Haiti: Known as La Siren, sometimes associated with Simbi, a serpent spirit.
Though rare, some legends portray Lamiak as kidnappers, hypnotizers, or predators, similar to the sirens of Greek mythology.
Haiti: Known as La Siren.
They are frequently linked to singing or calling out to sailors with enchanting voices, reminiscent of sirens in Greek mythology.
In Greek myth the Sirens sang so sweetly that sailors who heard them never came home.
Circe tells Odysseus that the Sirens' song kills.
If any one unwarily draws in too close and hears the singing of the Sirens, his wife and children will never welcome him home again, for they sit in a green field and warble him to death with the sweetness of their song.
Ancient writers do not agree on who the Sirens' parents were.
When the Sirens are named, they are usually daughters of Achelous, the river god of the Acheloos, the largest river in Greece.
This version ties the Sirens to the perils of the sea.
In some myths the Sirens were not always dangerous.
Ovid says the Sirens kept a maiden's face and a human voice.
How the Sirens look changed over time.
The English painter William Etty showed them as young women in his 1837 painting The Sirens and Ulysses, and later artists followed him.
In medieval bestiaries the Siren could also be half woman and half fish, like a mermaid (compare Melusine, the two-tailed mermaid).
The Sirens were said to live on dangerous coasts or islands in the Mediterranean, places linked with shipwrecks:
The Sirens stand for temptation that ends in ruin.
Melusine shares traits with other water spirits, such as nymphs, selkies, and sirens, emphasizing her connection to natural water sources.
Sirens: Although often depicted as part-bird in early Greek myths, later interpretations combine Sirens with mermaid-like features.
Compare this last figure, from Peru, with the representation on page 430 of a Greek siren, one of those cruel monsters who, according to Grecian mythology, sat in the midst of bones and blood, tempting men to ruin by their sweet music.