The sirens also play a minor role in the myths of the great Greek hero Jason and the Argonauts. The sailing crew had to pass near the island of the Sirens, and they needed a way to do it without being harmed by them. Unlike Odysseus, they did not use wax, but they had the great hero Orpheus sing and play the lyre while sailing by the island. The musical skills of Orpheus were legendary, and they were enough to make the other sailors focus on his singing rather than on the singing of the Sirens.
Thus, the Sirens were no match for the singing of Orpheus, the famed musician. There was a prophecy that said that if a mortal were ever to resist their enticing techniques, the Sirens would die. Since both Orpheus and Odysseus managed to survive their encounter, it is unclear which of them caused the death of the Sirens.
Either way, after they failed to attract the mortals, the Sirens threw themselves into the ocean and committed suicide. Nowadays, there is confusion about what sirens are. In the original myths, the Sirens were similar to the harpies, a combination of woman and a bird. They were dark and twisted creatures who attracted sailors with their gift for singing simply to kill them. However, their later depictions show them as beautiful fish-women, whose sexuality lured men to their death.
Mermaids are believed to have originated in Assyria but can be found in many cultures, from Japanese to German myths. These creatures were depicted as beautiful woman, typically peace-loving, who tried to stay away from humans. Singing was not one of their attributes. At some point in history, the myths of the two creatures crossed paths, and their characteristics became mixed.
This misconception has affected the literary works too. Today, the terms siren and mermaid are synonyms. However, the term siren still carries a more negative connotation than mermaid, because of their association with death and destruction.
The Sirens symbolize temptation and desire, which can lead to destruction and risk. As such, the Sirens can also be said to represent sin. Some have suggested that the Sirens represent the primal power that females have over men, which can both fascinate and frighten men. After Christianity began to spread, the symbol of the Sirens was used to portray the dangers of temptation.
The phrase siren song is used to describe something that is appealing and alluring but also potentially dangerous and harmful. In modern times, the idea of the Sirens as mermaids has widely spread. Siren Head is a fictional humanoid monster created in by the Canadian artist respectfully known as Trevor Henderson. Famed and renowned for their musical voices and instrument skills, the Sirens would lure sailors off their course, drawn by the music and enchanting voices, the sailors would be so distracted, they would often crash their ships and boats on rocky coastlines.
The Sirens were hybrid creatures with the body of a bird and the head of a woman, sometimes also with human arms. One tradition states their origin as companions of Persephone and, failing to prevent her rape, they were transformed into Sirens as punishment.
The Sirens symbolize temptation and desire, which can lead to destruction and risk. As such, the Sirens can also be said to represent sin. They were formerly handmaidens of the goddess Persephone and when she was secretly abducted by Haides, Demeter gave them the bodies of birds to assist in the search.
English has the word mermaid for the fish-woman and siren for the mythological bird-woman. In Russian, too, the sirin has survived as a bird-woman. Sirens were believed to look like a combination of women and birds in various different forms. By the Middle Ages, the figure of the Siren had transformed into the enduring mermaid figure. From Vulci. Via Wikimedia Commons. Many scholars today believe that the Sirens were considered to be manifestations of the human soul after death, and duplicitous tricksters.
One can only speculate as to why Sirens took the form of a hybrid bird-woman, but avian symbolism in the Greek imagination was relatively common. In ancient mythology, birds were used to represent everything from oracles, enchantresses, messengers of deities, and mediators between the human world and the supernatural realm.
Over the centuries, however, the Siren transformed. In the Middle Ages, the spread of Christianity throughout Europe saw the Siren morph from a bird-woman into a fish-bodied being, who personified the dangers of both the sea and female sexuality.
These Sirens no longer symbolized the spirit, but rather, the pleasures of the flesh. In the 19th-century, an abundance of Victorian mermaid iconography furthered this representation of Sirens.
These creatures were ravishingly beautiful and sensuous in the way they moved to seduce passing sailors. The ancient Greek Siren is a world away from the beguiling mermaids of the nineteenth century.
Here, there is no trace of seduction, for their sole purpose is to mourn, lament, and act as apotropaic charms over tombs. The end of that song is death.
These clues toward the Siren's past life as a death-spirit begin to reveal how the nature of the Siren's power has long been misunderstood—sexualized and obscured like so many other feminine icons throughout history.
0コメント