Table of Contents
The Sirens in Greek Mythology: Origins and Genealogy
In Greek myth the Sirens sang so sweetly that sailors who heard them never came home. They first appear in Homer’s Odyssey, where the witch Circe warns Odysseus about them.
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.
Homer, Odyssey, Book XII, translated by Samuel Butler
Homer does not say what they looked like. He only tells of the heap of dead men’s bones around them.
Parentage
Ancient writers do not agree on who the Sirens’ parents were. There are two main lines.
Achelous and One of the Muses
When the Sirens are named, they are usually daughters of Achelous, the river god of the Acheloos, the largest river in Greece. Ovid calls them “daughters of Acheloüs”.
Their mother is said to be one of the Muses, the goddesses of art and music. Writers name different Muses: Melpomene (tragedy), Terpsichore (dance) or Calliope (epic poetry). Apollodorus adds a fourth option, Sterope, a daughter of King Porthaon of Calydon. A Muse for a mother fits creatures known above all for their singing.
Phorcys and Ceto
A fragment of Sophocles makes Phorcys their father. Phorcys and his partner Ceto are old sea gods, linked with the dangers and monsters of the deep. This version ties the Sirens to the perils of the sea.
Origins and Transformations
In some myths the Sirens were not always dangerous. They were maidens in the company of Persephone, daughter of Demeter. When Hades carried Persephone off, they could not save her.
The stories differ on what came next. In Hyginus’ Fabulae, Demeter curses them for failing to step in. In Ovid’s Metamorphoses, the change is a gift: they asked for wings so they could search for her over the sea as well as the land.
Ovid says the Sirens kept a maiden’s face and a human voice.
Whence have you, daughters of Acheloüs, feathers and the feet of birds, since you have the faces of maidens? Is it because, when Proserpine was gathering the flowers of spring, you were mingled in the number of her companions?
Ovid, Metamorphoses, Book V, translated by Henry T. Riley
Proserpine is the Roman name for Persephone.
Physical Appearance
How the Sirens look changed over time.
By the 7th century BC, Greek art regularly showed them as birds with human heads. In the 3rd century BC, Apollonius of Rhodes described them as part woman and part bird. They were creatures of both the air and the sea.
Later they were often shown fully human, though still tied to the sea, and their beauty and allure came to the fore. 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).
Locations
The Sirens were said to live on dangerous coasts or islands in the Mediterranean, places linked with shipwrecks:
- Sirenum Scopuli: A group of rocky islands or reefs identified as their dwelling place. Roman poets placed them here.
- Island of Anthemoessa: The “flowery” island, another mythical home. It looked lush and inviting but was deadly.
- Capri, Italy View Map: Later writers placed them in the islands called the Sirenuse, near Paestum, or on Capri (Capreae).
- Strait of Messina View Map: This passage between Sicily and mainland Italy is also linked to them, through Cape Pelorum. Scylla and Charybdis wait nearby.
All these places were ringed by cliffs and rocks.
Siblings
Who their siblings were depends on which parents a writer chose. As daughters of Achelous, they would share a father with his other children, though the sources rarely name them. As children of a Muse, they would be related to the other gods and spirits of music and the arts.
Conclusion
The Sirens stand for temptation that ends in ruin. Their family tree joins water and music: a river god or a sea god on one side, a Muse on the other. From their rocky islands to their deadly song, they remain a lasting image of the danger of giving in to desire.
