Although we did not talk about the Sirens much in this class, they have caught my attention. I have taken other classes in which we have discussed modern interpretations of Greek and Roman myths including Ulysses by James Joyce and the films “Oh Brother Where Art Thou?” and “Sirens”. In these other classes there was a much larger focus on the Sirens and the way they have been portrayed throughout history. I would like to share some of these portrayals with you here.
In the original myth, the Sirens were ugly (or beautiful depending on the source) chicken women who lived alone on an island. These chicken women would seduce sailors passing by their island with song and the sailors would crash their boats into the rocks surrounding the island. The Sirens would then eat their flesh. This myth is pretty grotesque in its origin. In some versions of the myth the Sirens were handmaidens of Demeter that were turned into birds to look for Persephone, while others simply have them born as bird women to the river god Achelous with no clear consensus on who their mother was.
The most well known use of the Sirens myth is in Homer’s Odyssey. In the Odyssey Odysseus’ boat passes the island of the Sirens and he is determined to be the only one to hear their song and live. He has all of his men plug their ears with ear wax and ties himself to the ships mast. He succeeds in hearing the Siren song and surviving.
When you move further through history the myth is used in many different ways. The most common theme is that these women are not only beautiful singers, but are beautiful women in general. In the films mentioned above the women are beautiful and eye-catching, which gets the men into trouble. In Ulysses the barmaids in the Sirens chapter are beautiful and lusted after by the men that visit their tavern. The thing about Sirens is that they know they are beautiful and they use their looks to seduce men (and women) into doing something for them. Whether that thing is crashing into the rocks so they have a meal, or spending more money on drinks at their bar.
The Sirens always bring trouble to the men that they seduce. In “Oh Brother Where Art Thou” the trouble is simply that they are delayed in their journey. This is the same in the Odyssey. Odysseus goes out of his way and takes the time to sail past the Siren’s Island. Other men that encounter the Sirens are not as lucky and often come to some type of danger or pain. In the film “Sirens” the male figure loses his wife to the Sirens when she becomes one herself. In other adaptations however the outcome is much more dire. This is most obvious in the original myth, where the Siren song led to death.
This myth is just one of the ways that society and men have portrayed feminine beauty (and women in general) as being dangerous to men. The beautiful feminine voices of the Sirens draw the sailors in to their deaths. There are many other myths that help perpetuate this idea that women are dangerous for men. One of the most obvious ones being the myth of Pandora, whose existence was a punishment for mankind. The story of the Trojan war also perpetuates this idea. Helen of Troy is described as the most beautiful woman on Earth and that beauty brings about a 10 year war between the Greeks and Trojans. The Siren myth is just one myth that contributes to this idea of women as dangerous, but it is one that has persisted throughout history.
Image: Ulysses and the Sirens by Herbert James Draper (1909)
Image: Sirens (1993)
Image: Oh Brother Where Art Thou (2000)