The Sirens
You must know of the tales of the Sirens. The monstrous sea-nymphs who lure defenseless men to their deaths through song. Their bewitching beauty and charm are dangerous, as they lead sailors to imminent death. Desire and lust; The fault of these Sirens. These wicked seductresses. Living for the ruination of men. Of brothers. Of fathers. Of husbands. Death by the nasty Sirens.
When the goddess Persephone was abducted, ravaged, and raped by Haides, it was her handmaidens who were punished for not protecting the young goddess from the God of the Underworld. The handmaidens who raised the goddess, who fed her, and loved her, were powerless in comparison to the God. In the end, it was their powerlessness is which rendered them punishable. By the wrath of Demeter, through the guilt and the pain felt for her child, Demeter turned the maidens into part birds and bound them to the island of Anthemoessa where they could not escape. They were no longer women, yet they remain unfree. They had wings, but they could not fly far. They had infinite knowledge, of the truth of the universe and the glories of heroes, but no one to tell― except for the few sailors who passed by the island in their ventures. These sailors never left.
Hearing the truth of the world meant hearing the pain of the Sirens. Hearing the pain, the suffering, the truth, meant never leaving the island. There was too much to be told as a result of the many stories unheard. The Sirens adored their sailors, whose eyes were always full of compassion and woe, yearning for more stories. But humans do not live forever, and these men never made it back to tell the stories of the ill-fated Sirens.
Then came Orpheus and the Argonauts, who drowned out the voices of the Sirens with a lyre. Who spoke over the Siren’s one opportunity to be heard. Later came Odysseus who tied himself to the mast of his ship, and had his men who filled their ears with wax. Odysseus who was overcome with pride and fame, who heard the song of the Sirens, of the pain, of the hurt, of the truth, yet managed to keep their story untold. As these men escaped, the image of their sly grins spreading ear-to-ear, and their boastfulness burned into the memory of the Sirens.
We did it, they shouted.
We out-witted those Sirens.
Those nasty Sirens.
Analysis
When stories are written with a lack of diversity and a biased perspective, the validity of the text, of the truth, is decreased. Without an open perspective of all types of experiences, there comes a serious lack of information in regard to the truth of the entire story. It is nothing new that female voices have been erased from history, however, the effect of those voices being erased sets back progress and insight that could have otherwise been helpful. I decided that my narrative had to focus on female characters, their lack of representation and characterization, in order to truly exemplify the theme of disinformation and the post-truth era.
In mythology, and literature in general, female characters are often reduced to one sole archetype. By inscribing a character to a stereotype, it reduces their depth, perpetuating certain notions about said character. This is especially detrimental to female characters, as it is done to them the most, and since mythological texts only have men as main characters. The main character of the Illiad, Achilles, is a multidimensional character, having unique and powerful abilities, a well drawn-out backstory, and undergoes many adventures and journeys, which add to his character development. Conversely, female characters are subjected to the archetype they are assigned, lack characterization and expansion. Wife of Odysseus, Penelope, patiently and loyally waits for his return over 10 years. She plays the role of the good and faithful wife, as all her actions are done in line with this archetype (Homer, Odyssey 360). In contrast, we see the opposite of the ‘good wife’ with the unfaithful Clytemnestra, who’s written to be an evil villainess for the murder of her husband, Agamemnon (Aeschylus, Agamemnon 988). Like Penelope, all of the writing on Clytemnestra is done to coordinate with their assigned stereotypical role, never deterring from it, else it would render them “too complex”, and complexity is limited to male characters only.
By writing female characters without depth or complexity, it reduces women to generalizations. In mythology especially, women are often pitted against each other, especially when vying over male attention. As seen in the Illiad, the event which supposedly set into action the Trojan war was a feud between Hera, Athena, and Aphrodite: mother and daughters who were fighting over who Zeus deemed the most attractive (Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheca E3. 2). This perpetuates the image that even the most powerful of women value male validation and beauty overall.
The lack of proper representation of female characters in mythology motivated my focus on Sirens in the theme of dis-information and the post-truth era. In the Odyssey and the Argonautica, Sirens are made out to be evil seductresses who lure men to their death with song, for no other reason than pure evil (Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica 4. 892)(Homer, Odyssey 12. 200). In line with many other female characters in mythology, their story felt incomplete. I felt that perhaps there was more to their story than being villainesses’ who want to kill men for no good reason. To exemplify the theme of dis-information and the post-truth era, I wanted to include the sentiments of the Sirens, which were not originally addressed or taken into consideration. As the Sirens were reduced to evil villainesses, there was a lack of compassion for their experience. This goes to show that without representation in writing, is critical. Perhaps this was strategically done to glorify and better the perception of male characters. Nonetheless, through my adaptation of the mythology of the Sirens, I wanted to exemplify that their punishment was not having wings or having klea andron, the knowledge of the universe, in fact, these were advantages, but the punishment was in having these advantages, but being women in a patriarchal world, they could not fully utilize their potential.
Works Cited
Aeschylus. Agamemnon. Translated by Smyth, Herbert Weir. Loeb Classical Library Volumes 145 & 146. Cambridge, MA. Harvard Universrity Press. 1926.
Apollodorus. The Library. Translated by Sir James George Frazer. Loeb Classical Library Volumes 121 & 122. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1921.
Homer. The Iliad. Translated by Murray, A T. Loeb Classical Library Volumes1. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1924.
Homer. The Odyssey. Translated by Murray, A T. Loeb Classical Library Volumes. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1919.
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