Mermaids and sirens have often been linked as the open sea’s “sultry female seductresses.”
But today I want to separate their histories and “dive” into the unique and important
“voice” of the siren..
The first depictions of sirens weren’t actually mermaids at all, they were sea-dwelling monsters
with half human half bird bodies.
That later changed when a medieval book of monsters claimed the fantastic creatures actually
had a “scaly tail.”
But two aspects of the sirens have always remained the same: they live out at sea and
their song is fatal.
That VOICE is what really makes the Siren monster powerful.
Its sound means imminent danger and often, impending death.
The stories began thousands of years ago during a time when sea travel was particularly treacherous,
with accounts of shipwrecks and drowned sailors appearing often with seemingly no explanation.
The siren was a metaphor for the dangers at sea—where countless unseen threats lurked
under the surface of the water, and above it.
And where being distracted could mean danger and even death.
The first siren stories date back to around the 8th century BCE with Homer’s The Odyssey.
In it, Odysseus and his men prepare to leave the island of the witch-goddess Circe
after a year of post- Trojan War debauchery.
Ever the kind hostess, Circe warns that they will encounter two Sirens - and
if the men hear their “beguiling” voices, they will never return home.
Circe does, however, offer a suggestion—she says that if the men put soft wax in their
ears, they will not be affected.
And if Odysseus wants to hear the “delight” of the sirens’ voices, he must have the
men tie him to the ship’s mast so he cannot escape.
The sirens sit in a flowery meadow on a rocky island surrounded by “a great heap of bones
of moldering men.”
Odysseus heeds Circe’s advice and puts wax in his men’s ears as they near
the island.
Before doing so, he tells the men that Circe instructed him alone to listen
to the Sirens’ voices.
He keeps his own ears unplugged and has his body bound safely to the mast.
The Sirens hear the ship as it approaches and in “clear-toned song” sing directly
to Odysseus.
They sing of their knowledge, of knowing “all things that come to pass upon the fruitful
earth.”
Odysseus can't help but be charmed by the hypnotic voices and he begs to be removed
from the mast, but the men bind him even tighter.
They eventually sail past the island and Odysseus is free from harm.
Notice something missing there?
There’s no physical description whatsoever of the Sirens.
So how do we know what they look like?
Historical artifacts.
From terracotta figurines to vases, funerary pots to perfume bottles and mirror decorations,
the siren seems to appear everywhere in Greek art.
From the 6th century BCE on, early art of the Sirens shows them as part bird and part
human, most often with a female head or torso and clawed feet.
They commonly have wings and are always depicted around water.
In addition to Greek art, written and oral legends helped define the Siren.
In some versions they are referred to as the Greek river god Achelous’ daughters.
In other tales, the sirens were the handmaidens of Persephone who were turned into winged
bird-women after witnessing her abduction by Hades.
They now spend their time luring sailors to their deaths with their song.
But why half bird half humans?
Well, birds are known for their songs, melodic or otherwise.
But associating birds with death and water?
That answer may lie thousands of years earlier with the Egyptian Ba-bird.
Ancient Egyptians believed that a person was made of both physical and non-physical parts.
One of these parts, the “Ba,” was a representation of a non-physical part of the person, and
it was depicted as a human-bird hybrid after death.
With a human head, bird body, and sometimes human arms, the Ba-bird was able to fly from
the tomb or burial site of the physical corpse—but it always had to return.
Some Egyptian beliefs also dictated that after judgement, another part of the soul would
need to be rowed across the waters of a lake to reach eternal life.
Since the Ba’s appearance reflected the sex of the person, ba could be male or female,
which would explain why some examples of male sirens exist [Northumberland bestiary sirens.],
but usually these sweet-tongued monsters are female.
While scholars disagree about when exactly Homer wrote The Odyssey, we do know that the
Ba-bird appeared in Egyptian funerary texts literally hundreds of years before
- As in the 15th century BCE.
There was also ancient Egyptian art showing the Ba as a human-bird hybrid.
[Ba from Papyrus of Hori ca. 1085-935].
