A creature with a bird's body and woman's head or upper part, like a Harpy, but with different functions. Sirens are musical, and in myth they try to mesmerize Odysseus into shipwreck, but he had himself tied to his mast, and his crewmen with ears full of wax so that they could not hear his commands. Sirens also mourn and play lyres on funerary monuments.
Above: Detail from an Attic red-figure clay vase, London, British Museum © British Museum, London
