A Tale Of Two Sisters Gorgons And Sirens In Ancient Greek Art And Literature

A Tale of Two Sisters:
Gorgons and Sirens in Ancient
Greek Art and Literature
Elizabeth Andres
179050146
Submitted for the degree of
Master of Arts, Classical Mediterranean Archaeology
University of Leicester
June 2020

Elizabeth Andres Classical Mediterranean Archaeology
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ABSTRACT
A Tale of Two Sisters: Gorgons and Sirens in Ancient Greek Art and Literature
Elizabeth Andres
Despite rarely appearing together in art and mythology, Gorgons and Sirens have a great
deal in common. Although many hybrid creatures evolved in the human imagination over
time, Gorgons and Sirens have had a particularly interesting journey from being depicted
primarily as fearsome monsters to appearing as something much more human, and even
benevolent, in different time periods and in different contexts. Both belong to groups of
sisters, and share a primordial connection to water through their parentage. Both groups
of sisters reside on remote islands in distant seas, not creatures you would happen upon
by accident, but figures that are encountered by heroes and travelers. Both are inherently
associated with the senses: the Gorgon’s gaze, the Siren’s song. And both are intimately
connected with death and the underworld. Looking closely at iconography and literary
sources between the 7th
and 4th
centuries BCE, this thesis aims to explore these areas of
overlap, and to examine whether the development of Gorgons and Sirens in the visual
record was a linear process, or if it was instead more complex and dependent on context.
Word Count: 181

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would like to acknowledge the guidance and support of my thesis advisor, Dr. Sarah Scott.
Her calm encouragement and frequent check-ins helped me stay the course and proceed
with my research in a timely manner. I would also like to thank Dr. Graham Shipley, Dr.
Naoise MacSweeney, and Dr. Daniel Stewart for their feedback on my initial thesis
proposal. I am grateful to the School of Archaeology and Ancient History at the University
of Leicester for providing me with a challenging and enriching experience throughout my
studies these past two years.
I am ever grateful to Dr. David Saunders, Curator of Antiquities at the J. Paul Getty
Museum, for sharing his intelligence, wit, and scholarly insights with me at several points
during the project. His exhibition, Underworld: Imagining the Afterlife, served as one of
my primary starting points, and I very much appreciated the opportunities to pick his
brain about Gorgons, Sirens, and ideas about death and the afterlife in ancient Greek art.
I was also fortunate to have access to the Getty Research Library, which proved to be an
invaluable resource.
Finally, I must thank my husband, Franc Gabusi, for supporting me and believing in me
through thick and through thin. Thank you!

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. Introduction Page 6
2. Literature Review Page 8
3. Methodology Page 14
4. Representing and Transcending Mythology Page 17
a. Limitations of the Archaeological Record
b. Representing Mythology
5. Section I: A Tale of Two Sisters Page 22
a. Female-Animal Hybrids
b. Origins and Parentage
c. Sea and Islands
d. Sight and Sound
e. Death and the Underworld
6. Section II: Monsters and Maidens Page 41
a. The Archaic, the Middle, and the Beautiful
b. Gorgons and Sirens in a Decorative Context
c. Gorgons and Sirens in a Narrative Context
d. Gorgons and Sirens in a Protective Context
7. Conclusion Page 59
8. List of Figures Page 62
9. Appendix 1: Ancient Literary Sources Page 69
a. Gorgons
b. Sirens
10. Appendix 2: Ancient Visual Sources Page 89
a. Gorgons
b. Sirens
11. Bibliography Page 101

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Fig 1: Plate with Gorgoneion surrounded by Sirens, a Sphinx, and wild animals,
the Gorgon Painter, ca. 600 BCE, Walters Art Museum

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INTRODUCTION
Gorgons and Sirens rarely appear together in the art and literature of ancient Greece.
The plate pictured above is one of the very few examples where they appear together in
a work of art, and dates to the early 6th
century BCE. (Figure 1) They never engage directly
with each other in a narrative sense, but are sometimes allowed to occupy the same space
in a decorative manner. In the center of the plate is the severed head of Medusa,
otherwise known as the gorgoneion. She is depicted with a toothy grimace and massive
fleshy tongue, and a wrinkled nose between two wide eyes staring directly out at the
viewer. Coils of hair surround her face and hang down beside her neck, including at least
six serpents writhing within. Two pairs of Sirens stride around the curves of the plate
alongside panthers, goats, a horse and rider, a small owl, and a solitary sphinx. The Sirens’
bodies are plump like chickens, their wings held back against their feathered bodies. Only
their heads are human, with women’s faces and wavy hair tied back with fillets. Such a
highly decorated plate was likely intended for religious or funerary purposes, and presents
us with two of the most popular motifs of the period: the Gorgon and the Siren (Clark
2002, 130).
Despite rarely appearing together in art and mythology, Gorgons and Sirens have a great
deal in common. Both are groups of sisters, and share a primordial connection to water
through their parentage. Both groups of sisters reside on remote islands in distant seas,
not creatures you would happen upon by accident, but figures that are encountered by
heroes and travelers. Both are inherently associated with the senses: the Gorgon’s gaze,
the Siren’s song. And both are intimately connected with death and the underworld.
Most obviously perhaps, Gorgons and Sirens are also both human-animal hybrids: or to be
more precise, woman-animal hybrids. They are almost always represented this way in the
visual sources, to one degree or another; less frequently so in the literary sources. Greek
mythology is full of such hybrids—centaurs, satyrs, harpies, and the sphinx, to name just

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a few—but none have as much in common with each other as Gorgons and Sirens. If we
were to create a Venn diagram of shared traits among these mythological creatures, we
would find the greatest overlap between these two sisters. (Figure 2) And although many
hybrid creatures evolved in the human imagination over time, Gorgons and Sirens have
had a particularly interesting journey from being depicted primarily as fearsome monsters
to appearing as something much more human, and even empathetic in different time
periods and in different contexts.
Fig 2: Venn diagram showing areas of overlap among hybrid creatures.
Gorgons and Sirens share all five categories.
This thesis aims to explore these areas of overlap that Gorgons and Sirens share, and to
examine whether their development from monstrous hybrids to benevolent protectors
was a linear process, or if it was instead more complex and dependent on context. Looking
closely at iconography and literary sources between the 7th
and 4th
centuries BCE, this thesis
is intended as a structured exploration, and does not claim to provide a comprehensive
survey of all existing material, although such a survey underpins much of the discussion.
The project is further defined by focusing on vases, sculpture, and architectural elements
from mainland Greece and Southern Italy.

