Sirens myths. Sirens in myths: their history, appearance, legends

In terms of the number of “water women” we can safely put Ancient Greece. Plato once joked that the Greeks were a lot like frogs sitting around a pond, since the vast majority of their cities were located on the Mediterranean coast. It is not surprising that the mythology of this people is closely connected with water.

Sirens were considered the most harmful and unusual of the “water maidens.” Sirens - mythical creatures female, bird-women or mermaids, who with their singing and enchanting music lure sailors and kill them. Sirens live on one of the uncomfortable lifeless islands of Anfemoesse near Sicily. They were the offspring of one of the sea gods - either Phorkis or Achelous (which is more likely) - and one of the muses, who probably hid her motherhood because of the nature of her daughters.

In the beginning they were all beautiful women. According to one legend, the sirens were turned into birds by Aphrodite, angered by their pride and arrogance. According to another myth, the muses rewarded them with a bird’s body because, proud of their beautiful voices, the sirens challenged the muses to a singing competition. According to another version, the sirens were originally nymphs surrounded by the young goddess Persephone. When their mistress was kidnapped by the ruler the afterlife Hades, her angry mother, the fertility goddess Demeter, gave beautiful maidens bird view. Finally, in another version, they themselves wanted to turn into birds in order to find Persephone, and when people did not help them, in despair they moved to a deserted island and began to take revenge on the entire human race. With their sweet singing, sirens lured sailors to the coastal cliffs and killed them on the shore. Their voice was so beautiful that not a single person could resist; all the rocks of the island were strewn with the bones of their victims.

In ancient times, sirens were perceived in the same way as muses of another world. They were often carved on stone tombstones in the form of angels of death singing funeral songs to the sound of a lyre. In the Middle Ages, sirens were very popular as symbols; they became widespread in the coats of arms of noble families. They were depicted not only with bird-like features, but also with a fish tail and even the body of a four-legged animal.

Sirens came to us from ancient times Greek mythology, mainly from the legends of Jason and Odysseus (Ulysses, in Latin). Jason and the Argonauts in the Argonautica, written by Apollonius of Rhodes (3rd century BC), meet the Sirens, daughters of the river Akeloy and the muse Terpsichore, in the appearance of half birds, half mermaids. Their singing attracted the Argonauts, and they would have died if Orpheus himself had not enchanted the sirens with his playing of the lyre. Homer's Odysseus tied his companions to a mast and plugged their ears so that they could not hear the sirens singing. Homer does not attribute to them any superhuman properties; judging by his poem, there were two sirens.

Although Apollonius worked later than Homer, the myth of Jason ancient history about Odysseus. Sirens are traditionally depicted more often as birds with female heads than female sorceresses, as some authors tried to do, citing Homer, who omitted their description in the Odyssey. Classical writers who dealt with this topic always depicted sirens as birds.

In the "Library" of Apollodorus (1st - 2nd centuries AD), the sirens are presented in the form of birds from the waist down, their names are Pisinoe, Aglaope and Telxiepia, they are the daughters of Akeloy and the muses Melpomene, one plays the harp, the other plays the flute , the third sings.

The English historian James George Fraser (1854-1941) summarized references to sirens in the works of classical writers. According to him, bird-like sirens are found in Aelian ("De natura animalium"), Ovid ("Metamorphoses"), Hyginus ("Fables"), Eustathius ("On Homer's Odyssey") and Pausanias ("Description of Hellas") . Various versions have either two, three, or four sirens. Their father is Akelaus or Forkes, the god of the sea, their mother is Melpomene, Terpsichore or Sterope. The names of the sirens are: Teles, Raidne, Molpe and Telxiope, Leucosia and Lygia or Telxione, Molpe and Aglaophonus or Aglaofem and Telxiepia. Apollodorus and Hyginus. It is believed that the Sirens died after meeting with Odysseus, and thus fulfilled the ancient oracle's prediction that they would die when the ship passed them unharmed. Other authors claim that they drowned themselves out of frustration.

