#greek myth siren

[lemonpoet]

Saw Warrior Penelope AU and couldn’t resist drawing Siren Odysseus. Anyway here’s this lil ole thing I made 🩷 (Inspired by @gigizetz ‘s post)

[late-to-the-party-99]

Songbird (Pt. Two)

A lone siren realizes her echo isn't her own. It's that of Echo, invisible and only able to repeat the words of others. They find a way to grow close anyway... and to break some curses.

Part One

---------------------------

It almost feels like a dream to Ligeia. When she wakes in the morning, she half expects Echo to be gone. But the air is warm in the cavern, the wind still and quiet as she stretches. “Hello,” she says.

“‘Hello.’”

Ligeia scoops up a few dried berries in the corner and fumbles them into her mouth. As she chews, the pebble rolls over the floor. “How far can you fly?”

“Not very. The curse makes sure of that.” Her shoulders sag, her tail feathers drooping. “It wouldn’t be so awful if I had more room to fly. I like flying,” she admits.

“Me too!” Echo’s reply is so fast the pebble squeals on the stone floor. “I don’t have wings, but I can float. I can feel everything rushing by me as I move, and I can go as fast as I like.”

“Now I want to hurl myself outside.” Liegeia churrs, the bird-like laugh warming the air.

“Why not?”

“Hm?”

“We could have a race.”

When Ligeia steps outside, she feels the air dip around her. Echo surges as she takes off with swift, powerful strokes of her wings. 

The sea opens up below, stretching out in a glittering blue-green tapestry. Ligeia spins through the air with a delighted laugh. Echo laughs back beside her ears, sending a shiver down her spine. The tips of Ligeia’s wings brush for a moment against the invisible tendrils flowing around her, and they shudder. 

Echo nudges up against her, and Ligeia giggles. “I’m winning!”

“‘I’m winning!’”

They swoop around each other, growing more confident with each dive towards the island, the grass rushing up to meet them and then falling away. Ligeia lets out a joyous trill that bubbles up in her chest, smiling as she makes a banking turn to skim the sea—

Her head strikes an invisible wall. 

She staggers mid-air, crying out. Echo cries back at her. Sound and wind roar together in her ears as she flails back to her cavern, tumbling onto the ground. 

The air flutters above Ligeia. When black spots stop dancing in her eyes, she sees the pebble skitter over the floor. “Are you alright?”

“I will be,” she says. She tries to smile, even as a welt throbs on her scalp. “You win this time.”

“It’s not a win if someone gets hurt.” Echo edges closer, vibrating like a taut wire. Some part of her ghosts over Ligeia’s scalp, then snatches itself back. “Does it—”

“It already hurts less,” Ligeia says, blinking. She still feels where Echo’s touch smoothed over her hair. 

“Good.”

“You, um. You’re very good at flying.”

Echo shifts. “So are you. I’ve never flown with anyone before, but I think no-one could beat you.”

“I — thank you,” Ligeia replies, her feathers fluffing out a little. “Though I think you have more experience than me. There’s not much room here with these walls.”

“The walls. Is there a way to bring them down?” Echo asks, slow and thoughtful. 

Ligeia frowns. “I don’t see why there would be.”

“Maybe there is a way.”

“What?”

“‘What?’”

“I — no. There’s no chance. I’ve been here for centuries.”

“You’ve been here for centuries,” Echo agrees. A breeze nudges against Ligeia’s left wing. “But it sounds like you’ve gone centuries without trying to leave.”

“Why would I? It’s the curse of a — a god, Echo. I don’t think I can escape from that.”

The pebble stops rolling. Echo stiffens, rigid and unmoving. She begins to smell of salt. 

Neither of them speak for a long while. Ligeia’s stomach twists itself into knots. Could she have…? she thinks. I might’ve hurt her. I might’ve given up too easily. “I…” She draws in a deep breath. “You’re right, actually.”

Echo shifts. She curls around her, twisting like a question mark.

“I never tried. I assumed that this was it, with no way out. But I guess you can never know unless you try.”

“What do you want to try?”

“Why do you ask?”

“I want to help.”

Ligeia forces herself to sit up, leaning against the wall for support. “I — I don’t understand. You can come and go as you please. You don’t have to—”

“I don’t like seeing you hurt.” The words burst out of Echo. “ I want to be here. I don’t want to abandon you — not like the way they did to me.”

