appear in a scene in the Odyssey in which Odysseus saves his crew's lives.[1] 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,[2] is fixed: sometimes on Cape Pelorum and at others in the islands known as the Sirenuse, near Paestum, or in Capreae.[3] All such locations were surrounded by cliffs and rocks.
This article is about the mythological creatures. For other uses, see Siren.Sirens continued to be used as a symbol for the dangerous temptation embodied by women regularly throughout Christian art of the medieval era. "Siren" can also be used as a slang term for a woman considered both very attractive and dangerous.[4]
Classical literature[edit]
Family tree[edit]
Although a Sophocles fragment makes Phorcys their father,[27] when sirens are named, they are usually as daughters of the river god Achelous,[28] either by the Muse Terpsichore,[29] Melpomene[30] or Calliope[31] or lastly by Sterope, daughter of King Porthaon of Calydon.[32]
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.[33] Sirens are found in many Greek stories, notably in Homer's Odyssey.
Early Christian to Medieval[edit]
Late antiquity[edit]
By the fourth century, when pagan beliefs were overtaken by Christianity, the belief in literal sirens was discouraged
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 melody to men, and is symbolic vice of Pleasure in the preaching of Clement of Alexandria (2nd century).[60] Later writers such as Ambrose (4th century) reiterated the notion that the siren stood as symbol or allegory for worldly temptations.[61] and not an endorsement of the Greek myth.
Isidorus[edit]
The early Christian euhemerist interpretation of mythologized human beings received a long-lasting boost from the Etymologiae by Isidore of Seville (c. 560–636):