Another version of the myth is known from a brief mention of the sirens in the Description of Hellas by Pausanias (2nd century AD): in Coronea there was a statue of Hera with the sirens in her hand, “for the story says that Hera convinced the daughters of Akeloy to compete with the muses in singing. The Muses won, plucked the feathers from the sirens... and made themselves crowns from them." The 16th-century English poet E. Spencer interpreted the meaning of this myth in the sense that mermaids symbolize temptation: “witch girls” were given fish tails as punishment for their “arrogance” in competition with the muses.

Paintings and sculptures from the pre-classical and classical eras also depict sirens with the bodies of birds, and they are quite difficult to distinguish from harpies. Sirens were often depicted on ancient classical tombstones and could symbolize the souls of the dead or the spirits that accompany the soul to the god of the underworld Hades (Hades). Dennis Page, in The Legend of Homer's Odyssey, suggests that Homer could have come up with a description of his humanoid sirens by combining legends about escorting souls to the domain of Hades with legends about demonic female creatures who, using their beauty, seduce and then kill men.

American researcher John Pollard points out that works of art that have come down to us indicate that a number of associations and symbols are associated with sirens, preserved in literature, not counting images of sirens on tombstones and those that Odysseus and his companions encountered. Sirens are depicted next to Theseus, Artemis, Hera, Athena, Dionysus; Although most sirens are female, some, especially from earlier eras, have beards. They not only foretell death or lead to death, but also bring unearthly pleasure with their singing and symbolize animal strength.

It is not known exactly when and why sirens began to be associated with mermaids, having lost their wings and left their nests on rocky islands to plunge into the sea waves. Perhaps this happened in the Middle Ages in connection with the spread of bestiaries. In the Romance and some other languages, the word “siren” and its related forms began to be used to refer to mermaids, although the use of this word also indicates the influence of the classical image of the siren.

In the Italian legend "The Siren's Wife", the sirens who rescue and care for a drowning wife love to sing to sailors (this feature is also shared by some mermaids, not just classic sirens); the modern Italian writer Italo Calvino, retelling this story, enhanced the effect by composing the words of their song, which seemed to encourage sailors to jump overboard into the sea; the fish-tailed siren in Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa's Ligeia (in English translation"The Professor and the Mermaid") has a classic name; the “little siren” Eleanor from Jean de Brunhoff’s book “Zephyr’s Vacation” also has a fish tail, she is good-natured and is by no means a seductress, and she has no inclination to play music.

In the sixth century, a siren was caught and christened in North Wales, and in some ancient calendars she is listed as a saint under the name Merjen. Another siren slipped through a breach in the dam in 1403 and lived in Haarlem until her death. No one could understand her speeches, but she learned to weave and, as if instinctively, worshiped the cross. A certain sixteenth-century chronicler claims that she was not a fish, for she could weave, and she was not a woman, for she could live in water.

IN English language There is a difference between the classic siren and the mermaid with a fish tail. The creation of the image of the mermaid may have been influenced by the tritons, minor deities in Poseidon's retinue.

In the tenth book of Plato's Republic, eight sirens control the movement of eight concentric celestial spheres.

Do sirens really exist? It is unlikely that anyone will be able to give a comprehensive answer to this question. In the myths of the peoples of the world, sirens have different appearances. Sometimes the siren was called the “soft water snake”, the fairy Melusine or the lake siren.

In the Renaissance, sirens were also called flirtatious naiads - nymphs of rivers, streams and lakes. The image of these sirens began to appear in ballet performances, and artists preferred to “undress” them.

Apparently, they really were beautiful after all. Or maybe there is?

When in last time did you hear the civil defense siren?

In Austria, the answer to this question at any time of the year is: “as recently as last week.”

After World War II, Austria was so intimidated that they covered the entire country with a network of sirens and since then they have been testing it every week at exactly 12:00 on Saturday. Every Saturday for half a century now. All over the country, to the farthest corners. Farmers in mountain villages have long been in the habit of setting their watches using these signals.

How then do you distinguish real anxiety from an unscheduled test? - I ask my colleague.
- So the signal will be different.
- Do you know the types of signals?
- Well, yes, everyone at school is forced to go through them - and he listed all five types for me. Well done guys, I thought and immediately forgot these signals.
- So, in your memory, have you ever turned it on?
- They say that it was turned on during the Chernobyl disaster. And again in the 2000s, when there was a threat of strong winds in Austria.

