(c) Manchester City Galleries; Supplied by The Public Catalogue Foundation

This image of the Sirens portrays the monsters as entirely in a feminine form (a woman’s body). This links womanhood to monsters. The image shows three naked women, lying atop a cliffside, waving to the ship of men passing by. One of the women has a red cloth draped across her thighs and is wearing a crown adorned with red flowers, as well as a red bracelet. Red represents blood and violence in Greek mythology. By subtly slipping in the color red, the artist is hinting to viewers that the Sirens are dangerous. The ground beneath the Sirens is sprouting with flowers and the Sirens themselves are adorned in cloth, pearls, gold, and other niceties. This gives the impression they are peaceful and beautiful women, which fits into the theme of deception. If you look past the niceties, there are bones and starving male bodies around them. As I wrote about before, the Sirens are not as they seem. Another sign of this is the sky. The sky is blue and clear all around, but in the center lay black storm clouds. In this version of the depiction, the Sirens hold instruments to show that they are entrapping men through song. Not all versions include instruments, but they are included here because it is otherwise unclear they are singing. 

This is a large oil painting by the English artist William Etty. The image is entirely based on the interaction in the Odyssey. Traditionally, the Sirens have been depicted as human-animal chimeras but here they are naked women. Many applauded Etty for this while others called him tasteless. He chose to depict naked women because throughout his career, his aim was to “paint some great moral on the heart… the importance of resisting sensual delight”. To him, the Sirens were more “sensual” as naked women than half humans. Odysseus appears larger than his fellow sailors, most likely to be better able to tell him apart. The three Sirens are very similar in appearance, and it is believed that Etty painted the same model in three different poses. Their dramatic poses signify the fashion at the time (in the 1800s). This artist represented the Sirens accurately based on Homer’s The Odyssey. They are sexualized, and because of their nakedness, the viewer blames the Sirens for being attractive to the sailors instead of placing blame on the men. This portrayal carries the common themes of misogyny we have continuously seen when discussing these monsters. 

The most striking thing about this image is the Siren’s nakedness- it is used as a weapon in this context. It is not their beauty exactly that makes them dangerous, instead it’s their blatant sexuality. Although nakedness was common in Greek culture, it was not in 1800 English culture, which is why the painting is considered scandalous. However, I’m not sure this distinction between beauty and sexuality could have been portrayed better if it were not shown through being naked, or scantily dressed. Even though they are the focal point, the Siren’s voices are silenced. We cannot hear their perspective in this painting, and there is no dimension to their characters. This is a common representational strategy of the time- the women catch the viewer’s attention by sitting there and looking pretty, while men in the background are busy doing something intelligent. In this case, Odysseus and his men are outsmarting the Sirens. This image is successful in representing the misogynistic tones we see whenever we think of the Sirens. Although the image does not combat the sexist portrayal, through its representation of these themes, viewers of the Sirens can better understand how the identity of feminine sexuality has been continuously demonized throughout history.