Siren Songs
The Sirens were creatures — part bird, part woman — whose irresistible song lured sailors to crash on their island's rocks.
The Myth of Siren Songs
The Siren Songs promised not pleasure but knowledge — complete understanding of all that had happened and would happen across the earth. In the Odyssey, Circe warned Odysseus that the Sirens' voices were irresistible: they sat in a meadow surrounded by the rotting corpses and bleached bones of sailors who had steered toward them. Odysseus, desperate to hear the song, had his crew plug their ears with beeswax while he was lashed to the mast. The Argonauts survived differently: Orpheus played his lyre so beautifully that he drowned out the Sirens' voices, though one Argonaut still leapt overboard. The Sirens were fated to die if anyone passed them safely — after Odysseus, they threw themselves into the sea near Scylla and Charybdis.
Parents
Achelous and a Muse
Symbols
Fun Fact
Emergency vehicle "sirens" are named for these creatures — a sound you cannot ignore, demanding your attention.
Words We Inherited
English words and phrases that trace back to this myth. See our full guide to English words from Greek mythology.
Explore Further
Sirens
🐉 creatureEnchanting singers who lured sailors to death
Dangerous creatures whose irresistible singing lured sailors to shipwreck on the rocky coast of their island. Only Odysseus and the Argonauts survived hearing their song.
Parthenope
🌿 nymphmusic, the sea, death
A Siren who drowned herself after failing to lure Odysseus, and whose body washed ashore where Naples now stands.
Scylla
🐉 creatureSix-headed sea monster
A terrifying sea monster with six heads on long necks, each with three rows of teeth. She lived in a cliff cave opposite the whirlpool Charybdis, creating an impossible choice for sailors.
Phorcydes
🐉 creaturesea creatures
The monstrous children of Phorcys and Ceto, including the Gorgons, Graeae, and other terrors
Orpheus
🗡 heroThe musician whose art moved gods and stones
The legendary poet-musician whose singing could charm animals, move trees, and halt rivers — and who nearly rescued his wife from death itself.
Ceto
🐉 creatureSea, monsters
Primordial sea goddess known as the Mother of Monsters who bore many of the most fearsome creatures in Greek myth
Siren Song
💭 conceptLanguage and persuasion
An English phrase meaning a dangerously appealing but ultimately destructive temptation, derived from the Sirens who lured sailors to their deaths with irresistible singing
Orpheus
🗡 heroLegendary musician and poet
The greatest musician in Greek mythology, whose playing could charm animals, trees, and even stones. His descent into the underworld to rescue his wife is one of myth's most poignant tales.
Stymphalian Cranes
🐉 creaturebirds
War-birds sacred to Ares on the Isle of Ares that attacked the Argonauts with bronze feather-darts
Echidna
🐉 creatureMother of all monsters
Echidna was half woman, half serpent — called the Mother of All Monsters for bearing the most fearsome creatures of Greek mythology.
Sphinx
🐉 creatureRiddling monster with a lion body and human head
A creature with the body of a lion, wings of an eagle, and head of a woman. The Sphinx terrorized Thebes with her deadly riddle until Oedipus solved it.
Lamia
🐉 creatureChild-devouring queen turned monster
Lamia was a beautiful queen of Libya whom Zeus loved; when Hera killed her children in jealousy, Lamia was driven mad and became a child-snatching monster.