Cupcakes book of: Mythology

Sirens -Myth #1

So I don't know about you, but personally siren's have always interested me. At first... well up until like two years ago actually I thought siren's were just singing mermaids, I didn't know they were... well ya know dangerous until I watched Once upon a time and their was a siren on their about to kill - well, ya know no spoilers here. But that's when I realised - holy shit, these things kill people! And SPOILER ALERT - yeAH tHeY dO!

In our day-to-day life siren's have become a recognisable symbol, we're used to recognising the beautiful half-fish half-human creature on everything from our story books to our coffee cups. But what if I told you Siren's weren't originally half fish?

In Greek Mythology there were three - five siren's and no more than that. Their family members aren't confirmed, however neither are their names. But with mention in plenty of historical text we have a clue as to what their names could have been, here are all the names that people have used for the sirens in historical texts; Thelxinoe / Thelxiope / Thelxipeia / Thelxiepe, Aglaophonus / Aglaope / Aglaopheme, Molpe, Parthenope, Leucosia, Ligeia, Pesinoe/ Pisinoe and Himerope.

The siren's (however many there were) were friends with the young Persephone, daughter of the Goddess Demeter. When Persephone was kidnapped by Hades the Siren's agreed to the Goddess that they would look for her daughter, therefore the Goddess gave the girls feathers and wings.

And this is when I therefore let you know that what I said earlier about the girl's being half fish was a lie. They're Harpies (Half-bird, Half-human). And guess what? They stay harpies, but I'll go into detail in a minute as to why we think of them as mermaids in a minute.

So, The Siren's had just been gifted flight by the Goddess Demeter, and then what did they decide to do? They decided to abandon the idea of looking for their close friend Persephone. Instead when they abandoned the idea they flew to an island and decided to settle down.