Sirens in the ancient sources

Ancient Sources / Figures / Sirens

10 passages from 6 ancient authors that tell of Sirens, in the original with English translation, author by author in the order the Greeks read them. The Sirens were beautiful but dangerous creatures that lured the sailors with their beautiful voices to their doom, causing the ships to crash on the ... For the story in one place, read our article on Sirens.

Homer (4)

Homer, Odyssey 12.142–200The SirensOdysseus tells his men of the Sirens, and has them stop their ears with wax and tie him to the mast, so that he alone may hear them. As the ship comes near, the wind drops and the sea is calm, and the Sirens sing of the Trojan war and of all that happens on the earth. Odysseus begs to be set free, but his men row on and bind him tighter.
Homer, Odyssey 12.1–141Circe's counselAfter they leave the river of Ocean and return to Aeaea, Odysseus buries Elpenor, and Circe comes to them with food and wine. She tells him in private of the dangers ahead: the Sirens, whom they must pass with their ears stopped with wax, and the wandering rocks. She describes Scylla and Charybdis, and tells him to choose Scylla's side, and to leave the cattle of the Sun untouched.
Homer, Odyssey 23.288–372Odysseus tells his tale; the dawnThey go to bed, and Odysseus tells Penelope the story of his wanderings, the Cicones, the Lotus-eaters, the Cyclops, Aeolus, the Laestrygonians, Circe, Hades, the Sirens, Scylla, Charybdis, the cattle of the Sun, Calypso and the Phaeacians. At dawn he tells Penelope to stay in her room and goes out to the country with Telemachus and the two herdsmen, to see his father, with Athena casting night about them.
Homer, Odyssey 12.201–259Scylla and CharybdisBeyond the Sirens they see smoke and great waves, and the men drop their oars in terror. Odysseus has not told them of Scylla, and he arms himself and stands on the prow, but she snatches six men from the ship with her six heads. They pass Charybdis, who sucks down the sea three times a day, while Odysseus watches the whirlpool.

Apollodorus (2)

Apollodorus, The Library (Bibliotheca), with the Epitome E.7.1–40The wanderings of Odysseus, the suitors and his deathOdysseus leaves Troy and meets the Cicones, the Lotus-eaters and Polyphemus the Cyclops, then Aeolus, the Laestrygonians and Circe. After the visit to Hades, the Sirens, Scylla and Charybdis and the cattle of the Sun, he reaches Calypso and then the Phaeacians and Ithaca, where the suitors are named and killed. The section ends with his later life among the Thesprotians and the variant accounts of his death at the hands of Telegonus, and of Penelope's fate.
Apollodorus, The Library (Bibliotheca), with the Epitome 1.9.23–28Jason and Medea: the Golden Fleece, the return and CorinthAt Colchis Aeetes sets Jason the tasks of yoking the fire-breathing bulls and sowing dragon's teeth, and Medea's drugs bring him through; she then helps him take the fleece. Medea kills her brother Apsyrtus to delay pursuit, and the Argo sails on to Circe, the Sirens, the Phaeacians, Crete (where Talos is killed) and Iolcus. Medea tricks the daughters of Pelias into boiling him, and when Jason marries Glauce at Corinth she destroys the bride and her father and kills her own sons. She flees to Athens and marries Aegeus, bears Medus, and finally returns to Colchis to restore Aeetes.

Euripides (1)

Euripides, Helen 142–178First episode: Teucer departs; Helen begins her lamentTeucer says that the Dioscuri are said to have killed themselves because of their sister, and that he has come to ask Theonoe for an oracle about his voyage to Cyprus, where he will found a new Salamis. Helen warns him to leave before Theoclymenus, who kills every Greek he finds, returns from hunting. Teucer thanks her and goes, and Helen begins a lament and calls on the Sirens to join her.

Apollonius Rhodius (1)

Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica 4.885–981The Sirens, the Wandering Rocks and ScyllaAt dawn the Argonauts leave Aeaea; Orpheus drowns out the Sirens' song with his lyre, though Butes dives in and is saved by Cypris. The Nereids pass Argo through the Wandering Rocks, with Hera and Hephaestus watching, and the heroes sail on past Thrinacia and the cattle of Helios.

Ovid (1)

Ovid, Metamorphoses 5.462–571Demeter searches for PersephoneDemeter (Ceres), hearing nothing from her daughter, wanders over the earth by torchlight and finds only her girdle floating in the pool, and punishes the land that is ungrateful. The nymph Arethusa tells her where her daughter is, and Demeter appeals to Zeus (Jupiter). Zeus decides that Persephone (Proserpina) may return to her mother if she has eaten nothing in the underworld, but Ascalaphus tells that she ate pomegranate seeds, and Demeter turns him into an owl. The Sirens, Persephone's companions, are given the feathers of birds, and Zeus settles the matter by dividing the year between mother and husband.

Pausanias (1)

Pausanias, Description of Greece 9.34.1–10Itonian Athena, Coronea, Mount Laphystius and the early history of OrchomenusPausanias describes the sanctuary of Itonian Athena, where the Boeotians hold their general assembly, and the story of the priestess Iodama. At Coronea he lists the altars in the market-place and the sanctuary of Hera, as well as Mount Libethrius and the sanctuary of Laphystian Zeus where the golden ram saved Phrixus and Helle. He then begins the history of Orchomenus with Andreus, Athamas and the founders of Haliartus and Coronea, and Eteocles.