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Following a detailed literature review and description of the methodology, this thesis will
first provide an overview of the types of archaeological evidence to be discussed, and how
this evidence relates to mythology. The majority of the paper then focuses on two main
lines of discussion. Relying largely on the literary sources, we will first explore specific
areas of overlap between Gorgons and Sirens, including: their human-animal hybrid
nature; their origins and parentage; their association with the sea and islands; their
manifestations of sight and sound; and their connections with death and the underworld.
We will then look more closely at the visual record to see how Gorgons and Sirens were
represented in decorative, narrative, and protective contexts, and to examine how those
contexts may relate to their changing appearance over time.
Although much has been written about Gorgons and Sirens individually, there is
comparatively little discussion about the similarities between them. Highly focused
in-depth studies of discreet elements of antiquity are valuable, but new insights often
emerge when we seek to bridge the gaps between distinct areas of study. My hope is that
by examining the overlap between Gorgons and Sirens during a specific time period and
across select media, this thesis may contribute to our understanding of the significance
of these figures in antiquity, as well as provide insights into the complex range of factors
underpinning artistic choices across a range of forms and contexts.
LITERATURE REVIEW
This study was inspired and broadly informed by two museum exhibitions and one key
text. These works provided the seeds from which the project grew, and provided an initial
framework for my subsequent research.
Underworld: Imagining the Afterlife was on view at the J. Paul Getty Museum, Getty Villa,
from October 2018 through March 2019. The exhibition explored ancient Greek views of
death and the afterlife through an assemblage of funerary vases and sculpture from
collections around the world, and included a gallery devoted to the imagery of Sirens in

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Greece and Southern Italy. Many of the Sirens embodied the familiar bird-woman duality,
but several examples were distinctly more human, and evoked the sweetly mournful
angels of later medieval imagery.
Dangerous Beauty: Medusa in Classical Art was on view at the Metropolitan Museum
of Art from February 2018 through February 2019. This exhibition was drawn primarily
from the museum’s permanent collection, and explored the evolution of Medusa and
the Gorgons from antiquity to the modern era. It also presented parallel paths for three
other mythological figures: the Sirens, the Sphinx, and Scylla. All four creatures share
a common ancestry and are intimately connected with death and the afterlife, and all
originated as fearsome hybrid monsters that became increasingly humanized and
benevolent over time. My research was already well underway when I learned of this
exhibition, and I found that it validated many of the assumptions and arguments I was
already forming.
Emily Vermeuele’s Aspects of Death in Early Greek Art and Poetry (1979) examines many
of these areas of overlap. Specifically, Vermeule draws connections between Gorgons and
Sirens as ancient death spirits, looking closely at their representation in the written and
visual record, and the layers of symbolism that can be discovered within the accompanying
mythology.
As I undertook to complete a broad survey of ancient literary sources and iconography,
two additional authors informed my early research. Woodford’s Images of Myths in
Classical Antiquity (2003) and Toscano’s Medusa and Perseus and the Relationship Between
Myth and Science (2016) explore the relationships between text and image. Both authors
note that myths are flexible, and have been repeatedly interpreted and reinterpreted by
artists throughout time. The visual record cannot be considered a mirror image of the
ancient texts.

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Sirens
Turning first to Sirens, the ancient literary sources offer minimal information. Homer’s
description in The Odyssey is the lengthiest, and yet he provides no details regarding
their physical appearance. Various authors between the 7th century BCE and 3rd century
CE provide additional insights, although many of these are barely more than passing
references (see Hesiod, Euripides, Plato, Apollonius of Rhodes, Lycophron, Strabo, Ovid,
Cicero, Seneca, Aelian, Apuleius, Pausanias, Psuedo-Apollodorus, Pseudo-Hyginus, Ptolemy
Hephaestion, and Athenaeus). Much of our understanding of the Sirens is therefore
dependent on later interpretations of the existing visual record.
Like Woodford and Toscano, Gerald Gresseth (1970) notes that the pictorial traditions
have not always corresponded to the literary sources. Sirens are depicted as birds long
before we find them described in such detail in the literary evidence, and Gresseth
attributes this to patterns of folklore that preserve specific elements of stories across
generations of oral storytelling.
Numerous sources attempt to either compile a large collection of images and object types,
with little analysis, or focus on a single object in great detail. Leclercq-Marx (1997) and
Kunze (2013) provide small treasure troves of imagery from antiquity through the medieval
period, as does the Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae (LIMC, 1981-2009).
Tsiafakis (2001) provides a detailed description (but minimal interpretation) of a bronze
Siren in the J. Paul Getty collection, and Pavlou (2012) provides one of the more intriguing
single-object analyses of a Laconian kylix in the Musée du Louvre that depicts Sirens in an
atypical manner.
Much of the modern scholarship focuses on the origins of the Siren in mythology and
iconography. There is general agreement that the idea for the Siren was introduced to
Greece by way of western Asia and Egypt, particularly via the concept of the ba or “soul
bird” (Gresseth 1970; Vermeule 1979; Lao/Oliphant 1997; Pavlou 2012; Hardy 2015). In

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addition to their close association with death, some authors note that what the Sirens
truly offer is the promise of divine knowledge. It is not merely the beauty of their song,
or the seductive nature of their sex that lures sailors to their death, but the desire for
a direct connection to divinity and eternal glory (Butler & Nooter 1995; Nugent 2008;
Miller 2012). Building on the work of Emily Vermeule mentioned above, Jean-Pierre
Vernant (1991) has explored the seductive nature of certain male and female figures
who are closely associated with death in Greco-Roman mythology, including Sirens,
Harpies, Eros, and Thanatos.
One of the most compelling lines of scholarly inquiry focuses on the evolution of Sirens
from monstrous hybrid creatures during the Archaic period to compassionate figures of
mourning during the Classical period and beyond. Arielle Perrin Hardy (2015) attributes
this change to specific legislation limiting the role of women in public mourning rituals
during the 5th
century. She argues that Sirens effectively became a substitute for real
women in this funerary context, and thus begin to be depicted as increasingly human.
Beyond antiquity, there is evidence that the original concept of the Siren, with her close
connection to the sea, ultimately led to the myth of the mermaid. Meri Lao and John
Oliphant (1997) explore the history of the siren/mermaid in western art through the late
20th
century. Most of Lao and Oliphant’s research reinforces what other authors have
discussed in terms of the Sirens’ origins, mythology, and symbolism, but they also include
some questionable interpretations from the field of psychoanalysis, which perpetuate early
20th
century biases about female sexuality, and thus are not useful as challenged in more
recent scholarship. Similarly, Wellmer (2000) attempts to make deep connections between
the Siren mythology and phallic symbolism, which is at once obvious and antiquated.
Authors such as Aasved (1996) have attempted to ground the mythology in real world
events, taking an ethnographic approach by suggesting that modern-day “cargo cults,”
which compel sailors to crash off the coast of Africa and Melanesia, may have had an
ancient equivalent which inspired the myth of the Sirens. This type of approach ignores

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the complexity of mythology in human cultures at worst, and is an extremely tenuous
connection to make at best.
Finally, Michael Padgett’s volume The Centaur’s Smile (2003) offers a collection of richly
illustrated essays exploring the nature of hybrid creatures in the Greco-Roman world,
including centaurs, satyrs, gorgons, and sirens. Desponia Tsiafakis’ essay explores the
Sirens’ family ties with other female hybrid creatures and their association with death,
and analyzes the imagery of several key objects—notably Corinthian vases—to trace their
iconographic development. Tsiafakis builds on the earlier work of John Pollard (1964),
whose book Seers, Shrines, and Sirens was one of the first to explore the chronological
development of Sirens in art, and their association with the underworld.
Gorgons
The literature, both ancient and modern, surrounding Medusa and the Gorgons is much
more robust than that for the Sirens. We can divide the ancient literary sources into two
main categories: those that describe or reference the Gorgon’s head (or gorgoneion), and
those that delve more deeply into the myth of Medusa. Homer and Hesiod provide the
earliest examples of both in the 8th
century, with Homer referencing the Head of the
Gorgon in both The Iliad and The Odyssey, and Hesiod providing us with background
regarding Medusa’s origins. Between the 5th
century BCE and 1st
century CE, we find
reference to the Gorgon or gorgoneion in the work of Euripides, Herodotus, Apollonius
of Rhodes, Pausanias, and Lucian. During this same period, we find Pindar and Diodorus
Siculus referencing Medusa, but it is Apollodorus, Lucan, and most notably Ovid’s
Metamorphoses, where we learn the most about Medusa’s personal mythology.
The Medusa Reader (2003) is a useful compendium for most of the ancient sources,
as well as a selection of more recent essays. While several modern scholars have taken
a philological approach to the texts by Euripides, Pindar, and Ovid specifically (O’Brien