Greeks became frequent travelers to Egypt around the 6th century BCE as routes across
the Mediterranean Sea made trade relatively easier, allowing physical goods and ideas
to move between the cultures.
Because of their near identical appearance and association with death, some scholars
argue that the Egyptian Ba-bird formed the foundation of the Greek siren.
But Sirens aren’t exclusive to Greek mythology.
In the 7th century, Spanish scholar and archbishop Isidore of Seville wrote in his ambitious
encyclopedia of language that sirens “were said to have had wings
and talons because sexual desire both flies and wounds.
They are said to have lived among the waves because the waves gave birth to Venus.”
He also writes they were “harlots” who seduced sailors and other travelers, driving
them to “destitution,” which is how he explained the tales of sailors who died at
sea.
The original description of sirens as bird-women may also be explained by actual carnivorous
sea birds that hunt at sea and whose nests would presumably be surrounded by the bones
and remains of their kills.
As time went on, medieval bestiaries depicted sirens frequently, but they are not always
described the same way.
One example from an earlier 132th-century Latin bestiary [Sirens playing instruments]
demonstrates the confusion surrounding the siren’s appearance.
The three sirens are all shown with bird wings and feet, and two of them are playing musical
instruments.
One siren’s feet are different and appear webbed.
Their lower torsos also appear bird-like to me, but I do think the feathers could also
look like scales to some people.
Especially that one on the left—that could be a fishtail.
But hey, even she looks confused.
The first siren as a fish-woman appears in art as early as the 7th century CE.
Around the same time, in the late 7th to early 8th century, the publication of the Book of
Monsters describes the siren with the upper torso of a woman
and a scaly tail.
A few hundred years later is when we really start to see more sirens with the tail of
a fish.
In an early 13th century encyclopedic work, the author describes (in Otia Imperialia)
Sirens living off the coast of Britain.
It reads, “They have a female head, long, shining hair, a woman’s breasts, and all
the limbs of the female form down to the navel; the rest of the body tails off as a fish…with
the immense sweetness of their singing these creatures so penetrate the hearts of passing
sailors that they succumb utterly to the sensuous enticement of their ears, they become forgetful
of their duty, and very often suffer shipwreck through carelessness.”
So why the change in appearance?
Regardless of what they look like, sirens have always been dangerous.
In the 14th century, sirens appear in an old Irish variation of the myth [The Book of Ballymote]
that connects the tempting women with death explicitly.
In this version, sailors encounter nine beautiful women atop a submerged island at sea.
The sirens hold the ship for nine days before giving the men a huge amount of gold—but
only after the sailors promise to return.
Seven years pass, and as the ships sail past again, they try to avoid the sirens.
Just as they think they’ve made it safely away, they find themselves being chased after
by the sea-women “singing a song of lamentation.”
One siren kills a child she conceived during her initial encounter with the men—and throws
the corpse at the horror-stricken father.
Brutal.
Mermaids have a history all of their own, and I think it’s important to recognize
that the legacy of the seductive siren and her dangerously beautiful singing voice is
part of that tradition, but ultimately its own entity.
Depending on who you ask, sirens weren’t even all that bad.
Their songs did drive men to watery graves, but that was only because they were so skilled
at making music and were even praised for their musical talents.
To call someone a “Siren” used to be a compliment—even for the Ancient Greeks.
A famous rhetorician in the 5th and 4th century BCE, Isocrates, was even buried in a tomb
emblazoned with a Siren as a symbol of his masterful use of language and exceptional
skills in speaking.
The original Siren myth shows Odysseus tempted not by how the Sirens look, but by what knowledge
they offer him.
Nevertheless, the danger associated with the enchanting song of the creature increasingly
emphasized in medieval texts led to its association with anything that the allures or deceives.
The way we use the word siren today to refer to something like a police-siren or emergency
alert, originates from an instrument made in the late 18th century named after the monster
for its ability to produce a loud sound under water.
Today we think of Sirens as sexy, beautiful women out to trap and ensnare men.
Ultimately though sirens are meant to warn us of the danger of temptation and distractions
of all kinds.
Not all beautiful things are safe—some can even destroy you.