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SIRENS (Gr. Metpi7ves)

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Originally appearing in Volume V25, Page 156 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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SIRENS (Gr. Metpi7ves) , in See also:Greek See also:mythology, the daughters of Phorcys the See also:sea-See also:god, or, in later See also:legend, of the See also:river-god Acheloiis and one of the See also:nymphs. In See also:Homer they are two in number (in later writers generally three); their See also:home is an See also:island in the western sea between Aeaea, the island of See also:Circe, and the See also:rock of Scylla. They are nymphs of the sea, who, like the See also:Lorelei of See also:German legend, lured mariners to destruction by their sweet See also:song. See also:Odysseus, warned by Circe, escaped the danger by stopping the ears of his See also:crew with See also:wax and binding himself to the See also:mast until he was out of See also:hearing (Odyssey xii.). When the See also:Argonauts were passing by them, See also:Orpheus sang so beautifully that no one had ears for the Sirens, who, since they were to live only until some one heard their song unmoved, flung themselves into the sea and were changed into sunken rocks (See also:Apollodorus i. 9; See also:Hyginus, Fab. 141). They were said to have been the playmates of Persephone, and, after her See also:rape by See also:Pluto, to have sought for her in vain over the whole See also:earth (See also:Ovid, Metam. v. 552). When the adventures of Odysseus were localized on the See also:Italian and Sicilian coasts, the Sirens were transferred to the neighbourhood of Neapolis and See also:Surrentum, the promontory of Pelorum at the entrance to the Straits of See also:Messina, or elsewhere. The See also:tomb of one of them, Parthenope, was shown in See also:Strabo's (v. p.

246) See also:

time at Neapolis, where a gymnastic contest with a See also:torch-See also:race was held in her See also:honour. Various explanations are given of the Sirens. As sea-nymphs, they represent the treacherous See also:calm of ocean, which conceals destruction beneath its smiling See also:surface; or they signify the enervating See also:influence of the hot See also:wind (compare the name Sirius), which shrivels up the fresh See also:young See also:life of vegetation. Or, they symbolize the magic See also:power of beauty, eloquence and song; hence their images are placed over the See also:graves of beautiful See also:women and maidens, of poets and orators (See also:Sophocles, Isocrates). Another conception of them is that of singers of the lament for the dead, for which See also:reason they are often used in the adornment of tombs, and represented beating their breasts and tearing their See also:hair or playing the See also:flute or See also:lyre. In See also:early See also:art, they were represented as birds with the heads of women; later, as See also:female figures with the legs of birds, with or without wings. See H. See also:Schrader, See also:Die Sirenen (1868) ; See also:Preller-See also:Robert, Griechische Mythologie (1894), pp. 614–616; G. Weicker, De Sirenibus quaestiones selectae (See also:Leipzig, 1895), in which the writer endeavours to show that the Sirens, like the See also:Harpies, were originally the souls of the dead, their employment on tombstones expressing the See also:desire to find a permanent See also:abode for the souls; and Der Seelenvogel in der See also:alien Literatur and Kunst (1902), with bibliography; J. E. See also:Harrison, Myths of the Odyssey (1882), Mythology and Monuments of See also:Athens (189o) and Prolegomena to the Study of Greek See also:Religion (1908); J.

P. Postgate, in See also:

Journal of See also:Philology, ix. (188o), who considers the Sirens to have been birds; W. E. Axon, R. See also:Morris, D. See also:Fitzgerald in the See also:Academy, Nos. 484, 486, 487 (1881); A. Baumeister, Denkmaler See also:des klassischen Altertums, iii. (1888).

End of Article: SIRENS (Gr. Metpi7ves)

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