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1964; Segal 1995; Hendry 1996), it is the analysis of iconography and mythology that
most interests us here.
As with the Sirens, much of the scholarship around Gorgons has focused on detailed
analyses of specific objects or groups of objects, including some archaic Gorgons from the
British Museum (Six 1885); a white-ground lekythos at the Metropolitan Museum of Art
(Richter 1961); a hydria at the Fogg Museum (Mitten 1962); antefixes at the J. Paul Getty
Museum (Wohl 1977, 1996); archaic terracotta reliefs from Helike (Kolia 2014); and Greek
bronzes at the Yale University Art Museum (Matheson 2004). Although many of these are
purely descriptive (and many were written quite a long time ago) they can contribute
insights into our understanding of the broader corpus of Gorgon imagery.
Scholars in the early 20th
century developed a variety of theories regarding the significance
and symbolism of the Gorgon or gorgoneion, and of Medusa. Perhaps the most creative
hypothesis is Frederick Thomas Elworthy’s Solution of the Gorgon Myth, which proposes
that the story of Medusa and Perseus was inspired by nothing more than observations of
an octopus devouring a lobster (1903)! Other early scholarship takes a more credible
approach, with essays written about the association of snakes with the Gorgons and
Medusa (Wilson 1920); the origins and symbolism of the Gorgon head or gorgoneion,
and the first representations of the Medusa/Perseus myth in the visual record (Hopkins
1934; Howe 1954; Croon 1955; Feldman 1965).
The theme of Medusa’s evolution from monstrous hybrid creature to beautiful woman is
discussed in the earlier scholarship, but gains new depth in later 20th
century scholarship.
Carpenter’s Art and Myth in Ancient Greece (1997) traces this development from the 7th
through 5th
century BCE, but it is Kathryn Topper who has published some of the most
thoughtful work on this subject (2007, 2010). Topper challenges the idea of a linear
chronology in the iconographic development of Medusa. Arguing against earlier
scholarship that attempted to classify the imagery progressively as “archaic,”

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“middle,” and “beautiful,” she successfully demonstrates that a variety of forms coexisted
across time periods, and explores why artists may have chosen to depict different versions
of Medusa within different contexts.
While the Sirens have their song, Medusa has her gaze. Padgett contextualizes Medusa
within the broader scope of ancient human/animal hybrids, focusing specifically on her
dual role as demon and protector through the power of her gaze (2013). Rainer Mack’s
Facing Down Medusa (2002) delves into the confrontational power of that gaze, while
Grethlein, Squire, and Turner explore how the ancient Greeks perceived and represented
vision in Greek vase painting (2016).
Like the Sirens, Medusa has also been the subject of psychoanalytic interpretation. This
is not the focus of this thesis, and does not bear further mention here. Of slightly more
interest is a wave of staunchly feminist scholarship that appropriates the character of
Medusa as a victim of male dominance and symbol of female empowerment in the modern
age, most famously articulated in Hélène Cixous’ Laugh of the Medusa (1976), and further
developed by the next wave of feminist scholars in the 1990s (Bowers 1990; Reeder 1995).
These interpretations have since been rightly refuted as simplistic by scholars interested
in stripping away modern lenses, and returning to explorations of Medusa’s significance
in antiquity (Dexter 2010).
METHODOLOGY
My initial research question was broad, and proposed to undertake a comprehensive
survey of the imagery and literary descriptions of Gorgons and Sirens between the 7th
century BCE and the 3rd
century CE in order to shed light on the power and persistence
of these two figures throughout the Greco-Roman period. I was specifically interested
in exploring areas of commonality between Gorgons and Sirens, and hoped that a close
examination of the archaeological evidence, as well as a detailed review of recent
scholarship, would help me further define my study.

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It soon became clear that there is a wealth of scholarship about the Gorgons and Medusa,
but not nearly as much has been written about the Sirens, either in antiquity or in the
modern era. This may be partly attributable to the dual nature of Medusa as an individual
and the gorgoneion as a powerful symbol, in contrast to the relative anonymity of the
Sirens. The Medusa Reader was a useful starting point for the ancient sources, and
additional texts cited in the bibliography provided further guidance regarding the ancient
texts. Once I had compiled an extensive list of ancient authors and citations, the Loeb
Classical Library, the Perseus Database at Tufts University, and the Theoi Classical Texts
Library provided me with the necessary English translations of the relevant Greek and Latin
texts. A selection of key ancient literary sources can be found in Appendix 1a-b.
There is, however, an abundance of information in the visual record for both Gorgons
and Sirens—including pottery, sculpture, architectural elements, jewelry, gems, cameos,
wall paintings, and metalwork—so I decided to focus my research on the iconographic
development, with the literary sources providing additional context. This left me with a
very wide-ranging data set for analysis. I considered limiting my study to simply Gorgons
or Sirens, but felt that the overlap between these two figures was too compelling to
dismiss, and indeed was a key aspect of what I wanted to explore. Instead I determined
to limit both the chronology and geography of my study, and my survey of the imagery
proved that there was plenty of available material to make this a worthwhile pursuit.
In the end, I decided to explore Gorgons and Sirens as they appear in the visual record
from the 7th
through 4th
century BCE in mainland Greece and Southern Italy, with the
literary sources providing a separate and complimentary line of discussion. This period
is particularly rich in Gorgon and Siren imagery, beginning with their first appearances
in the early 7th
century through the Classical period. It was challenging to omit eastern
Greek localities and the entire Hellenistic and Roman periods, but I realized these could
easily be the focus of entirely separate research projects. Additionally, I felt it would be

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prudent to focus my discussion further by medium, electing to include only imagery that
appears on terracotta vessels, funerary sculpture, and architectural elements. It was
challenging to let go of so much rich material, but the information I gathered about
jewelry, mosaics, and metalwork in particular remain informative for the study overall.
At the heart of my research was an extensive review of the existing Gorgon and Siren
iconography. Many of the resources cited in the bibliography provided images to add
to my personal research catalogue. Additionally, three well-known inventories of ancient
art were instrumental to my research. The Beazley Archive Pottery Database (BAPD) at
the University of Oxford focuses exclusively on pottery, including many works known only
through small fragments, and many for which imagery is not readily available. An initial
search for “gorgon/gorgons” retrieved 265 records, for “gorgoneia/gorgoneion” 740
records, and for “Medusa” 72 records. A search for “siren/sirens” retrieved 1,795 records.
In contrast, a search for “sphinx/sphinxes” retrieved 2,953 records, while a search for
“harpy/harpies” retrieved only 16 records. The numbers are informative for both the
volume of information available, and for how these subjects compare within the
archaeological record. The Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum (CVA) was a useful compliment to
the Beazley Archive, but unfortunately there is no equivalent to these databases for other
media, such as sculpture. Although not as comprehensive, the Lexicon Iconographicum
Mythologiae Classicae (LIMC) is organized by subject matter, and covers a wide range of
media, including pottery, sculpture, mosaics, coins, gems, metalwork, and architectural
elements. It should be noted that all three of these resources (BAPD, CVA, and LIMC)
contain a wealth of imagery, but provide only key data about the objects, such as date,
maker, and place of origin. The fact that each of these resources contains different types
of information, and is organized according to different principles, makes it challenging to
locate and compare objects, or to feel that any study can ever be truly comprehensive.
Finally, I spent a great deal of time researching within the online collections of over thirty
museums across the United States and Europe. The most significant works were found in

