The Sirens (Greek, entanglers) enticed seamen by the sweetness of their
song to such a degree that the listeners forgot everything and died of
hunger. Their names were, Parthenope, Ligea, and Leucosia.
[Illustration: Ulysses and the Sirens. Flaxman's "Odyssey."]
Parthenope, the ancient name of Neapolis (Naples) was derived from one of
the sirens, whose tomb was shown in Strabo's time. Poetic legend states
that she threw herself into the sea out of love for Ulysses, and was cast
up on the Bay of Naples.
The celebrated Parthenon at Athens, the beautiful temple of Pallas Athenæ,
so richly adorned with sculptures, likewise derives its name from this
source.
Dante interviews the siren in "Purgatorio," xix. 7-33.
Flaxman, in his designs illustrating the "Odyssey," represents the sirens
as beautiful young women seated on the strand and singing.
[Illustration: Ulysses and the Sirens. From a painting on a Greek vase.]
In the illustration from an ancient Greek vase gives a Grecian rendering
of the story, and represents the Sirens as birds with heads of maidens.
The Sirens are best known from the story that Odysseus succeeded in
passing them with his companions without being seduced by their song. He
had the prudence to stop the ears of his companions with wax and to have
himself bound to the mast. Only two are mentioned in Homer, but three or
four are mentioned in later times and introduced into various legends.
Demeter (_Ceres_) is said to have changed their bodies into those of
birds, because they refused to go to the help of their companion,
Persephone, when she was carried off by Pluto. "They are represented in
Greek art like the harpies, as young women with the wings and feet of
birds. Sometimes they appear altogether like birds, only with human faces;
at other times with the bodies of women, in which case they generally hold
instruments of music in their hands. As their songs are death to those
subdued by them they are often depicted on tombs as spirits of death."
By the fables of the Sirens is represented the ensnaring nature of vain
and deceitful pleasures, which sing and soothe to sleep, and never fail to
destroy those who succumb to their beguiling influence.
Spenser, in the "Faerie Queen," describes a place "where many mermaids
haunt, making false melodies," by which the knight Guyon makes a somewhat
"perilous passage." There were five sisters that had been fair ladies,
till too confident in their skill in music they had ventured to contend
with the Muses, when they were transformed in their lower extremities to
fish:
"But the upper half their hue retained still,
And their sweet skill in wonted melody;
Which ever after they abused to ill
To allure weak travellers, whom gotten they did kill."
Book ii. cant. cxii.
Shakespeare charmingly pictures Oberon in the moonlight, fascinated by the
graceful form and the melodious strains of the mermaid half reclining on
the back of the dolphin:
"OBERON: ... Thou rememberest
Since once I sat upon a promontory,
And heard a mermaid on a dolphin's back
Uttering such dulcet and harmonious breath
That the rude sea grew civil at her song
And certain stars shot madly from their spheres
To hear the sea-maid's music."
Commentators of Shakespeare find in this passage (and subsequent parts)
certain references to Mary Queen of Scots, which they consider beyond
dispute. She was frequently referred to in the poetry of the time under
this title. She was married to the Dauphin (or Dolphin) of France. The
rude sea means the Scotch rebels, and the shooting stars referred to were
the Earls of Northumberland and Westmoreland, who, with others of lesser
note, forgot their allegiance to Elizabeth out of love to Mary.
"Few eyes," says Sir Thomas Browne, "have escaped the picture of a mermaid
with a woman's head above and a fish's extremity below." In those old days
when reading and writing were rare accomplishments, pictured signboards
served to give "a local habitation and a name" to hostelries and other
places of business and resort. Among the most celebrated of the old London
taverns bearing this sign,[31] that in Bread Street stands foremost.
We find this "Mermayde" mentioned as early as 1464. In 1603 Sir Walter
Raleigh established a literary club in this house, and here Shakespeare,
Ben Jonson, and the choice intellectual spirits of the time used to meet,
and there took place those wit combats which Beaumont has commemorated and
Fuller described. It is frequently alluded to by Beaumont and Fletcher in
their comedies, but best known is that quotation from a letter of Beaumont
to Ben Jonson:
"What things have we seen
Done at the Mermaid? heard words that have been
So nimble and so full of subtle flame,
As if that any one from whence they came
Had meant to put his whole wit in a jest,
And had resolved to live a fool the rest
Of his dull life; then when there had been thrown
Wit able enough to justify the town
For three days past; wit that might warrant be
For the whole city to talk foolishly,
Till that were cancell'd; and when that was gone,
We left an air behind us, which alone
Was able to make the next two companies
(Right witty, though but downright fools) more wise."
[Illustration]