It's clear. Gradually I got used to the signals and began to check the time using them myself.

Today, as usual, on Saturday at noon the standard test signal sounded: “15 seconds of a single tone.” However, after about ten minutes, the siren howled again, only not for 15 seconds, but much longer. A minute or two... the siren still sounds the same tone. I look out the window. In the window, people continue to go about their business, no one panics. What the?.. I connect the FM radio, start turning the stations - nothing anywhere. At this time, the siren finally stops. “Some kind of bug,” I thought.

About five minutes later it starts working again and again with a non-standard signal. What the hell... I go on the Internet, look for what the types of signals mean and finally come across a paragraph on Wikipedia: “Every year on the first Saturday of October, the entire range of signals is launched - both for testing and to introduce the population to them.” Yep, today is October 4th, Saturday, phew.

Types of sirens from Wikipedia:

1: Test: 15 seconds (usually there is a half-minute pause after this, and the test is repeated)

2: Fire. 15 second beep at very short intervals (7 seconds). At the signal, all fire brigades and volunteers (there are a lot of volunteer brigades here) must arrive at the unit. I have never heard it, because there are many other ways to notify firefighters.

3: DANGER! A three-minute signal (it was the first signal after the test today) means imminent fuck-up. It is recommended to turn on television and radio to find out exactly how you are about to die.

4: A siren with a constantly changing tone without pauses (like an ambulance or police) - means that a nuclear missile is already approaching and it would not hurt to start moving towards the nearest shelter. Well, or at least defrost

There are still many mysteries left in ancient Greek mythology. Among them is the mystery of the appearance and existence of sirens. These wondrous creatures of divine or demonic origin leave double impression. They are beautiful nymphs with a charming voice, but bloodthirsty and merciless.

Mythology of creatures

Myths say that sirens are women very similar to nymphs. They were on an island in the sea and lured sailors passing by. Charming girls sang songs of extraordinary beauty, complementing the melody by playing the lyre and other delicate musical instruments. Their song became so attractive that the men could not resist the temptation to swim closer to the beautiful creatures. Their brains became completely foggy, they did not see anyone or anything around them, they were pulled with great force towards the island.

But then they were disappointed: on the way to the shore, the ship hit sharp, merciless rocks, underwater reefs and was broken into pieces. The entire island on which the sirens were located was strewn with the bones of former sailors and captains, and the wreckage of their ships.

According to some reports, Zeus gave the island of Anthemoessu to the wonderful sirens. It was located between the domains of Circe and Sicily. It was a fairly rocky sea area that was of little interest to humans. They preferred to swim past it (before creatures settled on it).

They had an agreement with the gods - as soon as at least one mortal sails past their shore and does not die from their singing, then they themselves must die. Odysseus later turned out to be such a mortal.

The number of sirens that existed is unknown. It varied from 2-3 to dozens. People have interpreted the image in different ways. They carved their images on tombs and tombstones, considering them angels of death who sing sad funeral songs to the lyre.

It is a struggle for survival, competition and predatory force. Beautiful singing should alert the traveler; poisonous flowers are also very beautiful and smell pleasant. It's not for nothing that modern world The signal that indicates a threat is called a siren.

Sirens are always found at sea. This is due to the fact that the sea disarms the traveler, tiring him, which is why men succumb to their trick. For them, this is something new, unusual in a series of gray everyday life. They have long been unaccustomed to female affection; it is difficult for them to resist beautiful girls with wonderful singing.

Appearance

The exact descriptions of the appearance of the mythical creatures differ slightly: some say that they are very beautiful girls with wings and bird-like legs with large claws. Others say that it is a creature whose upper body is human, and whose lower body is like the tail of a fish. They have long hair, a beautiful figure, a gentle voice, which they inherited from their mother.

In folklore, the image of a mysterious siren represents the collective traits of women who are too unpredictable.