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the Antikensammlung, Berlin; the British Museum, London; the J. Paul Getty Museum,
Malibu; the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York;
the Munich Glyptothek; the Musée du Louvre, Paris; the National Archaeological Museum,
Athens; the Staatliche Antikensammlungen, Munich; the Walters Art Museum, Baltimore;
the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond; and the Yale University Art Gallery, New
Haven. Appendix 2a-b contains a selection of objects illustrating key aspects in the
development of Gorgon and Siren iconography.
My ultimate goal in this thesis is to explore the commonalities between Gorgons and
Sirens, and to discuss how those manifest in the literary and visual records. Was their
development from human-hybrid monsters to more humanized female protectors a
linear process, or was it always multivalent?
REPRESENTING AND TRANSCENDING MYTHOLOGY
Before examining Gorgons and Sirens specifically, it will be useful to discuss the types
of evidence we will be exploring. What information does the archaeological record
provide regarding Gorgons and Sirens and how they were represented and understood
in antiquity? I initially set out to examine how the ancient literary and visual sources
informed one another, but soon realized that this was something of a fool’s errand.
The visual record is quite consistent across the centuries in terms of quantity. There is no
shortage of vases and sculpture (and other media) depicting Gorgons or Sirens between
the 7th
and 4th
centuries BCE. In contrast, the literary record is scant, with Homer and
Hesiod providing our earliest references in the late 8th
and early 7th
centuries, followed by
virtual silence on the subjects until the 5th
century. Although we can look for parallels, it is
less about the literary and visual records informing or mirroring one another, and more
about both types of expression providing separate but complimentary lines of evidence.

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Homer provides the earliest literary evidence for both figures:
About her shoulders [Athena] flung the tasseled aegis, fraught with terror,
all about which Rout is set as a crown, and therein Strife, therein Valor, and
therein Onset, that make the blood run cold, and therein is the head of the
dread monster, the Gorgon, dread and awful, a portent of Zeus that bears
the aegis (Homer, The Iliad, 5.733-742).
To the Sirens first shalt thou come, who beguile all men whosoever comes
to them. Whoso in ignorance draws near to them and hears the Sirens’ voice,
he nevermore returns, that his wife and little children may stand at his side
rejoining, but the Sirens beguile him with their clear-toned song, as they sit in
a meadow, and about them is a great heap of bones of moldering men, and
round the bones the skin is shriveling. But do thou row past them, and anoint
the ears of they comrades with sweet wax, which thou hast kneaded, lest any
of the rest may hear. But if thou hast a will to listen, let them bind thee in the
swift ship hand and foot upright in the step of the mast, and let the ropes be
made fast at the ends to the mast itself, that with delight thou may listen to
the voices of the two Sirens (Homer, The Odyssey, 12.36-70).
In both excerpts we learn something about the nature of the Gorgon and Sirens—
they are both described as fearsome and dangerous monsters—but we learn nothing
of their physical appearance. How would an artist translate these words into a vase
painting or a piece of sculpture? For example, every depiction of Sirens from this period
represents them with plump bird bodies, wings, and human heads. Artists did not get this
idea from Homer’s description. Did Homer conceive of the Sirens as hybrid bird-women,
and take for granted that his audience already knew what they looked like? Or did visual
artists develop such an idea independently (Gresseth 1970, 211)? Examples like this

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highlight the benefits of examining multiple lines of evidence when formulating ideas
about the past.
Limitations of the Archaeological Record
Today we generally read the myths of ancient Greece in their complete form, and it
is easy to forget that most of them have not come down to us in such a neat and tidy
manner. Many ancient authors referenced only portions of the whole, and many artists
chose to represent only key moments of a given story. Additionally, the archaeological
record only provides us with what happenstance has preserved, which is by no means a
complete picture of what originally existed. And so we are left to piece the myths together
from multiple sources (Toscano 2016, 816). We may never have all the pieces, but we can
use the available information to develop as comprehensive an understanding as possible,
acknowledging that this understanding will always be partial, and that new evidence, and
new interpretations, will continue to inform our perceptions of antiquity.
The ancient literary sources are robust, and offer insights into daily life, politics, history,
mythology, and religion through the eyes of playwrights, poets, philosophers, politicians,
and historians. They do not offer us a perfect record, however, and we must remember
that we are privy only to the texts that history has preserved, and within those, we are
subject only to the interests, ideologies, priorities, and agendas of those authors (Gabba
1983, 28; Toscano 2016, 817). As a result, we lean heavily on the writings of men like
Homer, Hesiod, Ovid, and Pausanias not only because we find value in their work, but
because their work is all that is left to us.
This thesis focuses on representations of Gorgons and Sirens between the 7th
and 4th
centuries BCE. During that time period there are a total of 6 authors who reference the
Gorgons or Medusa, and 4 who reference the Sirens. As noted above, there is virtually
no literary record of Gorgons and Sirens during the 7th
and 6th
centuries, but their strong

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presence in the visual record attests to their popularity during this period. It is therefore
likely that authors were writing about them, but those texts were not preserved.
Many later Greek and Roman authors write about both Gorgons and Sirens. In fact, many
details of the myths that we now take for granted do not appear in the literary record until
the Roman era. Although the focus of this thesis will remain within its defined timeframe,
I will reference later authors where relevant because they often provide additional insights
into these figures that may or may not have bearing on earlier interpretations of them.
We cannot assume that they did when the archaeological evidence does not support such
assumptions. But neither should we definitively assume that they did not. Absence of
evidence is not necessarily evidence of absence. It is important to be clear about such
references so as not to conflate evidence across time periods in a misleading manner.
The ancient visual sources are abundant, but like all evidence of antiquity, are inherently
fragmentary and incomplete. This thesis focuses on terracotta vases and marble and
terracotta sculpture in part because these are materials that endure. We have many
examples of mosaics, wall paintings, and metalwork (including coinage, jewelry, and
vessels), but we also know that much of this material has been lost. Vases and sculpture
survive in greater quantities because they are made of sturdy material; they do not fade
or disintegrate like other materials; they cannot be melted down or repurposed like metal;
and because they were often placed in tombs and thus somewhat protected from the
ravages of time (Carpenter 1997, 10).
At least 65,000 vases from the ancient Greek world have been identified, and this is
estimated to be only a tiny fraction of the original production. We often do not know the
exact provenience of these objects, which can make their original function and purpose
difficult to discern. Many are known or believed to be funerary in nature, although being
found in a tomb does not necessarily confirm that this was an object’s primary purpose.
Any kind of object may have been included in a tomb simply because it was valued by the

