Siren - Daughter of the River God Achelous - Homer's Odyssey - 600 BC - Museum Reproduction - Ceramic Artifact

Item Specifics

Material:Ceramic
Condition: New, Handmade in Greece.
Height: 11,5 cm - 4,5 inches
Width: 15 cm - 5,9 inches
Length: 3,5 cm -1,4 inches
Weight: 200 g

Half-birds, half beautiful maidens, the Sirens were singing enchantresses capable of luring passing sailors to their islands, and, subsequently, to their doom. Daughters of the river god Achelous and a Muse, they were fated to die if anyone should survive their singing. When Odysseus passed them by unharmed, they hurled themselves into the sea and were drowned.
Family, Number and Dwelling Place
Traditionally, the Sirens were daughters of the river god Achelous and a Muse; it depends on the source which one, but it was undoubtedly one of these three: Terpsichore, Melpomene, or Calliope. However, according to the great tragedian Euripides, the Sirens’ mother was actually one of the Pleiades, Sterope.
In Homer, only two nameless Sirens are mentioned. Later authors usually talk about three, naming them in any number of ways. It would seem that Theixiope, Aglaope, and Parthenope are the three names one encounters with the highest frequency.
In the “Odyssey,” Homer says nothing about the Sirens’ outward appearance, but one can infer from the text that he has in mind humanlike creatures, if not beautiful maidens. However, at a later date, this all changed and both poets and artists started depicting the Sirens in a similar fashion to how the Harpies were usually portrayed – that is, as creatures with the body of a bird and a woman’s face.