**********

Ligeia flies down and lands on a rocky outcropping of the island. “I found nothing on this side,” she pants up at the sky. “How about you?”

Echo brushes past her to the chart of letters scratched in a patch of dirt. “Neither did I,” she says, blowing a leaf over the letters. “The barrier doesn’t stop me, but I can feel it.”

“Really?”

“The air feels different. There’s a sharp tingling, like ozone after a lightning strike.” 

Feathers rise on the back of Ligeia’s neck. “Does it hurt?” she asks, her voice inches from an alarmed squawk.

The leaf skitters in the dirt. “No, no! Not at all, I promise.”

“Oh, good.” Her shoulders slump. She shifts her weight, swishing her tail feathers. “Nothing here makes you uncomfortable, does it? I know I can’t offer you much, but—”

“No,” Echo spells out, this time a little slower. “Nothing here causes me pain.”

“I’m glad you aren’t hurting. I just…” Ligeia bites her lip. “I just hope you feel good things as well.”

“Why?”

“Well, you’re my guest. That makes me a host, and I should be thinking about your comfort. I want you to be happy for as long as you’re here.” 

“Hospitality is the least of your worries. It’s not important, Ligeia.“

“You’re important.”

The air ripples backwards. It might be Ligeia’s imagination, but Echo seems to warm several degrees. “You — well. So are you.”

Ligeia’s face flushes, her toes digging deep into the dirt. “We’re both important,” she relents.

“Let’s not think of ourselves as a host and a guest. Think of us as… colleagues. As equals who happen to share the same space and have the same goal.”

“You’re right.” Ligeia finds herself smiling. She spreads her wings out at the rest of the island, her smile turning wry. “It’s not like I have much of a home in the first place.”

The air jitters around her, high and whistling like laughter. “No,” Echo agrees.

“So what’d you like to do then, my colleague?”

“Last one to find a weak spot has to touch seaweed?”

“How professional.” Ligeia grins, already spreading her wings. She soars off and flies as close to the barrier as she can, her talons darting out to tap against it. She lets herself fall a little lower and traces its curve.

The surface dips for the slightest moment. 

She almost stops dead mid-air, her stomach dropping. The air stirs beneath her. Echo is there, having felt the same patch of wall. She shivers with the same excitement.

“This is where the ships come in,” Ligeia says, pounding her wings to stay afloat. “Do you think, passing through here over and over, they thinned the wall?”

“‘Thinned the wall,’” Echo agrees, vibrating.

Ligeia lets out a stunned laugh. “We have a weak spot. We — wait!” Her grin widens. “You have to touch seaweed!”

“‘Seaweed?’”

“A promise is a promise!”

The air heaves around her like a long, weary groan, and Ligeia cackles. 

As the sun sets, the two of them find themselves back in the cavern and staring down a long, slimy strip of seaweed. Ligeia bites her lip. The seaweed twitches, pushed by a light breeze. Then, the air shudders. A snort escapes Ligeia. “How does—”

A gust of wind blows the seaweed into her face.

While she claws it off, Echo hiccups around her in that surprised laugh. Ligeia feels any desire for retribution melt in her chest at the sound. 

**************

“What’ll you do when you get out?”

Echo speaks up with the rustle of a leaf over a chart in the dirt. They stand on the island again, staring at the weak spot. Ligeia blinks out of thought. “That’s… a good question.”

Echo startles around her. “You don’t know?”

“I hadn’t thought about it before,” she admits, shuffling her feet. Now she thinks of flying anywhere. She thinks of soaring through clouds, of going back to where she and her—

“My sisters,” she says.

“‘Sisters?’” Echo repeats. 

“They were also turned into sirens. I haven’t — it’s been so long. I’d like to find them.” She squares her shoulders, setting her jaw in a determined line. “I’d want to get them out, too.”

“So you’d want to stay with them.”

“I don’t think I’d let them out of my sight.”

The smell of salt in the air grows stronger. “Of course,” Echo says, quiet and flat.

Ligeia frowns. “Is something wrong?”

“No.”

Unease coils in Ligeia’s gut. She tries to shake it off, hopping to the edge of the cliff and perching there. “Well, that’s what I think I’d do, at least. I don’t know if they’d even want to see me.” Tossing hair over her shoulder, she continues, “They’d love to meet you, though!” 

The air stiffens. “Wait. Would they meet me?”

Ligeia shrugs. “I think they’d like to get to know you. I’d like to introduce you and everything.”