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deceased (Carpenter 1997, 10). Vases are an especially powerful medium for their story-
telling ability, and thus are a primary source for much of what we know about Greek
mythology (Clark 2002, 3).
Funerary sculpture and architectural elements do not lend themselves as readily to story
telling, but ancient artists were creative about representing key elements in order to
convey their message. Sculpture is generally a more public medium than vases, intended
for public buildings like temples and sanctuaries, as well as for cemeteries. Both vases and
sculpture can be employed for decorative, narrative, or protective purposes, particularly
where Gorgons and Sirens are concerned.
Representing Mythology
In both literary and visual arts, myths are multivalent, with artists choosing to emphasize
different elements at different moments and for different purposes. In antiquity, “the
myths were seldom fixed in any way; they always remained flexible and were often
rethought” (Woodford 2003, 10). Although some stories remained stable, with certain
elements solidified or made canon, the way they were represented might change over
time, or across regions, as cultural tastes shifted (Woodford 2003, 127). Therefore “the
literary and pictorial traditions have not been harmonized” (Gresseth 1970, 204). Different
texts may contradict one another, and examples from literary and visual sources frequently
do not align. This complicates our understanding, but also illustrates mythology’s
complexity and flexibility (Toscano 2016, 817).
When considering how ancient Greeks encountered mythology, it is good to remember
that most people were not literate in antiquity. They were not reading the myths in books,
but were hearing them from family members, from bards at festivals and at the local
tavern, on stage in the latest play, or seeing them represented in artworks such as vases
and sculpture. Ancient artists seldom drew their subject matter directly from any known
literary sources. It is more likely that visual artists created their own independent

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interpretations of the myths, finding inspiration in the same cultural cache of stories that
the writers used (Snodgrass 1998, 1; Woodford: 10, 15). We therefore should not view
artworks as attempts to illustrate literary works, but rather as unique expressions in their
own right, with both types of evidence contributing to a larger picture.
Our understanding of Gorgons and Sirens is therefore dependent upon a combination
of literary and visual evidence. The archaeological record provides us with much data to
consider. But what did these figures mean to the ancient Greeks? Modern scholarship has
approached this question from many different angles, many of which will be explored in
the course of this thesis. It is not only the archeological data that is of interest here, but
also the experience of mythology, and the deeper meanings that Gorgons and Sirens may
have held for ancient people.
SECTION I: A TALE OF TWO SISTERS
This section will explore five key commonalities between Gorgons and Sirens: their
hybridism; their shared origins and parentage; their presence at sea and on islands; their
sensory connections to sight and sound; and their close association with death and the
underworld. Both ancient authors and modern scholars will help guide this exploration.
Ancient texts are quoted here where relevant, with a more complete compilation included
for reference in Appendix 1a-b.
Although not apparent in the earliest ancient texts, the visual record shows that the
story of Medusa and Perseus was well known by at least the early 7th
century. (Figure 3)
Apollodorus’ Bibliotheca and Ovid’s Metamorphoses offer the most complete tellings of
the myth, but these were not written until the 2nd
and 1st
centuries BCE respectively. There
is very little literary evidence for the mythology around the Sirens. They are essentially
confined to their brief encounter with Odysseus as described by Homer in the 8th
century
BCE, and their even briefer encounter with Orpheus in the Argonautica by Apollonius of
Rhodes in the 3rd
century BCE. (Figure 4)

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Fig 3: Relief pithos with Medusa as Centaur, ca. 660 BCE, Musée du Louvre
Fig 4: Globular aryballos with Odysseus and the Sirens, 575-550 BCE,
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
It may be useful at this stage to provide a brief synopsis of the basic myths associated
with each figure, as recounted in my own words:
The Gorgons were three sisters who lived on a remote island in a distant sea.
Two of them were immortal, but one, Medusa, was mortal and had the ability
to turn men into stone with her gaze. Different variations of the myth depict
the Gorgons as either monsters with hideous grimacing faces, or as young
maidens. They may or may not have had snakes for hair. Similarly, depending
on which version of the myth one reads, Medusa may have always been a snaky
monster, or she may have been a lovely maiden who was turned into a monster
after Poseidon raped her in one of Athena’s sacred temples. The hero Perseus,
a son of Zeus, is persuaded to seek out Medusa and bring back her head in an
attempt to appease King Polydectes. With the support of Athena and Hermes,
and through a series of adventures, Perseus finds Medusa and decapitates her
while she sleeps. He gazes upon her visage through the reflection of his shield
to avoid looking directly at her. From her severed neck spring her two children

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by Poseidon, Chrysaor and Pegasus. Her disembodied head retains its power to
turn men into stone, so Perseus stows it safely in a bag provided to him by the
nymphs explicitly for this purpose. He returns to King Polydectes, and turns him
and his men into stone with the power of the Gorgon’s gaze. Athena then attaches
Medusa’s head (the gorgoneion) to her aegis. The gorgoneion persists as a symbol
of death on the battlefield and in the underworld, and as a symbol of protection
on warrior’s shields and on Athena’s aegis.
The Sirens were three sisters who lived on a rocky outcrop in a distant sea.
They were famous for their beautiful song that lured sailors to crash their ships
against the rocks, and had the bodies of birds with the heads and voices of women.
The sorceress Circe warns Odysseus that he will sail past the Sirens on his journey
home, so he prepares by sealing his men’s ears with wax and having them bind him
tightly to the ship’s mast so that he alone can hear the Sirens’ song but not throw
himself into the sea. It works, and in some variations of the myth the Sirens then
throw themselves into the sea instead, driven to suicide by this turn of events.
Jason and the Argonauts also encounter the Sirens on their travels, but they are
fortunate to have the mystical musician Orpheus in their company. Orpheus plays
his lyre, captivating the Sirens and catching them at their own game. They throw
themselves into the sea in defeat.
Already we can see some similarities in these stories. Both the Gorgons and the Sirens are
associated with and located on islands in the sea. Both pose little threat to humanity, and
are only encountered by heroes during their quests. Both have the power to destroy men
with their charms, either their looks (whether beautiful or fearsome) or their song. And
both embody a mixture of human and animal qualities.

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Female-Animal Hybrids
Greco-Roman mythology is full of human-animal hybrids, and many of these composite
forms were derived from earlier Egyptian and Near Eastern sources (Padgett 2003, ix).
These are almost always liminal creatures, existing on the boundaries between civilization
and wilderness, in the woods and mountains, or at the outer edges of the sea. Their human
aspects provide them with intelligence and intentionality, while their beastly aspects
connect them with baser instincts such as hunger, lust, and violence.
In both art and literature, the degree of hybridity correlates with the perception of horror
versus beauty (Lao/Oliphant 1997, 12). The more animalistic the character, the more it
threatens notions of a civilized human identity. The more human the character, the more
it can elicit empathy. A Gorgon with an over-sized grimacing head conveys something
different than a Gorgon whose only difference from us is the suggestion of snakes around
her comely face. Likewise a plump bird with a human face sends a different message than
a shapely woman who happens to also have wings.
When we encounter male-animal hybrids, they are almost always humans combined with
hoof stock: centaurs, satyrs, and the Minotaur include elements of man plus horse, goat,
or bull respectively. These masculine hybrids have hooves and often horns, and generally
inhabit woodland and mountain environments. Although the Minotaur is a unique and
solitary creature, centaurs and satyrs tend to be highly gregarious, carousing and cavorting
in large groups, crashing weddings, and displaying lewd behavior at every turn.
In contrast, female-animal hybrids are usually humans combined with avian, feline, or
serpentine elements. Gorgons, Sirens, Harpies, and the Sphinx generally exist well beyond
the bounds of civilization. You will not find them intruding upon public gatherings, but
if they do cross your path, it is almost certain that the encounter will be deadly . . .
especially if you are a man. While the male-animal hybrid may represent men’s desire

