An Odyssey in the Second Year of the Plague – Siren

Siren                             ©Nigel Summerley

 

There seems to be a lot of interest in unidentified flying objects just now. So here's a UFO spotted a while back off the west coast of Italy...

It's my idea of a Siren... and it could be my ticket back to Ithaca once more... since it's been accepted for the Paint The Lyric exhibition set to take place there this September [see this blog An Odyssey in the Second Year of the Plague – Paint The Lyric, 22 February 2021].

Half-woman and half-bird or half-woman and half-fish? And why do some stories say Odysseus encountered two Sirens and other versions say three Sirens? 

Perhaps there is just one answer to all these questions... and this could be it...

An Odyssey in the Second Year of the Plague – Siren Land

Back in lockdown, back in winter, back in Brexitland... the only light seems to shine from maps and books that hold promises of another journey...

One such book is Siren Land by Norman Douglas, a most eloquent volume from 1911 focusing on the Bay of Naples, Capri and the Sorrentine peninsula, the area so closely connected with the myths of the Sirens, the exotic creatures who failed to waylay Odysseus.

Douglas is a sharp, erudite and waspish writer with a passion for – and tremendous knowledge of – this land which he made his home.

To hear his voice calling from over 100 years ago is enough to lure one back to the realm of the Sirens... and it encouraged me to look back on some more pictures from my 2020 odyssey...

Half-bird, half woman Siren from the National
Archaeological Museum, Athens Photo©Nigel Summerley

Half-fish, half-woman from Tinos, Greece
Photo©Nigel Summerley

Siren from Scilla, Italy Photo©Nigel Summerley

Siren from Napoli Centrale station, Naples, Italy Photo©Nigel Summerley

Sirens Hotel, Scilla, Italy Photo©Nigel Summerley