“You mean you want to — to keep talking to me? Once all of this is over?”

“If that’s what you want.”

“But do you want it?”

“Of course. I like talking to you.”

“I’m the only person you can talk to at the moment. That‘ll change once this is over,” Echo says, the words and wind slowing to a crawl. “I don’t know if you’ll want to keep seeing me when—”

“Why not? I’m sorry, but I don’t understand,” Ligeia said, tilting her head. “You’re my friend. I couldn’t leave you.”

The ensuing pause is thick. It occurs to Ligeia that Echo called them colleagues, not friends. But she doesn’t say anything to deny it. There’s only ripples of shock in the air — and, judging by its sudden frigidity, there’s some doubt.

“I know you only have my words,” she begins, softening her voice. “So I understand if you don’t believe it. I’ll prove myself, however long that takes.”

They don’t say much else to each other for the rest of the day. But the air above her nest is a little warmer, a little closer, that night. She fluffs out her feathers, making herself soft to lean on. And so they both say enough. 

[yiska-h]

TRITONE E NEREIDE - Roberto Ferri - Oil on canvas, 2024.

[thefugitivesaint]

Teofil Wiatkowski (1809-1891), 'Syreny' (Sirens), 1841

[sophiejanefostersilver]

*after getting back to ithaca*

REAL penelope: jump in the water and kiss me♥️

Odysseus: you know I'm afraid of the water😰

Penny: no? Since whan?

Ody:

Ody: *starts crying cause trauma*

[cosmicourple]

list of EPIC! rarepairs / crackships & crack friendships I fw + some I made up #2 :D

°— Hera x fem! Polites (Pinklemonade? or Perkypeacock?)

°— Apollo x Antinous (Horridmelody? or Rougharrow?)

°— Hera x Sirenelope (Drownedpeacock? or Deceivingeyes?)

°— Circe x Tiresias (Rottenpuppet)

°— Poseidon x Tiresias (Prophe-sea) (ship name by @faeshittrap)

°— Hermes x Antinous (Sharpmessage? or Featherysnarl?)

°— Eurylochus x Aeolus (Windbag: Do Not Open? LMAO I HAD TO or Playfulcaution?)

°— Poseidon x Penelope (Rubysea)

°— Odysseus x Ares (Kingsbloodshed? or Warriorrage?)

°— Tiresias & Odysseus (Prophecy Told duo)

°— Poseidon x Tiresias x Zeus x Sirenelope x Hermes x Odysseus (Colourfulchaos)

°— Hephaestus x Eurylochus (Rustedmutiny? or Mechanicalsword?)

°— Antinous x Poseidon (Coldsea)

°— Circe x Calypso (Isolatedmagic? or Wiltedflora?)

°— Polites & Hades (Friendship Bracelets duo)

°— Zeus x Antinous (Darkbolt? or Breakingthunder?)

°— Telemachus x Apollo (Adventuroussong? or Brightyouth?)

°— Artemis x Aeolus (Indigoclouds? or Fluffyfur?)

°— Lotus Eater x Winion (Whitelotus)

°— Polites x Polyphemus (Eyeballpancakes? or Openlyarmed? these r so stupid I do not apologise-)

°— Circe & Odysseus (Schemes n Sorcery duo)

°— Aphrodite x Athena (QPR) (Heart4mind? or Pearlclaws?)

°— Sirenelope x Penelope (Mourningsong? or Sweetestshroud?)

°— Poseidon x Amphitrite x Zeus (Foamingbluethunder or Crackedpassion?)

°— Hera x Aphrodite (Sourlove? or Envylust?)

°— Hermes x Eurylochus (Stainedwings? or Downfromthehigh?)

°— Hades & Odysseus (Haunting Overseen duo)

°— Scylla x Circe (Monsterhoneyed? or Fumbledyuri?)

°— Ares x Antinous (Scarletwar? or Bleedingguts?)

°— Poseidon x Odysseus x Apollo (Sunsailouttosea)

°— Athena x Penelope (QPR) (Softweaving? or Velvetowl?) (all Athena ‘ships’ r gonna be queer platonic :3)

°— Sirenelope x Athena (Wetfeathers? or Oakinseawater?)

°— Polites x Apollo (Optimistictune? or Redlaurels?)

°— Eurylochus x Odysseus x Poseidon x Zeus (Hurricanesailing? or Thebitchpoly?)

