Siren (mythology)

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Odysseus and the Sirens (vase picture, approx. 475–450 BC)

In Greek mythology, a siren ( ancient Greek Σειρ altν Seirēn ) is a mostly female, sometimes bearded mythical creature (a hybrid of originally human and bird, later also human and fish), which attracts the passing boatmen with its beguiling song to kill them .

Names and number

Homer did not give the sirens ( Seirenes , also called Acheloides or Acheloiades ) their own names in his Odyssey , but did mention that there were two. It was only later authors who cited proper names , usually putting their number at three. The names given include:

  • Aglaophonos ("the one with the more beautiful voice"; variants including: Aglaope ("wonderful voice"), Aglaopheme ("sweet speech"))
  • Himeropa ("soft voice")
  • Leukosia ("the white one")
  • Ligeia ("the light one")
  • Molpe ("song")
  • Parthenope ("girl's voice")
  • Peisinoe ("the persuader")
  • Thelxiope ("enchanting voice"; variants including: Thelxinoe ("captivating the mind"), Thelxiepeia ("enchanting"))

Here is a selection of the names used by ancient writers:

  • Thelxiope or Thelxinoe, Molpe, Aglaophonos
  • Thelxiepeia, Aglaope, Peisinoe
  • Thelxiepe, Molpe, Pisinoe
  • Leukosia, Ligeia, Parthenope

Plato speaks of eight sirens in a cosmological context, but does not give their names.

ancestry

Homer didn't mention the Siren's parents. Several later authors cited the river god Acheloos as the father of the sirens, whom he fathered with one of the nine muses , either Melpomene or Terpsichore or Calliope . As a further variant, Acheloos and Steropes are given as parents. Euripides only mentioned the mother of the sirens in his play Helena , who was the earth goddess Gaia , while Sophocles, according to Plutarch , made the sirens descend from the sea ​​god Phorkys .

Appearance

Greek siren (340-300 BC).

Homer gave no information about the appearance of the sirens, nor about their names or origins. In iconography, they appear in the oldest known representations (from around 650 BC) as birds with human heads, and now and then also as men with beards. They probably originally belonged to the realm of the death demons and were related to the harpies and lamias . Since about 550 BC Her upper body was also depicted as a human figure, with female breasts and arms. Later, their demonic character receded and they have been around since about 400 BC. Chr. Presented on grave monuments as helpers of the lamentation supported by elegiac music, whereby they were represented as beautiful women with bird attributes. Euripides also sees them as muses of mourning for the dead.

There are different versions of legends about how the sirens should have got their shape: Ovid reports that they were playmates of the goddess Proserpina (or Persephone in Greek mythology) and went in search of her when they came from Pluto (or Hades ) had been robbed. Because they could not find Proserpine, they asked the gods to be given wings so that they could look for the kidnapped woman on the sea, whereupon her transformation took place. According to another narrative, the sirens allowed Pluto to kidnap Proserpine and were later transformed into winged creatures by her mother Ceres (or Demeter ) as a punishment. As a third variant, the Homer commentator Eustathios states that the sirens were once girls and that the goddess Aphrodite turned them into birds because of their unwillingness to marry .

In medieval ( literary as well as pictorial ) adaptations, the sirens were also depicted as a hybrid of humans and fish and referred to as mermaids . The Liber Monstrorum describes them as women who attract the passing seafarers with enchanting songs, whose lower half consists of a scaled fish body. According to Boccaccio , they were human-shaped up to the navel, fish-shaped below, and also had wings. In some more modern adaptations of the theme, sirens are equated with mermaids .

Encounter with Orpheus and Odysseus

Both Odysseus and Orpheus managed to sail past Sirens Island without succumbing to their bewitching song.

When the Argonauts approached Siren Island, Orpheus was able to drown out their singing with his lyre . Almost the entire team came out of the adventure so safe. Only Butes heard their beguiling voices, jumped from the ship and swam towards the island, but was saved just in time by Aphrodite, who had him carried by the waves to Lilybaion in Sicily .

According to Homer, who provides the oldest literary tradition of the siren saga, the two sirens living on an island attracted seafarers not only with their enchanting voices, but above all with their ability to know and be able to reveal everything that happened on earth. If the sailors followed them to the island, they were lost and died. Their exact fate is not specified in the Odyssey and only reported by pale bones of rotten people. Apparently they were not used as food for the sirens. Odysseus wanted to hear the sirens singing out of curiosity. On the advice of the sorceress Kirke , he had the ears of his companions sealed with melted wax and tied himself to the mast of the ship. So he could hear the singing of the sirens, who promised to tell him the future on a short visit, but when he was carried away, the companions tied his ropes even more tightly, as previously agreed. Once out of earshot, the spell lost its effect.

residence

According to Homer's mythical geography, the island of the Sirens was between Aiaia , the island of Kirke, and the place where Odysseus had to decide whether to drive through the dangerous plankton or through the strait where Charybdis and Scylla lived, and which later among other things was often identified with the Strait of Messina . According to a fragment of Hesiod, the island of the Sirens was called Anthemoessa , but its location is not specified. According to Aristotle , however, Samos used to be called Anthemoessa . Another tradition localized the home of the sirens in the Tyrrhenian Sea , for example on the Sirenuses south of the Sorrento peninsula or on the Sicilian foothills of Pelorias near Mount Etna . The island of Capreae was also mentioned as the residence of the sirens. The grave of the Parthenope washed up dead after jumping into the sea is said to have been at the port of Naples ; their cult was also celebrated in Naples.

