Pantheon: Greek
Class: Minor Goddesses
Level: Mid Tier
Lineage: Divine
Alignment: Evil
Linked with: Odysseus, Acheloos, Demeter, Persephone, Phorkys
The daughters of Phorkys and Acheloos, the Sirens had been nymphs and playmates of Persephone, and as punishment for their not trying to prevent the carrying off of her daughter by Hades, Demeter transformed them into beings half woman and half bird, then changed her mind later and gave them the lower half of fish. There were three whose names are known, and they are Parthenope, Ligeia and Leukosia.
During the time when they were half bird in form, the Sirens challenged the Muses to a competition in singing, but they lost, and the Muses plucked their feathers from the Sirens, bedecking themselves with them. When they had been further transformed into marine beings, the Sirens inhabited the cliffs of the islands between Sicily and Italy, the sweetness of their singing luring unwary travellers on the seas to their deaths. The song of the Sirens would compel them to land on the islands, where they would be torn apart and eaten by the daughters of Phorkys.
The first to successfully pass by the Sirens was Orpheus, who, in company with the Argonauts, kept the attention of the crew fixed on his own beautiful and haunting music, and then came Odysseus, who had his crew stop their ears, while he himself, bound to the mast but having given strict instructions that he was not to be released for any reason until they were safely by, heard their ghostly music and survived.
This feat was sufficient to break the power of the Sirens forever, and they hurled themselves into the sea, where they became cliffs.