The fact that these creatures had extraordinary beauty is not just that. You should never trust the shell; a vessel may be beautiful on the outside, but absolutely empty on the inside. Sirens are characterized by changeable character, tenderness and deceit, fragility and power. The following body parts symbolize the animal nature in them:

• tail;
• scales;
• claws;
• feathers;
• wings.

Legends of origin

In mythology, the image of a siren is found quite often, so there are many legends, myths, tales about their origin and way of existence:

1. One of the ancient hypotheses says that the sirens were created by the deity Phocius through a natural merger with Kaliope, Melpomene or Terpsichore. This assumption justifies their unnatural attractiveness and alluring voice.
2. The second legend says that sirens were previously ordinary earthly girls who showed their proud disposition and inaccessibility, which terribly angered the goddess of beauty. As punishment, she turned them into birds. They were very angry with the men and tried to take revenge on them in the depths of the sea.
3. There is an idea that having a wonderful voice, the nymphs became arrogant and were not afraid to challenge the muses to a competition. They lost and were punished by exile to an island in the middle of the sea in the form of sirens. It was Demeter who turned the young nymphs into birds.
4. There is also a version in which the nymphs were created to serve the young goddess Persephone, but the evil Hades decided to kidnap Persephone so that she could live with him. The young nymphs could not forgive themselves for not saving their mistress. They looked for her on land in all the places they could, but they could not find out exactly where she had disappeared. Completely desperate, they came to Demeter, the mother of the missing goddess. She was in deep despair and gave the young nymphs wings and fish tails so that they could find her daughter. They did not have enough strength to search. They decided to ask people for help, but they refused. They remembered this ignoble act, settled on an abandoned island in the middle of the ocean and promised to take revenge on all men, dooming them to death.
5. There is even one version similar to fantasy in mythology, which few people know about. The Universal Mind decided to create an experimental living being. He wanted to create a man, but he didn’t succeed the first time - a siren appeared, something between a woman and a bird. This did not stop the experimenter. The second time he succeeded in creating a man, he no longer needed the siren. He destroyed all the sirens, but the exact number of nymphs created was not known, so there was a possibility that not all of them were destroyed. There were a few of them left, they lived on uninhabited by people island and sang sad songs, envying the man.

Who managed to escape from the sirens?

Almost all Greek ships that sailed near the ominous island sank and the crew died. There were exceptions. Only those who knew about the power of the sirens and how to fight it could avoid falling under their power.

1. A wise sea crew of mythical individuals who were saved by Orpheus, drowning out the fatal voice of the sirens with his powerful, beautiful singing.
2. The comrades, whose commander was Odysseus, also sailed past successfully. He was warned about the imminent meeting with the sirens, so he was worried about the safety of the entire team. Having ordered that the ears of all members of the ship be sealed with wax, he tied himself tightly with ropes to the Greek ship so that he would not be overcome by the desire to rush to the nymphs. And he succeeded. All crew members remained alive and unharmed, and the ship did not crash on the reefs. After such humiliation, the sirens died - they threw themselves off the cliff.

Nobody knows if sirens exist. Lonely sea ​​wolves sometimes they hear the wondrous sound of harps on a wild island, but no one will believe them, mistaking it for the plot of a fantasy novel. There is no need to be skeptics - the world still holds many secrets.

Tananova Ekaterina

Sirens

Summary of the myth

Siren figure. Bronze. 8.1 cm. Etruscans, V century. BC.

Sirens are female mythical creatures, bird-women or mermaids. They were the product of one of the sea gods - either Phorkis or Achelous - and one of the muses, most likely Terpsichore. The sirens lived on one of the lifeless islands of Anfemoesse near Sicily.

According to legend, the sirens were originally nymphs surrounded by the young goddess Persephone. One day, when Persephone was walking in a meadow near Enna by Lake Perg, the god of the underworld, Hades, kidnapped her to make her his wife. The poor nymphs could not forgive themselves for not keeping track of their beautiful goddess. No one could tell them where Persephone had disappeared, so they decided to go find her on their own. Not finding the young goddess on land, they went to Persephone's mother, Demeter, for help. The desperate mother turned the nymphs into half-birds and half-fish so that they could search for Persephone in the air and water kingdom. But that didn't help either. When the sirens turned to ordinary people for help, mortals refused to help them. The sirens, in despair, moved to a deserted island and began to take revenge on the entire human race: the fish maidens, singing, pulled the sailors into the depths of the sea. The winged maidens sucked the blood of those who stopped to listen to them.

