Editing Siren (mythology) (section)

===Mythology===
==== Demeter ====
[[File:Sirena de Canosa s. IV adC (M.A.N. Madrid) 01.jpg|thumb|upright|The ''Siren of Canosa'', statuette exposing [[psychopomp]] characteristics, late fourth century BC]]
According to [[Ovid]] (43 BC–17 AD), the sirens were the companions of young [[Persephone]].<ref>Ovid, ''Metamorphoses'' V, 551.</ref> [[Demeter]] gave them wings to search for Persephone when she was abducted by [[Hades]]. However, the ''Fabulae'' of [[Gaius Julius Hyginus|Hyginus]] (64 BC–17 AD) has Demeter cursing the sirens for failing to intervene in the abduction of Persephone. According to [[Gaius Julius Hyginus|Hyginus]], sirens were fated to live only until the mortals who heard their songs could pass by them.<ref>Pseudo-Hyginus, ''Fabulae'' 141 (trans. Grant).</ref>

==== The Muses ====
In the sanctuary of [[Hera]] in [[Coroneia]] was a statue created by Pythodorus of Thebes, depicting Hera holding the sirens. According to the myth, Hera persuaded the sirens to challenge the Muses to a singing contest. After the Muses won, they are said to have plucked the sirens' feathers and used them to make crowns for themselves.<ref>[https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0160%3Abook%3D9%3Achapter%3D34%3Asection%3D3 Pausanias, Description of Greece, 9.34.3]</ref><ref name="Lempriere">Lemprière 768.</ref> According to [[Stephanus of Byzantium]], the sirens, overwhelmed by their loss, cast off their feathers from their shoulders, turned white and then threw themselves into the sea. As a result, the nearby city was named [[Aptera, Greece|Aptera]] ("featherless") and the nearby islands were called the ''Leukai'' ("the white ones").<ref>Caroline M. Galt, "A marble fragment at Mount Holyoke College from the Cretan city of Aptera", ''Art and Archaeology'' '''6''' (1920:150).</ref> [[John Tzetzes]] recounts that after defeating the sirens, the Muses crowned themselves with the sirens' wings, except for [[Terpsichore]] who was their mother, adding that the city of Aptera named after this event.<ref>[https://topostext.org/work/860#653 Tzetzes, Ad Lycophronem, 653]</ref> Furthermore, in one of his letters, [[Julian the Emperor]] mentions the Muses' victory over the sirens.<ref>[https://topostext.org/work/803#74 Julian the Emperor, Letters, 74]</ref>

==== ''Argonautica'' ====
In the ''[[Argonautica]]'' (third century BC), [[Jason]] had been warned by [[Chiron]] that [[Orpheus]] would be necessary in his journey. When Orpheus heard their voices, he drew out his [[lyre]] and played his music more beautifully than they, drowning out their voices. One of the crew, however, the sharp-eared hero [[Butes]], heard the song and leapt into the sea, but he was caught up and carried safely away by the goddess [[Aphrodite]].<ref name="argonautica-4.891">Apollonius Rhodius, ''Argonautica'' IV, 891–919. [[Robert Cooper Seaton|Seaton, R. C.]] ed., tr. (2012), [https://books.google.com/books?id=ipANAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA354 p. 354ff].</ref>

==== ''Odyssey'' ====
[[File:Siren Painter ARV 289 1 Odysseus and the Sirens - three erotes (02).jpg|thumb|Odysseus and the Sirens, eponymous vase of the [[Siren Painter]], {{circa|475 BC}}]]
[[Odysseus]] was curious as to what the sirens sang to him, and so, on the advice of [[Circe]], he had all of his sailors plug their ears with [[beeswax]] and tie him to the mast. He ordered his men to leave him tied tightly to the mast, no matter how much he might beg. When he heard their beautiful song, he ordered the sailors to untie him but they bound him tighter. When they had passed out of earshot, Odysseus demonstrated with his frowns to be released.<ref>''Odyssey'' XII, 39.</ref> Some post-Homeric authors state that the sirens were fated to die if someone heard their singing and escaped them, and that after Odysseus passed by they therefore flung themselves into the water and perished.<ref>[[Gaius Julius Hyginus|Hyginus]], ''Fabulae'' 141; [[Lycophron]], ''Alexandra'' 712 ff.</ref>

==== Pliny ====
The first-century Roman historian [[Pliny the Elder]] discounted sirens as a pure fable, "although Dinon, the father of Clearchus, a celebrated writer, asserts that they exist in [[India]], and that they charm men by their song, and, having first lulled them to sleep, tear them to pieces."<ref>Pliny the Elder, ''Natural History'' X, 70.</ref>