Greek Mythology

The Sirens were spirits of the sea with the heads of beautiful women and the bodies of birds. They lived on stretches of rocky coast and on reefs, where they lured ships on to dangerous rocks by enchanting the sailors with their song. As Homer tells us in Odyssey, "he who draws nigh, in his ignorance and hears the song of the Sirens will never been seen again returning home by his joyful, tender children and his wife". Because of their terrible reputation, the Sirens were associated with death and were depicted seated upon mounds of human skeletons. According to the myths, they once competed with the Muses as singers and being defeated, threw themselves into the sea and drowned.

The evil spirits of the sea also included Scylla and Charybdis, who lived on either side of the Straits of Sicily. Scylla rolled rocks down to crush passing ships, while Charybdis was the motive power beneath a terrible whirlpool which struck fear into the hearts of sailors and sucked their vessels down to destruction. These monsters, of whom Homer gives us a very vivid picture in the Odyssey, were a poetic representation of the dangers that lay in wait for all those who ventured forth upon the waves.

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