Competition with the muses

A version of the legend tells that at Hera's request the sirens got involved in a competition with the muses to see who could sing more beautifully, but were defeated. In doing so, they had to “drop feathers” from which the muses woven wreaths. Stephanos of Byzantium locates the competition in the city of Aptera on Crete .

death

It was only in the Hellenistic period that there is a legend that the sirens committed suicide after defeat. According to Hyginus , they could only live as long as they were able to entice every passing sailor with their song and thus cause its downfall. After failing on Odysseus, they threw themselves into the sea and died. Other sources cite the successful sailing past of the Argonauts or their failure to outdo the muses in song as the cause of their suicide. After their death, they were turned into islands or cliffs. In terms of omniscience and circumstances of death, they resemble the Sphinx .

Christianity

In the moral myths of ancient and medieval Christianity, sirens were seen as the embodiment of the dangerous temptation emanating from women and men and the worldly stimuli that seduce sensual pleasure. The church writer Clement of Alexandria saw in them such a symbol of threat, which one had to watch out for: “Let us flee from habit, let us flee from it as from a dangerous cliff or the threat of the Charybdis or the Sirens, of which the legend tells! ”. Iconographically, sirens making music are occasionally juxtaposed with angels blowing trombones as the embodiment of worldly temptations. Boccaccio described the sirens as whores. Their wings symbolize their frequent change of partner, and with their claws those who have flown away leave wounds.

literature

Web links

Wiktionary: Siren  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations
Commons : Siren  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Remarks

  1. ↑ Homer , Odyssey 12:52.
  2. ^ Hesiod : Catalog of Women ( Ehoien ). Fragment from Scholia to Apollonios of Rhodes 4, 892.
  3. ↑ Libraries of Apollodor Epitome 7, 18.
  4. ^ Hyginus : Fabulae praef. 30th
  5. ^ Lycophron: Alexandra 712; Strabo (5, 4, 7 p. 246; 6, 1, 1 p. 252) names the two names Parthenope and Leukosia ; Pliny , Naturalis historia 3,13 incorrectly calls it Leucasia .
  6. ^ Plato : Politeia . 10, 14, 617b.
  7. ↑ Apollodor, Libraries 1, 3, 4, 1 and Epitome 7, 18; Lykophron, Alexandra 712; Hyginus, Fabulae 141 and praef. 30th
  8. ↑ Apollonios of Rhodes 4, 892; Nonnos , Dionysiaka 13, 313; Tzetzes to Lykophron 653.
  9. ^ Servius to Virgil , Aeneid 5, 864.
  10. ↑ Apollodor, Libraries 1, 7, 10, 2.
  11. ↑ Euripides , Helena 167.
  12. ^ Plutarch , Symposiaka 9, 14, 6.
  13. ↑ Hans von Geisau: Seirenes. In: The Little Pauly (KlP). Volume 5, Stuttgart 1975, column 79 f.
  14. ↑ Euripides, Helena 165f.
  15. ↑ Ovid , Metamorphosen 5, 552-563; already Apollonios of Rhodes (4, 891ff.) mentions the sirens as servants of Demeter's daughter, for whom they would have sung in the choir.
  16. ^ Hyginus, Fabulae 141.
  17. ↑ Eustathios to Homer, Odyssey 12, 47.
  18. ↑ Liber Monstrorum 1, 6.
  19. ↑ Boccaccio , Genealogia deorum gentilium 7, 20.
  20. ↑ Apollonios of Rhodes 4, 891-921 and 4, 1264-1290; Apollodorus, Libraries 1, 9, 25, 1; Hyginus, Fabulae 14.
  21. ↑ Homer, Odyssey 12, 39-54 and 12, 158-200.
  22. ↑ Hesiod in Scholien zu Apollonios von Rhodes 4, 892.
  23. ↑ Aristotle in Pliny , Naturalis historia 5, 135
  24. ↑ Suda , keyword Seirenas ( Σειρῆνας ), Adler number: sigma 280 , Suda-Online
  25. ↑ Strabo 1, 22f. and 5, 247 et al
  26. ^ Servius to Virgil, Aeneid 5, 864.
  27. ↑ Lykophron, Alexandra 717ff .; Strabo 1,23; 1.26; 5, 246.
  28. ↑ Pausanias 9:34, 3; Stephanos of Byzantium , s. Aptera ; Tzetzes to Lykophron 653.
  29. ↑ Hyginus, Fabulae 125 and 141; similar to Lykophron, Alexandra 712ff.
  30. ↑ Orphic Argonautica 1288f.
  31. ↑ Stephanos of Byzantium, s. Aptera .
  32. ↑ Clement of Alexandria : Protreptikos 12th chapter, p. 118
  33. ↑ W. Salmen: Sirens making music , in: F. Krinzinger (Ed.): Research and Findings. Festschrift Bernhard Neutsch, 1980, pp. 393–399.
  34. ↑ Boccaccio: Genealogia deorum gentilium 7, 20.