H2O: Just Add Water

The Sirens of today, including the mermaid that calls to us from almost every urban corner,claim a long and rich ancestry, that dates back to a multitude of fish-tailed gods and goddesses of some of man's earliest civilizations. The sea, as womb of creation and the source of unfathomable wisdom has always played an important role in world beliefs, particularly among maritime nations. The Gods of the sea are among some of the most powerful in history and their strength lives on in a host of submarine beings symbolic of the shifting, ever changing, dual nature of the sea as both life-giver and destroyer.

In Greek mythology, sirens are sea nymphs who possess the bodies of birds and the heads of women, and are the daughters of the sea god Phorcys. Sirens had such sweet voices that it is said that mariners who heard their songs were lured into grounding their boats on the rocks on which the beautiful nymphs sang. 

The Greek hero Ulysses was able to pass their island in safety because, following the advice of the sorceress Circe, he plugged the ears of his companions with wax and had himself firmly bound to the mast of the ship so that he could hear the songs without danger. According to another legend, the Argonauts escaped the Sirens because Orpheus, who was on board their ship, the Argo, sang so sweetly that he drowned out the song of the nymphs. According to later legends, the Sirens, upset at the escape of Odysseus or at the victory of Orpheus, threw themselves into the sea and perished.  song of the nymphs. According to later legends, the Sirens, upset at the escape of Odysseus or at the victory of Orpheus, threw themselves into the sea and perished.

A Mermaid - John William Waterhouse 1900

The earliest sirens were often depicted as looming over warriors marching to war or sailors at sea. Later Sirens began to appear on funerary stelae, often shown tearing their flowing tresses  and beating their breasts with gestures of distress and mourning offering comfort to afflicted souls.  The Siren below was found on the top of a large funerary monument on the Island of Manara. It is now located in the Louvre.

Siren on funerary monument

Island of Manara, Louvre 33

In myth and folklore, mermaids are supernatural, sea-dwelling creatures with the head and upper body of a beautiful woman and the lower body of a fish. The mermaid is frequently described as appearing above the surface of the water and combing her long hair with one hand while holding a mirror in the other. Mermaids, in the numerous tales told of them, often foretell the future, sometimes under compulsion; give supernatural powers to human beings; or fall in love with human beings and entice their mortal lovers to follow them beneath the sea. Similarities frequently exists between the stories concerning mermaids and those told about the Sirens. 30 The Sirens of Homer's Odyssey are often depicted as mermaids in contemporary art.