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to control his wilder instincts, the female-animal hybrid represents what men may perceive
as a dangerous female sexual energy (Reeder 1995, 410).
Whatever forms make up the rest of their body—feathers and bird feet, a lion’s body and
paws, snakes in their hair—female-animal hybrids almost always have wings. This avian-
female combination is not unique to Greek mythology, and can be found in western Asia
and ancient Egypt. The Gorgon has been connected to Indo-European fertility goddesses
and the mistress of wild animals, while the Siren seems to be descended from the Egyptian
ba or soul-bird (Reeder 1995, 410). (Figures 5 and 6) These winged females are frequently
associated with death and the underworld, their wings enabling them to transition
between realms, and aid mortals in that transition as well (Hardy 2015, 10). As David
Saunders explained in the label text for the Underworld exhibition at the Getty Villa, Sirens’
hybrid nature “characterize(s) them as marginal, otherworldly figures, existing between
desire and terror, water and land, life and death” (Saunders 2018).
Fig 5: Plate with Medusa as Mistress of the Hunt, ca. 600 BCE, British Museum
Fig 6: Alabastron in the form of a Siren, ca. 600-500 BCE, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Gorgons are not strictly hybrids, but incorporate a variety of monstrous qualities on a
human female form. The literary descriptions are not nearly as creative as the visual
depictions we shall explore later, but Hesiod (8th
century BCE) and Apollodorus (2nd
century BCE) provide some insight into their appearance:

179050146 MA Thesis
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Two serpents hung down at their girdles with their heads curved forward;
their tongues were flickering, and their teeth gnashing with fury, and their
eyes glaring fiercely. And upon the awful heads of the Gorgons great Fear
was quaking (Hesiod, Homeric Hymns, 216-236).
But the Gorgons had heads twined about with the scales of dragons, and
great tusks like swine’s, and brazen hands, and golden wings, by which they
flew (Apollodorus, Bibliotheca, 2.4.2).
Apollonius of Rhodes is the first to describe the Sirens as hybrids, stating in the 3rd
century
BCE that “they were fashioned in part like birds and in part like maidens to behold”
(Apollonius of Rhodes, Argonautica, 4.885-921). In the late 1st
century BCE, Ovid provides
a vivid description of their appearance, describing it as punishment for their negligence:
O Siren Maids, but wherefore thus have ye the feet and plumes of birds,
although remain your virgin features? Is it from the day when Proserpina
gathered vernal flowers [and you failed to protect her]? The gods were kind:
ye saw your limbs grow yellow, with a growth of sudden sprouting feathers;
but because your melodies that gently charm the ear, besides the glory of
your speech, might lose the blessing of a tongue, your virgin face and human
voice remained (Ovid, Metamorphoses, 5.551).
This thesis is exploring Gorgons and Sirens specifically, but it is worth noting that the
Harpies and the Sphinx inhabit a similar realm. Harpies are not depicted in art nearly as
often as the others, and are often confused or conflated with Sirens. They are generally
depicted as more human, and are not particularly musical, and are thus less evocative
than their sweet-singing sisters (Vermeule 1979, 202). The Sphinx often appears alongside
Sirens in decorative motifs and in funerary sculpture, but is consistently portrayed as more
animal than human (Tsiafakis 2003, 81).

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As we shall see when we examine the visual sources in the final section of this thesis,
Gorgons and Sirens have alternately been portrayed as monstrous composite beasts and
beautiful winged maidens, and many variations in between. We must rely on the visual
record to truly understand the scope of their hybrid natures.
Origins and Parentage
The literary sources provide more detail regarding the ancestry and parentage of the
Gorgons and Sirens. Many composite monsters “were related by parentage, or common
ancestry and symbolized a primordial, grisly version of the terror of the sea” (Karoglou
2019, 4). Often in mythology, even if the genealogies of such creatures develop over time,
and are not always part of their initial origin story, they can shed light on how they were
perceived by ancient audiences (Gresseth 1970, 212).
According to most sources, the Gorgons—Medusa, Euryale, and Sthenno—are the children
of Phorkys and Keto, an ancient sea god and an ancient sea monster, who are in turn the
progeny of Pontos (Ocean) and either Gaia (Earth) or Tethys, a titan goddess associated
with water. Phorkys and Keto ruled over the monsters of the deep, and bore the Gorgons,
the Sirens, the Graiai, the Harpies, the Hydra, and Scylla (Karoglou 2019, 4).
And again, Ceto bore to Phorcys the fair-cheeked Graiae, sisters grey
from their birth . . . and the Gorgons who dwell beyond glorious Ocean
. . . Sthenno, and Euryale, and Medusa who suffered a woeful fate: she
was mortal, but the other two were undying and grew not old (Hesiod,
Theogeny, 270-284).
So under the guidance of Hermes and Athena [Perseus] made his way
to the daughters of Phorcus, [the Graiae]; for Phorcus had them by Ceto,
and they were the sisters of the Gorgons (Apollodorus, Bibliotheca 2.4.2).

179050146 MA Thesis
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Medusa continues the oceanic lineage when Poseidon, god of the sea, rapes her:
With her lay the Dark-haired One in a soft meadow amid spring flowers.
And when Perseus cut off her head, there sprang forth great Chrysaor and
the horse Pegasus who is so called because he was born near the springs
of Ocean; and that other, because he held a golden blade in his hands
(Hesiod, The Homeric Hymns, 270-284).
The Sirens are sometimes counted among the children of Phorkys, but most ancient
literary sources name the river god Achelous as their father. Achelous was a son of Pontos
and Tethys, which means the Gorgons and Sirens are either sisters or cousins. Like the
Gorgons, their mother is sometimes identified as Ceto, but more often she is named as
one of the Muses: Melpomene, Sterope, or Terpsichore (see Lycrophon, Pseudo-Hyginus,
Pseduo-Apollodorus, and Apollonius of Rhodes in Appendix 1a-b). The Sirens are therefore
closely associated with both water and music, and have close family ties with the Gorgons
and several other ancient hybrid creatures (Tsiafakis 2003, 74).
Hesiod names the sirens as Thelxiope or Thelxinoe, Molpe, and Aglaophonos, but their
names fluctuate over time, with Lycophron calling them Parthenope, Leukosia, and Ligeia
in the 3rd
century BCE; and Pseudo-Apollodorus calling them Peisinoe, Aglaope, and
Thelxiepeia in the 1st
or 2nd
century BCE (see Hesiod, Lycophron, and Pseudo-Apollodorus
in Appendix 1a-b). At any rate it seems clear that there were three Sirens, despite Homer
mentioning only two.
Despite some variation in the details, the Gorgons and Sirens share a common oceanic
ancestry, and they remain closely connected to the sea throughout their lives. (Figures 7
and 8)

179050146 MA Thesis
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Fig 7: Black-figure amphora, Nessos Painter, ca. 620-610 BCE, Athens
Fig 8: Siren, 370 BCE, National Archaeological Museum, Athens
Sea and Islands
“Here lived a series of lovely and dangerous creatures who regularly commented upon
man’s mortality . . . the Sirens on their flowery island of Anthemoesa [and] the Gorgon
sisters on their rocky island Sarpedon” (Vermeule 1979, 137). The Gorgons and the Sirens
both inhabit remote islands on distant seas. Recurring elements of folklore such as this
may have been repeated and passed along through generations of oral storytelling.
Perhaps they lost some of their meaning as time went on, but the fact that such patterns
exist suggests that it is not an accidental feature of the story. This particular feature of
a remote island that is difficult to reach is most often associated with death and the
supernatural (Gresseth 1970, 209).
The Gorgons “dwell beyond glorious Ocean in the frontier land towards Night where
are the clear-voiced Hesperides . . .” (Hesiod, Theogeny, 270-284). From their earliest
appearance in the literature in the 8th
century BCE, they are located in a mythical world
beyond the ocean and the night. Six hundred years later, Ovid describes the “rocky

