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Ulysses and the Sirens by John William Waterhouse

The SirensΣειρῆνες · singers of the rocks

Bird-bodied women whose song is so sweet that sailors steer to their island and die there, in a meadow heaped with the bones of the men who came before.

Why do Sirens have wings?

Ancient Greek art pictured Sirens as part woman, part bird. Look for their faces in Waterhouse’s painting.

See the painting →The Odyssey →
Michelle Bonollo · NGV essay ↗
Context

To hear their song and live, Odysseus had his crew stop their ears with wax and bind him to the mast, so he alone could listen as they passed.

Appears in
📖 Homer, The Odyssey🎬 Draper & Waterhouse; a byword for fatal temptation
John William Waterhouse · Ulysses and the Sirens · 1891 · National Gallery of Victoria

The Night Parade

35 beings

Tales of the realm