In the Argonautica (third century BC), Jason had been warned by Chiron that Orpheus would be necessary in his journey. When Orpheus heard their voices, he drew out his lyre and played his music more beautifully than they, drowning out their voices. One of the crew, however, the sharp-eared hero Butes, heard the song and leapt into the sea, but he was caught up and carried safely away by the goddess Aphrodite. [11] Odyssey [ edit ] Odysseus and the Sirens, eponymous vase of the Siren Painter, c. 475 BC The siren was sometimes drawn as a hybrid with a human torso, a fish-like lower body, and bird-like wings and feet. [85] [86] While in the Harley 3244 (cf. fig. top right) the wings sprout from around the shoulders, in other hybrid types, the style places the siren's wings "hanging at the waist". [88] [91] (Comb and mirror) This object depicts a contest between the muses and the sirens. In Greek mythology, muses were goddesses who inspired literature, science, and the arts. Sirens were half-woman, half-bird creatures who lured men to destruction with their song. Can you identify the two "teams"? At least, this was reported to Pausanias in the second century AD. Cfr. Karl Kerényi: The Gods of the Greeks, Thames & Hudson, London 1951, p. 104 and note 284.

Schafer, Edward H. (September 1930). "The Physiologus of Bern: A Survival of Alexandrian Style in a Ninth Century". The Art Bulletin. 12 (3). Fig. 22 and p. 249. JSTOR 3050780. A moldmade Megarian bowl excavated in the Ancient Agora of Athens, catalogued P 18,640. Rotroff (1982), p.67 [17] apud Holford-Strevens (2006), p.29; Thompson (1948), pp. 161–162 and Fig. 5 [18] H]olds the reader’s attention like a gallery so compelling that a visitor is torn between staring at one work and rushing on to the next room.” — Glamour CU Classics – Greek Vase Exhibit – Essays – Sirens". www.colorado.edu. Archived from the original on 2016-06-25 . Retrieved 2017-10-20. In modern figurative usage, a muse is a literal person or supernatural force that serves as someone's source of artistic inspiration.

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It is explained that the siren's "other part" may be "like fish or like bird" in Guillaume le clerc's Old French verse bestiary (1210 or 1211), [100] [95] as well as Philippe de Thaun's Anglo-Norman verse bestiary (c. 1121–1139). [101] [97] Derivative literature [ edit ] Awan, Heather T. " Roman Sarcophagi" In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–. (April 2007) Holford-Strevens, Leofranc (2006), "1. Sirens in Antiquity and the Middle Ages", in Austern, Linda Phyllis; Naroditskaya, Inna (eds.), Music of the Siren, Bloomington: Indiana University Press, pp.16–50, ISBN 9780253112071 The characters in Sirens & Muses wake up each day and choose chaos. . . . Angress’s strength is her ability to create an engrossing plot, allowing readers to watch as her messy characters navigate their way to the finish line.” — New York Times Book Review The term " siren song" refers to an appeal that is hard to resist but that, if heeded, will lead to a bad conclusion. Later writers have implied that the sirens were cannibals, based on Circe's description of them "lolling there in their meadow, round them heaps of corpses rotting away, rags of skin shriveling on their bones." [54] As linguist Jane Ellen Harrison (1850–1928) notes of " The Ker as siren": "It is strange and beautiful that Homer should make the sirens appeal to the spirit, not to the flesh." [55] The siren song is a promise to Odysseus of mantic truths; with a false promise that he will live to tell them, they sing,

Writers similarly disagree also concerning the number of the Muses; for some say that there are three, and others that there are nine, but the number nine has prevailed since it rests upon the authority of the most distinguished men, such as Homer and Hesiod and others like them. [7]Finally, the Sirens may have been desperately lonely and used their songs to tempt men to join them on their island. Although the island was littered in human remains, there were no signs that the Sirens killed men. Instead, the men might have died of starvation after keeping the Siren’s company for several weeks. Special Abilities Carlson, Patricia Ann (ed.) (1986). Literature and Lore of the Sea. Amsterdam: Editions Rodopi, 270. a b c d e f Dante Alighieri (1996–2013). The divine comedy of Dante Alighieri. Robert M. Durling, Ronald L. Martinez. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-508740-6. OCLC 32430822.