179050146 MA Thesis
31
pathless crags” and “wild hills that bristled with great woods” that Perseus traveled
on his quest to find the Gorgons (Ovid, Metamorphoses, 4.765). Lucan writing around
this same time adds:
Medusa is said to have lived in the far west of Africa, at the point where
the Ocean laps against the hot hearth, in a wild, untilled, treeless region
which she had turned entirely to stone merely by gazing around her
(Lucan, Pharasalia).
The Sirens live on the island of Anthemoessa, according to Hesiod and Apollonius of
Rhodes (see Hesiod and Apollonious of Rhodes in Appendix 1a-b), and Homer adds that
“they sit in a meadow, and about them is a great heap of bones of moldering men, and
round the bones the skin is shriveling” (Homer, the Odyssey, 12.36-70). We also know from
Homer that this island is located near Skylla and Charybdis, which Odysseus encounters
immediately after surviving the Siren’s call. These islands where everything has been
turned to stone, and where corpses lie rotting are clearly intended to evoke a graveyard.
As Odysseus’s men approach the Sirens, Homer tells us that a “fair and gentle wind” bore
their ship, but “then presently the wind ceased and there was a windless calm, and a god
lulled the waves to sleep” (Homer, Odyssey, 12.153-201). Unusual weather patterns in
mythology often indicate the impending presence of supernatural beings. In Euripides’ The
Bacchae, immediately before Dionysos appears for the first time, “The air became quiet
and the woody glen kept its leaves silent, nor would you have heard the sound of animals”
(Euripides, The Bacchae, 1084-1085). Extraterrestrial places are often surrounded by a
mysterious windcalm (Gresseth 1970, 210).
There is no parallel for this in the literature for the Gorgons themselves, but Homer
mentions a similar phenomenon near the end of Odysseus’s visit to Hades:

179050146 MA Thesis
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. . . pale fear seized me, lest august Persephone might send forth upon me
from out of the house of Hades the head of the Gorgon, that awful monster.
Straightaway then I went to the ship and bade my comrades themselves to
embark, and to loose the stern cables. So they went on board quickly and sat
down upon the benches. And the ship was borne down the stream Oceanus
by the swelling flood, first with our rowing, and afterwards the wind was fair
(Homer, The Odyssey, 11.630-640).
Passing between this world and the underworld is marked by a change in the winds, as
well as passage through Oceanus. Water is a powerful symbol of transition between life
and death in many world mythologies, and the Greeks frequently associated the western
seas with immortality and transition (Vermeule 1979, 136). The Greeks were seafaring
people, and knew that the sea is capable of killing. The Sirens represent that risk, and
even the temptation, to “make the leap into the unknown” (Lao/Oliphant 1997, 35).
Heroes crossing the ocean inhabit a world of danger, flirting with death yet simultaneously
immortal because they are creatures of legend. With the help of the gods they are able to
touch upon the supernatural, and live to tell the tale whereas other mortals are lost to the
sea and the anonymity of death. “The supernatural must intervene when a man pushes the
boundaries of nature, and help Perseus with his winged sandals or cap of invisibility, or
allow Odysseus to learn the uncharted ways” (Vermeule 1979, 136). Or as Circe explains
when preparing Odysseus for what he will encounter beyond the Sirens:
And thereby no ship of men ever yet escaped that has come thither, but
the planks of ships and bodies of men are whirled confusedly by the waves
of the sea and the blasts of baneful fire. One seafaring ship alone has passed
thereby, that Argo famed of all, on her voyage from Aeetes, and even her the
waves would speedily have dashed there against the great crags, had not Hera
sent her through, for that Jason was dear to her (Homer, The Odyssey, 12.36-70).

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Sight and Sound
Gorgons and Sirens are each connected with the senses. The Gorgon’s gaze (sight) and
the Sirens’ song (sound) are fundamental to who these creatures are, and how they
engage with mortals. If Gorgons and Sirens are intimately associated with death and the
underworld, these sensory encounters with them are the mechanisms by which such
transitions occur. “For the man firmly planted in mortal life, the Sirens’ charm . . . the
sweetness of their voices [is] related to the Gorgo’s horrifying grimace and the heart-
chilling stridency of her inhuman howling” (Vernant 1991, 105).
Medusa’s features must have worn a ghastly grimace in the moment of
her decapitation—I have no doubt that the mouth belched poison and the
eyes flashed instant death. Athene herself could not look at those eyes,
and though Perseus had averted his face he would nevertheless have been
petrified, had she not ruffled Medusa’s hair and made the dead serpents
serve as a veil (Lucan, Pharasalia).
Fig 9: Terracotta stand, ca. 570 BCE, Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Gorgon’s gaze is her power. Although today we speak of Medusa’s gaze, in antiquity
the gorgoneion was another popular manifestation of this power. (Figure 9) The “graphic
power of the gaze” that stares the viewer directly in the face “robs” the viewer of their

179050146 MA Thesis
34
status as subject, reversing the power dynamic, as the subject literally becomes an object
made of stone (Mack 2002, 572-76). This confrontation is the major difference between
Gorgons and other female hybrids. The Gorgon creates an immediate and deadly
connection with the viewer through the power of sight (Tsiafakis 2003, 90).
In addition to her dreaded gaze, the Gorgon is associated with a horrible roaring sound:
Athena discovered when she wove into music the dire dirge of the reckless
Gorgons which Perseus heard pouring in slow anguish from beneath the
horribly snakey hair of the maidens . . . that she could imitate with musical
instruments the shrill cry that reached her ears from the fast-moving jaws
of [the Gorgon] Euryale (Pindar, Pythian Ode 12).
As an expression of fear and terror, the gorgoneion is depicted with a wide-eyed and
open-mouthed grimace, which has been equated with the roar of battle or the battle
cry of the warrior (Howe 1954, 211).
The Sirens are more explicitly associated with sound through their seductive song, most
famously described in The Odyssey:
The Sirens failed not to note the swift ship as it drew near, and the raised
their clear-toned song: “Come hither, as thou farest, renowned Odysseus,
great glory of the Achaeans; stay thy ship that thou mayest listen to the
voice of us two. For never yet has any man rowed past this isle in his black
ship until he has heard the sweet voice from our lips. Nay, he has joy of it,
and he goes his way a wiser man. For we know all the toils that in wide
Troy the Argives and Trojans endured through the will of the gods, and
we know all things that come to pass upon the fruitful earth (Homer,
the Odyssey, 12.153-201).