The Sirens were predicted that they would die when any of the travelers passed by their island without succumbing to temptation. When Odysseus sailed his ship past the island of Anthemoess, he heeded Circe's warning and ordered everyone on the ship to cover their ears with wax, and he himself was tied to the mast. Only thanks to this trick, Odysseus’s ship remained intact, and the sirens rushed into the sea and turned into cliffs.

Images and symbols of myth

Waterhouse John William
Siren, 1900

The image of a siren in ancient Greek mythology represents an alluring, but destructive beauty. Sirens are accompanied by numerous symbolism, which makes the image complete. I would like to highlight the main symbols in the myth of the sirens.

Bird and fish bodies symbolize that part of the sirens' nature that is animalistic and embittered.

The beauty of sirens shows us how deceiving appearances can be. Often bad thoughts and intentions are hidden behind a beautiful, pleasant face.

Odysseus and the Sirens. Drawing from an antique vase

The singing of the sirens attracts men and forces them to face certain death. The singing of sirens symbolizes danger and threat. It’s not for nothing that in the modern world a siren is a signal used to warn about something.

Sirens are almost always found at sea. Perhaps this is due to the fact that on water spaces travelers become defenseless and more easily succumb to the spell of sirens.

Communicative means of creating images and symbols

Herbert Draper. Odysseus and the Sirens. 1909

The first surviving mention of sirens is in Homer's Odyssey. According to him, they live between the land of Circe and Scylla on the rocks of the island, strewn with the bones and dried skin of their victims. They killed many people, whose bones are white in the meadow. Sirens with enchanting songs lure travelers sailing by, who, forgetting about everything in the world, swim to the magical island and perish along with the ships.

In ancient times, sirens were perceived in the same way as muses of another world. They were often carved on stone tombstones in the form of angels of death singing funeral songs to the sound of a lyre.

Siren sculpture
Gold. 3x4 cm
Late 4th century BC

In the Middle Ages, sirens were also very popular as symbols; they became widespread in the coats of arms of noble families. They were depicted not only with birdlike features and a fish tail, but even with the body of a four-legged animal.

Fountain "Sirens" F. F. Shchedrin
1805 Petrodvorets

Paintings and sculptures from the pre-classical and classical eras also depict sirens with the bodies of birds, and they are quite difficult to distinguish from harpies. Sirens were often depicted on ancient classical tombstones and could symbolize the souls of the dead or the spirits that accompany the soul to the god of the underworld Hades (Hades).

American researcher John Pollard points out that works of art that have come down to us indicate a connection between sirens and a number of associations and symbols preserved in literature, not counting images of sirens on tombstones and those encountered by Odysseus and his companions. Sirens are depicted next to Theseus, Artemis, Hera, Athena, Dionysus; Although most sirens are female, some, especially from earlier eras, have beards. They not only foretell death or lead to death, but also bring unearthly pleasure with their singing and symbolize animal strength.

Social significance of the myth

Edward Boutibonne. Sirens. 1883

In Greek mythology, sirens are demons in female form. Sirens represent the deceptive but charming surface of the sea, beneath which lie sharp cliffs or shoals. The siren is a symbol of deceit, seduction, the disastrous temptation of the material world, tempting the spirit on its way to the goal.

Frederic Leighton
Fisherman and Siren
1858

In general, the image of sirens actualizes the motif of disastrous female beauty, characteristic of Greek culture at a certain stage (during the transition from matriarchy to patriarchy). Sirens are associated with destruction and death.

Also, remembering the sirens, the ancient Greeks often talked about their double-mindedness and saw this as a great danger, because you never know how they will behave: like a beautiful girl or like an animal.

However, there are not only negative associations associated with sirens. The image of sirens can be endowed with positive connotations (in the context of the interpretation of music and singing as symbols of world creation). In Plato, for example, the sirens are located on the eight spheres of the cosmic spindle of the goddess Ananke, creating harmony in the world with their sweet-sounding singing.

