Sirens
Part of The Encyclopedia of Southern Italy.
Sirens: mythical creatures with the heads of women and the bodies of birds. In ancient Greek and Roman mythology, the Sirens inhabited small, rocky islands where they sang sweet songs to passing ships, hoping to lure sailors to their doom. Odysseus survived their trap by stuffing the ears of his men with wax so they could not hear the Sirens’ song. Curious to hear them, he ordered his men to lash him to the ship’s mast and not release him until they had passed the Sirens. Another group of heroes, the Argonauts succeeded in avoiding the lure of the Sirens by having Orpheus, one of their crew, sing and play his lyre so loud that the Sirens could not be heard. Ancient sources differ on the number of Sirens, Homer mentioning only two, but other writers like Ovid and Libanius, saying that there were three or four of them.