Sirens are the destroyers of sailors from ancient Greek legends. Sirens in Greek mythology Who are the sirens in ancient Greece

When was the last time you heard a civil defense siren?

In Austria, the answer to this question at any time of the year is “as recently as last week.”

After World War II, Austria was so intimidated that they covered the entire country with a network of sirens and since then they have been testing it every week at exactly 12:00 on Saturday. Every Saturday for half a century now. All over the country, to the farthest corners. Farmers in mountain villages have long been in the habit of setting their watches using these signals.

How then do you distinguish real anxiety from an unscheduled test? - I ask my colleague.
- So the signal will be different.
- Do you know the types of signals?
- Well, yes, everyone at school is forced to go through them - and he listed all five types for me. Well done guys, I thought and immediately forgot these signals.
- So, in your memory, have you ever turned it on?
- They say that it was turned on during the Chernobyl disaster. And again in the 2000s, when there was a threat of strong winds in Austria.

It's clear. Gradually I got used to the signals and began to check the time using them myself.

Today, as usual, on Saturday at noon the standard test signal sounded: “15 seconds of a single tone.” However, after about ten minutes, the siren howled again, only not for 15 seconds, but much longer. A minute or two... the siren still sounds the same tone. I look out the window. In the window, people continue to go about their business, no one panics. What the?.. I connect the FM radio, start turning the stations - nothing anywhere. At this time, the siren finally stops. “Some kind of bug,” I thought.

About five minutes later it starts working again and again with a non-standard signal. What the hell... I go on the Internet, look for what the types of signals mean and finally come across a paragraph on Wikipedia: “Every year on the first Saturday of October, the entire range of signals is launched - both for testing and to introduce the population to them.” Yep, today is October 4th, Saturday, phew.

Types of sirens from Wikipedia:

1: Test: 15 seconds (usually there is a half-minute pause after this, and the test is repeated)

2: Fire. 15 seconds signal with very at short intervals(7 seconds). At the signal, all fire brigades and volunteers (there are a lot of volunteer brigades here) must arrive at the unit. I have never heard it, because there are many other ways to notify firefighters.

3: DANGER! A three-minute signal (it was the first signal after the test today) means imminent fuck-up. It is recommended to turn on television and radio to find out exactly how you are about to die.

4: A siren with a constantly changing tone without pauses (like an ambulance or police) - means that a nuclear missile is already approaching and it would not hurt to start moving towards the nearest shelter. Well, or at least defrost

Sirens were called mysterious and mysterious female sea creatures in ancient Greek mythology; they were credited with a deceptive and cruel disposition. With their songs and seductive appearance, sirens lured sailors to their deaths. Mention of these fish girls or bird girls is common, there are also a lot of legends and legends associated with them, they are united by one thing, that everyone who met the sirens, we are, of course, talking about men, first of all, certainly died.

The deadly charm of ancient legend

Different sources describe different versions of the origin of these creatures. According to one legend, these creatures are the offspring of the sea god Phorcys or Achelous, and one of the muses (Calliope, Terpsichore or Melpomene) was considered the mother, and Sterope was also sometimes considered the mother. This explains their demonic essence and melodic voice. The number of these creatures ranged from two or three and reached a whole multitude. According to legend, they lived on the rocks of an island strewn with the bones and dried skin of unfortunate wanderers who fell into the trap of their insidious nature.

Another legend is connected with their origin: the sirens used to be very beautiful and arrogant girls who angered Aphrodite with their obstinate disposition, and she punished them by turning them into birds. Another, no less wonderful legend says that nymphs who were turned into birds by the muses became sirens. Because they had extraordinary voices, they were so proud of it that they dared to challenge the muses in a competition, and lost. As punishment, they were turned into sirens.

According to another version, they were turned into sirens by Demeter, the mother of Persephora, who was kidnapped by Hades. And another version claims that they themselves began to want to become birds, because they were going to find the young goddess kidnapped by Hades, but since people did not want to help them, they settled on a distant island and began to take revenge on everyone, luring wanderers and sailors to their deaths.

Over the years, poets and writers have tried to recreate the ancient image, and each time the legend comes to life in a new way. Either these are insidious beautiful maidens, or they are harbingers of death from the other world. Their image was often carved on tombstones because they were associated with the angels of death, who sang funeral songs to the sounds of the lyre.

The Middle Ages also left many references and facts that proved amazing devotion to this image. Very often you can see images of birds with female heads or the body of fish on coats of arms and frescoes.

