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Amanda Bunker English 295 Jay Ketner 29 Sept. 2009 Sirens: An Exploration of their Innocence Homers The Odyssey and Donna Jo Napolis Sirena explore the hybrid creatures known as Sirens. Despite their luring voices and tantalizing appearances, they are considered monsters. Through these two texts we get a glimpse of why Sirens are classified as monstrous. However, within Napolis Sirena there is a change concerning the protagonist. Napoli shows how easily it is for mythical beings to be misunderstood. She gives the Siren humanlike qualities showing that her human half dominates over her fish half. Sirena is an example of a text which displays how the depiction of Sirens has changed since Homers time. They are no longer seen as just monsters but as creatures of the deep that not only care about luring men to watery graves but also the ability to love. In both texts Sirens have an inevitable passion for singing. Within The Odyssey Homer suggests that the Sirens sing only to lure whoever enters their waters to their deaths. During Homers time this was the way that people saw Sirens because they were never described as anything other than killers. The Odyssey dates back to the 8th century BC in ancient Greece. Seeing as how this epic poem was enacted in theatrical performances and passed down through oral tradition this is the most common view of the Sirens. Homers representation of the Sirens states that [there will be] no sailing for him, no wife rising to meet him, / no happy children beaming up at their fathers face (12.48-9). If an entire group of people have a certain belief for so long it is difficult for someone to defy that convention and formulate a new opinion. If

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someone only read Homers The Odyssey they would be led to believe in that representation of Sirens. However, Napoli takes a different approach regarding the Sirens. It is true that after the first ship passes Sirena and her sisters, their voices do cause the ship to be destroyed. Survivors from the wreck shout to the sisters, [d]amn you! Damn all of you [w]retched misshapen monsters of the deep. Seductresses of evil (Napoli 14). Here Napoli honors Homers original depiction of the Sirens, while at the same time preparing for introducing a new image of her own, an instance where a Siren does not want to be a murderer. Napoli still holds on to some of Homers characteristics of the Sirens but alters some to create a new and more positive story. One of the most prominent messages to take away from Sirena is the idea that Sirens possess the emotion of compassion. After realizing that she was killing the men she sang for, Sirena defies another convention of the Sirens and abandons her sisters so she can no longer bring harm to innocent men. Ironically enough, when Sirena abandons her sisters she encounters a man who has been abandoned by his crew, Philoctetes. Napoli focuses in on the emotions Sirena feels towards this stranger who was left to die. Sirena now defies the most well-known characteristics of Sirens, [m]y melody should bring his flesh to a frenzy of desire. My mouth is partway open already (Napoli 95). It may seem that Sirena only wanted the human to fall in love with her so she could become immortal. Yet, the fact that she stops herself from singing and makes a promise to herself to not seduce him, suggests that she is showing emotion. Some may interpret this emotion to be compassion or sympathy, but above all I think she really does develop a love for this man. The Sirens are known for their singing, and they themselves know they have beautiful voices. What they cant make sense of is why all of the sailors to encounter become shipwrecked. Their intention is not be monsters. They just want some experience of what is outside their world. When Sirena travels away from her home, only

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then does she get a glimpse of what humans are really like and begins longing for something completely different from singing. She begins longing for companionship. With Homers tale of the Sirens, readers are exposed to how Sirens make their living but are given no history of the Sirens. According to Napoli, the Sirens had a mother and father like most living things do. Her mother was Little Iris, a beautifully colored fish who was captured by Rhodope. It is safe to assume that Little Iris is alluding to Iris, the goddess of the rainbow. Rhodopes lover was Eros who is a representation of erotic love (Hansen 139). As Rhodope slept, Little Iris caught Eross eye. It is said that Eros is the most foolish of the Gods, so when Eros seduced Little Iris, she went along with it because she too was stupid and mindless, like any other fish (Napoli 26). When Rhodope woke up, there was a pile of shining eggs near Iris. Without a second thought she swallowed the eggs. However, Mother Dora, a giant sea turtle who was Rhodope and the rest of the sea nymphs mother, helped eat the eggs. Instead of swallowing them she carried them on her tongue and gave them to Eros. It is surprising that Sirena is able to harbor such strong emotion towards the human considering the story of her parentage. When telling Sirena the story of how she came to be, Mother Dora comments on the affair between her daughter and Eros. She states that it is amazing that you have any brains at all, with such parents (Napoli 27). The reasoning why Sirena can feel emotion for the stranded soldier is that she has Eross genes. Since Eros was the God of love and sexuality it makes sense why Sirena would feel so drawn to him. This also proves that Sirenas human instincts are dominating over her fish half. Since Sirenas sisters didnt care about killing innocent men, but only cared about becoming immortal, they have more of Little Iriss genes. Although characteristics of the Sirens are very similar in both The Odyssey and Sirena, the major difference is the time difference. In The Odyssey the story takes place after the Trojan

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War. Odysseus found out about the Sirens from Circe. It makes sense that humans would know where the Sirens were because throughout The Odyssey, gods and goddesses expose themselves to humans and offer their guidance. However, in Sirena the story takes place during the Trojan War, which explains why thousands of ships were passing where the Sirens live. There were no gods making themselves known to humans in this novel. There is no explanation how the sailors lived to pass on the tale of the Sirens to let the soldiers fighting in the Trojan War know what they were heading into. Odysseus knew he was going to sail through their home so he took beeswax and stopped the ears of [his] comrades one by one (12.193). It is in the Sirens nature to lure anyone who passes by, yet Sirenas sisters didnt shipwreck every ship that was destined for Troy. It is a possibility that it was Sirenas human lover who she let sail off and fight at Troy who started the stories about the Sirens. It still doesnt explain how the other ships got past the Sirens. At the very end of the novel when it is time for Philoctetes to fight at Troy, it is Odysseus who comes to fetch him. Napoli is accurate in her description of Odysseus in that he is crafty and deceitful (Napoli 189), however the timelines of these two stories dont match up. In The Odyssey Homer makes it seem as if it is Odysseuss first encounter with the Sirens, but that was after the Trojan War. If he already passed the Sirens to find Philoctetes then by The Odyssey it would be his second trip or more passing them and he wouldnt need to be told what to do when near them. Considering that we dont know the exact origin of the Sirens, we dont the exact characteristics of them either. We only know what is told to us in stories such as The Odyssey or Sirena. Both of these texts give very different representations of the Sirens. It is just another example of how myths are passed on by oral tradition. No one knows for sure what they were really like. After having the two texts side by side, it can be interpreted that the Sirens are

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misunderstood. They didnt consider themselves monsters. They were only doing what was best for themselves, which was to find male company and become immortal. Because the myth is that so many men perished due to the Sirens that is how they got their negative descriptions which shows in Homers early writings. The idea that Sirens were killers was always what was passed down from generation to generation. It had been a myth that has been seen that way for such a long time. Not many people have had the courage to challenge it and give a more positive image to the Sirens such as Donna Jo Napoli did in Sirena.

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Works Cited Hansen, William. Classical Mythology: A Guide to the Mythical World of the Greeks and Romans. New York: Oxford, 2004. Print. Homer. The Odyssey. Trans. Robert Fagles. New York: Penguin, 1996. Print. Napoli, Donna Jo. Sirena. New York: USA, 1998. Print.