(Art isn't mine, found it on a reddit post, all credits to the OG creator) I have nowhere else to rant so I'm doing it here heh, but if you don't know folklore/mythology are one of my hyperfixations, specifically Germand/Celtic/European folklore. However I found myself wanting to indulge a bit more in the lore of the mermaid, a favorite creature of mine since childhood, and as I was doing research I realized that people straight up do not know how incredibly different sirens and mermaids are. They're not even both water-dwelling creatures! Sirens come from Greek mythology. They are daughters of river gods or minor deities, and common parents include Phorcys (a sea god), Achelous (a river god) and Terpsichore and other muses.They're only semi-divine, but not originally human. In the earliest myths they are half bird and half woman, sometimes human heads with bird bodies, sometimes human torsos with wings and bird legs. They live on rocky cliff islands, singing to lure sailors to their rocky shores to drown. Their songs are enchanting, irresistible, promising knowlege secrets or irresistible beauty. Sailors who listened would crash their ships into the rocks and...well, die. They're most famous in the Oddesey, where Odysseus sails past and uses wax to plug his crews ears while tying himself to the mast to resist their lure. Later they began bending with mermaid myths, making modern depictions often show them as these darker and edgier mermaids. However this...isn't what they are. They're pretty different. Mermaids are different. They come from folklores all over the world-Europe, the middle east, Africa and Asia. The earliest depictions of them come from old sailors tales who mistook creatures like dugong's, manatee's, or other sea mammals for half-human creatures. In european folklore, they were connected to dangerous waters and things such as oceans, lakes and rivers, though sometimes were harmless. They are typically depicted as the woman-torso fish-tail form we know them as today. Sometimes though they could have hair of seaweed, scales along their torso as well, or fins rather than feet. They are not bird women or sirens, but some legends say they can transform entirely into humans. They can be dangerous, causing shipwrecks or storms or drowning sailors, and they *can* use their voices to lure men, but that is pretty much just sirens. They can also be helpful or neuteral, warning sailors of storms and giving advice or granting boons! In some cultures they can be seductive and lure humans into the water, but it's not a univeral thing. Singing can be used to entice or warn, but it isn't deadly like sirens are. Their voices are more like a spell, while mermaid voices are just...voices. Singing. Might be pretty, but they aren't literally irresistible. So as you can see, sirens and mermaids are very different creatures! They are often depicted as the same thing, but they aren't. PLEASE UNDERSTAND THIS. It pains me every time someone draws a mermaid and calls it a siren.
(In greek mythology sirens are also cursed or transformed by Demeter, because they were nymphs who failed to protect Persephone, her daughter, from being kidnapped by Hades.)