There is also a less common version of the origin of female birds. She claims that they were the result of experiments by an alien Intelligence, which ultimately created man using genetic engineering. But this result was not obtained immediately. First, intermediate variants of living creatures appeared, which combined the appearance of both animals and people, so sirens can be called one of the side branches of the experiment, such as: pegasi or satyrs. Of course, the same theory states that after receiving a clean result, all these beings were destroyed. But if this is so, then it remains unknown exactly how many individuals were created and how many were destroyed; there is a possibility that someone managed to survive and become the object of numerous legends and traditions.

Maybe the mysterious nature of the sirens was collective in nature and personified the changeable and sometimes even unpredictable female nature? Maybe they really were part of our world, but subsequently disappeared due to unknown changes? Or maybe somewhere else on a distant island you can hear a wonderful voice calling the wanderer to rest after a long journey, and the sailor to drop anchor and enjoy wonderful singing and music.

Sirens are beautiful, it’s nice to hear them. But how insidious are these inhabitants of the sea island. Like many images of ancient Greece, girls with bird wings and fish tails have outlived their age. But how much do you really know about sirens?

Sirens and Odysseus

Sirens are mentioned for the first time in the Odyssey. It describes only two sirens who lived on an island in the sea. They were predicted that they would certainly die if even one ship passed by them and its crew remained alive. Therefore, the siren sisters regularly drowned everything that floated past. But Odysseus’s ship passed by, filled the crew’s ears with wax, and ordered himself to be tied to the mast, and the beautiful creatures died. They rushed into the sea and turned into cliffs. Later authors settled the Sirens near Sicily. True, each of them chose their own island. The number of sirens also changed frequently. Sometimes there were three of them, sometimes seven.

The image of a siren in mythology

At first, sirens were described in myths as wild chthonic creatures. But gradually, when the period of classical antiquity began, they began to be described as sweet-voiced beauties. As often happens with antiquity, there were several options for why sirens look this way and not otherwise. According to one version, they were Persifona's companions, but when Hades kidnapped her, they began to wander aimlessly until they arrived in the lands of Apollo. There, Dementra, Persifona's mother, turned them into such creatures because they did not help her daughter. According to the second version, she did this so that the sirens could find the missing woman. And in the third version, Aphrodite herself is involved, who gave them such a look that the sirens could not get married. The appearance of sirens is always zoo-anthropomorphic. The second part of their body either has a fish tail, or legs like a bird, or with a fish tail and wings on the back. One day, on the advice of the cunning Hera, the sirens and muses staged a singing competition. The muses won, after which they plucked the losers and made themselves wreaths from their feathers.

Sirens are not only in myths

The image of sirens did not remain only in ancient legends. In the Middle Ages it was often mixed with the image of mermaids. In the era of romanticism, sweet-voiced beauties are filled with refined beauty, they are often painted by artists, and they often end up in poems by poets. A name also appeared - Siren. In 2014, the drama “Siren” was released, where the main role was played by Fiery Katnis from “The Hunger Games”. Of course, these days sirens often turn out to be characters in fantasy computer games. So in the game “The Witcher 3, Wild Hunt” there is a funny moment. Arriving on the Skellige Islands, someone tells the main character Gerald about a sailor who wanted to hear the sirens. And like Odysseus, he filled the ears of the crew with wax. Therefore, the whole ship crashed against the rocks, because no one heard his cry of danger. In the game, sirens look like pretty girls for the time being, then they acquire their true appearance.

SIREN

SIREN

1. preim. pl. Among the ancient Greeks, it was a mythical sea creature, depicted as a woman (sometimes with bird legs) or a bird with a woman’s head, whose singing lured sailors to dangerous, disastrous places for them.

3. A tailed amphibian without hind legs, with eyes under the skin and external gills (zool.).

4. A device for receiving sounds of various heights and measuring sound vibrations (physical).

5. A signal horn that produces strong and sharp sounds that can be heard far away. Steamboat siren. Factory siren. A car with a siren.

Dictionary Ushakova. D.N. Ushakov. 1935-1940.

See what "SIREN" is in other dictionaries:

siren- y, w. sirene f. lat. Siren gr. Seiren. 1. In Greek mythology, a creature living in the sea in the form of a woman with bird legs or a bird with a woman’s head, whose singing lured sailors to dangerous and disastrous places. BAS 1. August 15 1749 … … Historical Dictionary of Gallicisms of the Russian Language

1) a device for measuring the number of air vibrations producing a tone of known pitch; the more frequent the fluctuations, the higher it is; 2) p. or howler, a device installed on ships or places dangerous for navigation and warning sailors with a sharp sound in ... ... Dictionary of foreign words of the Russian language

- (foreign) seductive beauty. Wed. "Voice, siren singing." Wed. I’ll show you a “little thing” there, you’ll lick your fingers! “Little thing” isn’t that what daddy calls sirens?... Saltykov. All year round. September 1st. Wed. If only you... Michelson's Large Explanatory and Phraseological Dictionary (original spelling)