A siren is a bird with a woman's head. In myths she is known as the seductress of sailors. The attributes of sirens are lyres and flutes - musical instruments, personifying sensual temptation.

The siren symbolizes temptation, seduction by a woman, deception, the deviation of a man from his true goal; seduction by the attraction of the transient, leading to spiritual death; a soul caught in sensual temptations. It is also a symbol of funerals.

In Egypt, siren birds were considered souls separated from their bodies. In Greek mythology, these are evil souls out for blood.

Sirens are considered much more dangerous than their mythological mermaid counterparts: they tempt people with beautiful singing in order to destroy them.

In Slavic mythology, an analogue of sirens, but much more positive, are the prophetic human-birds - the sirins (Sirin, Alkonost, Gamayun), who can predict the future and cause rain.

Sirens (Σειρήνες), in Greek mythology, demonic creatures, sea muses, who personified the deceptive but charming sea surface, under which sharp cliffs or shoals are hidden. The Sirens were born by the river god Achelous and the muses: Terpsichore, Calliope (Apollonius of Rhodes, IV 892-898), Melpomene or the daughter of Steropes (Apollodorus, I 3, 4; I 7, 10).

The sea god Phorcys was also considered the father of the sirens, and Gaia the mother. According to Homer, there were two sirens; later three sirens were named, whose names were Peisinoe, Aglaotha and Telxiepeia or Parthenope, Ligeia and Leukosia. In Greek tradition, it is believed that Demeter turned the sirens into demons because they did not come to the aid of Persephone when she was kidnapped by Hades. Some Greek authors claim that Aphrodite did this because they neglected love. One day the sirens challenged the muses to a competition in singing. The victorious muses plucked their feathers and wore them as decoration, so the sirens could not fly. They lived on an island strewn with the bones and dried skin of the victims of their sweet-voiced singing.

The first mention of sirens is in Homer's Odyssey. They lived in the west, on an island between the land of Circe and Scylla, and here, sitting on a flowering coastal meadow, with enchanting songs they lured travelers sailing past, who, forgetting everything in the world, swam to the magical island and perished along with the ships. Only thanks to Circe's warning did Odysseus avoid the treacherous sirens. He ordered himself to be tied to the mast of the ship and ordered to fill the ears of his comrades with wax (Homer, Odyssey, XII, 39; XII 166-200).

In post-Homeric legends (for example, in the “Argonautica” of Apollonius of Rhodes, IV, 893), the sirens were portrayed as maidens of wonderful beauty, with a charming voice; with the sounds of their songs they lulled travelers to sleep, and then tore them apart and devoured them. When the Argonauts sailed past the island of the Sirens, Orpheus drowned out their voices with his singing and playing the lyre; one of the Argonauts, Booth, rushed to their call into the sea, but was saved by Aphrodite, who settled him in Lilybaeum (Apollonius of Rhodes, IV 900-919). In post-Homeric myths, sirens were represented as winged maidens, or women with a fish tail, or maidens with a bird's body and chicken legs. They received this last attribute at their own request, so that it would be easier for them to search across the seas and islands for their missing friend Persephone, after they had searched for her in vain on earth.

The Sirens were predicted that they would die when any of the travelers passed by their island without succumbing to temptation; therefore, when Odysseus's ship sailed past them, they threw themselves into the sea and turned into cliffs. Late ancient authors determined the location of the island of the Sirens near Sicily and called as such either the Sicilian Cape Pelor, or Caprea, or the Sirenus Islands, or the island of Anthemuzu. Sirens were brought together with harpies and kers; they were even perceived as muses of another world, they were depicted on tombstones. In classical antiquity, the wild chthonic sirens turned into sweet-voiced wise sirens, each of which was located on one of the eight celestial spheres of the world spindle of the goddess Ananke, creating with their singing the majestic harmony of the cosmos (Plato, Timaeus, X 617). In the ancient Italian city of Surrente there was a temple of the Sirens; near Naples they showed the tomb of the siren Parthenope.