°— Poseidon x Hermes (Searocks? PLS GET THE REFERENCE— or Salttravel?)

°— Poseidon x Circe (Kelpcauldron)

°— Penelope x Odysseus x Zeus (Dentedmarriage? or Pridesdelightfulhoe?)

°— Hera x Calypso (Highestpossession or Wrathfulhold?)

°— male! Calypso x Eurylochus (Ikissedaboy? or Sorrowsmutiny? again, not srry 4 this madness :D)

°— Anticlea x Rhea (Milkyway? or Witheredwaiting? lmao it’s not even canon characters anymore 😭😭😭)

°— Hera x Anticlea (Marriagegoner? or Queenslove?)

…aaaaand that’s another round done :DDD pls don’t rip into me 4 this :)-

[pelideswhore]

after long consideration of the limited information available to us, i happily present to you

THE ODYSSEAN CATALOGUE OF THE SHIPS

please behold my masterpiece

[localsya]

wip // personal one in between work 🌊

[twottie-m8]

@joukaiweek 2024 Day 4 || Flight

New au because I'm sick and twisted and can't stop making them fall in love again and again

Will I dabble in this au after ship week? Highly unlikely, HOWEVER, it will lurk in my brain to play with like Barbie dolls. Sorry, you guys don't have tickets to my mental movie theater :(

Hence, I welcome yall to play around with it yourselves if you so wish! Feel free to brain dump on this post or in my ask box (whichever you feel more comfortable with) as I'd be happy to hear your takes on it ^u^)/

Here's what I've got for any crumbs of lore:

Uhhh I guess if I had to put a label on it I'd call it some kinda science vs mythos au ????

Basically, Dr. Kaiba (cause he's a scientist with a doctorate, smart boy) works at a highly classified facility (think like SCP) and finds himself assigned to a relatively new and infamous subject (it's Wheeler). The subject is tied to all kinds of rumors, which gained it quite a scary reputation, much to Kaiba's dismay. Unexpectedly, when Kaiba turns up to the job, he finds that the subject is nothing like the rumors. It even calls itself by a name: Joey.

The general idea would be a sort of freedom vs captivity struggle. Kaiba and Joey would have very conflicting perspectives, Joey feeling as though he's just here temporarily to help out and learn about the world (loosely calling himself a diplomat, albeit his trip is not official) meanwhile Kaiba fully acknowledges him as a lab subject to study that has no means of escape.

I also like the idea of Joey falling first, but Kaiba falling harder :3c

[rainy-xp]

I can take the suffering from you!

Siren penelope my beloved 💕✨

[calabria-mediterranea]

Sirens of Greek Myth Were Bird-Women, Not Mermaids

Bottle-askos in the shape of a siren (2nd half 6th century BC) from Locri / Southern Italy's Calabria. National Museum of Magna Graecia (Reggio Calabria, Italy).

In the wine-dark expanse of the Mediterranean Sea, far from the halls of civilization, there was once a small island—or so Homer, the famed poet of Ancient Greece, wrote in his epic The Odyssey. No buildings occupied its flowery meadows; no fisherman worked its shores. Those who passed in their black ships heard only voices, twining over the windless waves, singing a song that promised knowledge of all things. Once they heard it, they were enchanted; they had no choice but to land and seek out the singers. Those who did never left the island; their bodies remained, rotting amid the flowers, for none who heard the Sirens' song could escape it.

The story of the Sirens has inspired writers, poets, and artists for millennia. But somewhere along the way their form was confused. Today, Sirens are almost always represented as voluptuous mermaids, whose beauty and sexuality lure men to their deaths. But the Classical Greeks understood the Sirens differently: as bird-women, creatures that Mediterranean cultures traditionally associated with hidden knowledge.

Sirens first appear in the literary record with the Odyssey (written around 750 BCE) in a segment that’s much briefer than you’d think considering the cultural impact of these mystical, singing creatures. It goes like this: Odysseus, warned by the enchantress Circe of the danger posed by the Sirens’ song, orders his crew to stuff their ears with wax. But, curious to a fault, he has himself bound to the ship’s mast so he can listen without flinging himself into the sea. The Sirens promise him tales of all that had occurred during the war at Troy, and everywhere else besides; enchanted, he begs his crew to release him. He rants, raves, and threatens, but to no avail. His crew sails on until the song fades in the distance, and so saves his life.