Dahl's Explanatory Dictionary

Women a crafty temptress from Greek theology. | Siren and sirens male, American swamp, two-legged lizard. II. SIREN or sirens, see seren. Dahl's Explanatory Dictionary. IN AND. Dahl. 1863 1866 … Dahl's Explanatory Dictionary

Acoustic emitter, the action of which is based on periodic. interruption of gas (or liquid) flow. According to the principle of operation, oscillators are divided into dynamic (rotating) and pulsating. In pulsating systems, the flow is blocked by a damper that... ... Physical encyclopedia

Demon, buzzer, howler monkey, khahans, mammal, manatee, temptress, dugong, nymph, temptress, seductress, circe, emitter Dictionary of Russian synonyms. siren 1. see horn 2. see ... Synonym dictionary

Steam, air, electric (Siren, hooter) signaling sound device that can produce sounds of very high power and any tone using steam or compressed air. Modern ship noise can be heard at a distance of 3-5 km in any atmospheric conditions... ... Marine dictionary

- (French sirene from Greek seiren), an emitter of high-intensity sound waves, in which a stream of air or steam is interrupted by a disk with holes or other means. Used on lighthouses, ships, etc... Big Encyclopedic Dictionary

In ancient Greek mythology: a creature with a woman's head and a bird's body, living on rocky sea ​​islands. Tatar, Turkic, Muslim female names. Glossary of terms... Dictionary of personal names

Books

• Siren, M. Volkonsky. Siren. An intriguing novel...

Ancient man “populated” the world not only with immortal gods who decided destinies, but also with fantastic creatures. Some of them treated people well and helped them, while others, on the contrary, were dangerous. Such creatures that could harm a person were sirens. Mythology endowed them with a beautiful voice, amazing appearance and cruel disposition. And their victims were sailors sailing by.

Historical information

Today, the siren is considered a mythical, that is, a fictional character. Previously, people believed in their existence. The ancient Hellenes described them as female birds, but already in the fifth century a certain author claimed that these creatures were women up to the waist, and birds below the navel. In the sixteenth century, sirens were considered half-men and half-fish. Albertus Magnus claimed that their faces were ugly, but their voices were amazing. It was the latter image of the creatures that became the most popular, so an entire order of mammals living in the sea was named after them. But there was another image that took root in the world for a short time: the fish-bird.

Myths of the ancient Greeks

So, we found out what sirens look like. Mythology considered them to be creatures with the head of a woman and the body of a bird. They were the daughters of the river god Achelous and one of the muses (either Melpomene or Terpsichore). Their father gave them a cool disposition, and their mother an amazing voice.

But in the beginning all sirens were people. Mythology tells that these were beautiful girls who angered the gods, for which they lost their beautiful appearance. According to one legend, Aphrodite punished them for arrogance and pride, according to another, the muses did this because the sirens challenged them to a singing competition.

It is also likely that these wondrous creatures were previously nymphs in Persephone’s retinue. When she married the god of the underworld and followed him to Hades, Demeter (Persephone's mother) turned the girls into birds. Or maybe they themselves wanted to transform in order to find their mistress, because Hades initially stole the young goddess. People refused to help them, then in despair they retired to the island and began to take revenge.

Revenge of the Sirens

The sirens took sophisticated revenge on people. Mythology claims that the creatures lured sailors with their voices, and when they approached, their ships crashed on the reefs. No one could resist, so they went to certain death. The whole island was dotted human bones, and the sirens continued to sing, luring new victims.

Not a single ship could slip past the island and remain unharmed. who managed to avoid an evil fate were the Argonauts. The sweet song of the sirens was drowned out by the singing of man. This is the legendary Orpheus, playing his cithara, singing his song. Odysseus was the second to sail past the ill-fated island. The king of Ithaca knew about the existence of these dangerous maidens, since his father Laertes was on board the Argo when it was heading to Colchis.

Odysseus wanted to listen to the song of the Sirens, but had no right to endanger his ship. Then he used a trick: he covered his friends’ ears with wax, and ordered himself to be tightly tied to the mast. The comrades did not give in to Odysseus’s requests to untie him - they did not hear either the king or the singing. The sirens themselves, seeing that their spell no longer worked on people, rushed into the sea and became rocks.

Impact on culture

The reader already knows what the siren looked like and what it did. also spoke about the death of these marvelous creatures. Later, people began to consider sirens as muses, angels of death, singing mournful songs. It was fashionable to depict them on noble coats of arms, giving them new features. And today it is a beautiful image that is often used by fantasy authors.