Homer doesn’t describe the Sirens’ physical appearance in his epic poem, Wilson says. But in ceramic paintings and tomb sculptures from the time of writing, and centuries after, Sirens were usually depicted with taloned feet, feathered wings, and a beautiful human face. The bird-body of the Siren is significant to Wilson: In the eyes of traditional peoples all across Europe, birds were often graced with an otherworldliness associated with gods, spirits, and omens.

They inhabit the water, the air, and the earth. They’re also associated with song; they have voices that are not human voices, and kinds of movement that are not the same as human kinds of movement.

The Sirens’ role in tomb art is particularly telling. In ancient Mediterranean and Middle Eastern cultures—as far back as 7,000 years ago—birds were often depicted carrying spirits to the underworld. In Southern Italy's Calabria, archaeologists unearthed several Greek askos (unguentary vessel) in shape of sirens, most commonly found in tombs.

Bronze askos in the shape of a siren (5th century BC) from Crotone, Calabria, Italy - Archaeological Museum of Crotone.

Jump ahead a few millennia to 1,550 BCE, by which time Ba-birds, depictions of departing souls as human-faced birds, began appearing in Egypt. That connection between birds and dead souls seems to have then hopped over to Greece: Writing in the 5th century BCE, the playwright Euripides described the Sirens as at the beck and call of Persephone, one of the rulers of the underworld, while other writers identified the Sirens as rivals and dark echoes of the Muses, those goddesses of creativity.

These are the Sirens the Ancient Greeks would have recognized: bird creatures of the underworld, bridging the human world and what lies beyond. The Sirens—and their fateful songs—then offered a glimpse behind the veil, a chance to hear how earthly glories would echo in eternity. The question of what song the Sirens sing, what is this forbidden knowledge, what's wrong with it, what's the temptation—the text leaves a lot of open space there. Therein lies the seduction.

Yet today, mermaids or beautiful sea nymphs replace the dark, winged Sirens of ancient times.

It is during the Middle Ages that the image of the siren began its shift from bird-woman to mermaid . With the transformation of the siren's image, the attributes associated with female monsters shifted. This suggests a change in the traits that were considered monstrous in women. The siren's movement from a frightening bird-woman to a beautiful mermaid represents female beauty becoming monstrous. Throughout the Middle Ages sirens increasingly represented a male fear of female seduction, suggesting a growing fear of female sexuality.

For medieval Christians, sirens were heavily associated with female sin.

However it happened, the identification of Sirens with mermaids seems to have affected later translations of the Odyssey, and ultimately common knowledge of Sirens. Translators in the 19th and 20th centuries cast the Sirens in a sexualized light. In one prose translation, the Sirens speak of “the sweet voice from our lips,” despite the word στομάτων directly translating to the less sensual “mouths.” Another adds flowery descriptors of “each purling note/like honey twining/from our lips.” But unlike the Odyssey’s other island temptresses, Circe and Calypso, the Sirens get no admiring description of their faces or hair. Only their voice is described, and their field of bones and flowers.

That’s a pretty strong indicator that the Sirens are not meant to be read as offering a sexual temptation. You can kiss lips; mouths devour.

Folklore and mythology move on, given enough time. Today, the Siren is just another word for mermaid, and is likely to remain so. But there’s something richly thematic about the Sirens of Classical Greece that deserves to be remembered: in-between creatures on a lonely island, floating between the boundaries of life and death, and offering an irresistible song of both. Water-temptresses are a dime a dozen; the Sirens offer wisdom.

Follow us on Instagram, @calabria_mediterranea

[alexanderthejustalright]

Imagine your fighting sirens and you turn to your buddy and see yourself flirting with him

For fun sake I gave em names

Long haired guy is Leander and blushing boy is zale

[doodlesinthesnow]

Siren Pearl doodle

[thebestieyoureinlovewith]

To the sailor in love with poetry, from the siren

The wind was a fine lady, and the men I ate tasted like old wine and shipwrecks. The sailors and pirates alike may call me monster, but I call myself every other name.

Your lover, your dearest friend, your deepest desire. I am a blaring siren with a soft song.

Let me in. Let me in. Let me in.

[prismolovesfanfiction]

"wow they have the voice of an angel" my sailor in christ you are being ensnared by a siren

[yourfaveisanavatar]

the sirens from epic the musical/or greek mythology in general are avatars of the stranger and the spiral

sirens from greek mythology are avatars of the stranger and the spiral!