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Their song is at once delightful and deadly, and tailored to Odysseus in a very personal
way. Not only is their song beautiful, it also promises knowledge and wisdom. They know
of his triumphs and defeats, and offer him the opportunity to hear his glories sung aloud
(Montiglio 2011, 171). As Cicero reflects in the 1st
century BCE:
Apparently it was not the sweetness of their voices or the novelty and
diversity of their songs, but their profession of knowledge that used to
attract the passing voyagers; it was the passion for learning that kept
men rooted to the Sirens’ rocky shores . . . It is knowledge itself that
the Sirens offer, and it was no marvel if a lover of wisdom held this
dearer than his home (Cicero, On Ends, 5.18).
The desire for knowledge is no doubt very strong for someone like Odysseus, but what
kind of knowledge are we talking about? Surely not knowledge of events he has already
experienced, but rather knowledge of what comes next. The Sirens sing of glory, and
also of death.
Death and the Underworld
Whether destroying men with their gaze or their song, being destroyed themselves by
heroes, or protecting and guiding departed souls to the underworld, Gorgons and Sirens
are each intimately acquainted with death. To die by the Gorgons is to be stopped in your
tracks as your flesh turns to stone. To die by the Sirens is to forget the present moment in
favor of the glory and wisdom they promise. Both fates result in being frozen in time, just
as death puts an end to our future and cements our past. The Gorgons and Sirens are
death spirits who “never come into the normal world to take any individual away to
death. The man must look for them, and offer battle” (Vermeule 1979, 138).

179050146 MA Thesis
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Along the way, in fields and by the roads, I saw on all sides men and animals
—like statues—turned to flinty stone at sight of dread Medusa’s visage
(Ovid, Metamorphoses, 765).
To be turned to stone is to die in a particularly dramatic and symbolic manner. When
caught in the Gorgon’s gaze, one ceases “to be oneself, a living being, and to become,
like her, a power of death” (Vernant 1991, 137). To die is to become both unseeing and
unseen, to abruptly disappear from the living world (Grethlein 2016, 90). Medusa and her
sisters had used this power many times, according to the descriptions of their island home,
but we only witness this power once Perseus has beheaded her and wields that power as
his own:
But when he saw his strength was yielding to the multitude, [Perseus] said,
“Since you have forced disaster on yourselves, why should I hesitate to save
myself? O friends, avert your faces if ye stand before me!” And he raised
Medusa’s head . . . Just as [Thescelus] prepared to hurl the deadly javelin
from his hand, he stood, unmoving in that attitude, a marble statue . . .
Ampyx . . . made a lunge to pierce Lyncides in the breast, but as his sword
was flashing in the air, his right art grew so rigid, there he stood unable to
draw back or thrust it forth . . . Then Eryx . . . says, “Come with me and strike
this youthful mover of magician charms down to the ground.” He started with
a rush; the earth detained his steps; it held him fast; he could not speak; he
stood, complete with arms, a statue . . . And not to weary with the names of
men . . . there remained [another] two hundred warriors eager for the fight
—as soon as they could see Medusa’s face, two hundred warriors stiffened
into stone (Ovid, Metamorphoses, 5.177-210).

179050146 MA Thesis
37
The severed head becomes a symbol of fear and death in its own right, as encountered
by Odysseus in the underworld, and as encountered by warriors on the battlefield. The
Gorgon or gorgoneion is closely linked with the terror of war and the warrior’s bloodlust.
But Hector wheeled this way and that his fair-maned horses, and his
eyes were as the eyes of the Gorgon or Ares, bane of mortals (Homer,
the Iliad, 8.349).
The warrior embodies that terror in his flaming eyes, grimacing face, gnashing teeth, and
terrifying war cry. While the charging warrior is fearsome, the dead or dying warrior is
horrific, with bulging eyes, lolling tongue, and the grimace of the mouth as the flesh rots
away from the bone. Both visages are reflected in the Gorgon’s mask (Alexander 2015).
The path to the underworld is usually one way, but both Odysseus and Orpheus visit and
return to the land of the living. They are also the only two people to ever resist the song of
the Sirens. To hear the Sirens’ song is to hear your own death (Montiglio 2011, 174). They
offer diversions to prevent men from returning to their homes, encouraging them to
abandon the lives they knew, to lose themselves in their song (Lao/Oliphant 1997, 21).
And ever on the watch from their place of prospect with its fair haven,
often from many had they taken away their sweet return, consuming them
with wasting desire; and suddenly to the heroes, too, they sent forth from
their lips a lily-like voice. And they were already about to cast from the ship
the hawsers to the shore, had not Thracian Orpheus, son of Oeagrus,
stringing in his hands his Bistonian lyre, rung forth the hasty snatch of a
rippling melody so that their ears might be filled with the sound of his
twanging; and the lyre overcame the maidens’ voices . . . But even so the
godly son of Teleon alone of the comrades leapt before them all from the

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polished bench into the sea, even Butes, his soul melted by the clear ringing
voice of the Sirens (Apollonious of Rhodes, Argonautica, 4.885-921).
Butes leapt to his death in the rolling waves, but is Odysseus escaping death when he
escapes their lure? In their song he “sees himself not as he is, struggling on the surface
of the sea, but as he will be when he is dead, as death will make him, forever magnified in
the memory of the living” (Vernant 1991, 105). The Gorgons and the Sirens both have the
power to transform their victims, and the biggest transformation is from life to death.
In some versions of the myth, the Sirens commit suicide if a man successfully resists them,
for “it was their fate to live only so long as mortals who heard their song failed to pass it
by” (Pseudo-Hyginus, Fabulae, 125; see also Strabo and Pseudo-Apollodorus in Appendix
1a-b). We see this scene depicted on vases as early as the 5th
century BCE, but not in the
literature until the 1st
and 2nd
centuries CE.
Fig 10: Red-figure stamnos with Odysseus and the Sirens, 480-470 BCE, British Museum
The Sirens’ death is not their main claim to fame, but the opposite can be said of Medusa.
She and her Gorgon sisters have no real story until Perseus arrives and kills her (Vermeule
1979, 140). Although the causes of their deaths are different, the Gorgons and Sirens both

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die when they lose their power. They have no life purpose without their destructive
abilities (Aasved 17). However, each has an afterlife, as it were, as a protector and
guide for those who follow in their footsteps.
The disembodied head of the Gorgon can be equated with the horror of the battlefield, but
equally, it can also serve as a protector. Just as Perseus used Medusa’s head to destroy his
enemies, and as Athena wore it on her aegis, warriors can use the gorgoneion to turn away
those who attack them by presenting the mask on their shields.
And [Agamemnon] took up his richly gilt, valorous shield that sheltered a man
on both sides, a fair shield, and round about it were ten circles of bronze, and
upon it twenty bosses of tin, gleaming white, and in the midst of them was one
of dark cyanus. And thereon was set as a crown the Gorgon, grim of aspect,
glaring terribly, and about her were Terror and Rout (Homer, The Iliad, 11.33-40).
The Gorgon has connections to Near Eastern fertility goddesses, and the bird/snake
hybridism may be seen to represent the continuum of birth and death, heaven and earth.
Thus she is not only a power of death, but also a power of healing (Dexter 2010, 33).
Euripides references this dual nature in the 5th
century BCE: “To him while an infant Pallas
gave . . . two drops of blood from the Gorgon . . . one is deadly, the other heals disease”
(Euripides, Ion, 1012-14).
As a protector, the face of the Gorgon is frequently found over thresholds. Although we
do not see this architectural usage mentioned in the ancient literature, a similar intent is
evident in the use of the Gorgon’s hair as mentioned by writers in the 2nd
century BCE and
2nd
century CE:
But Hercules had received from Athena a lock of the Gorgon's hair in a bronze
jar and gave it to Sterope, daughter of Cepheus, saying that if an army advanced

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against the city, she was to hold up the lock of hair thrice from the walls, and that,
provided she did not look before her, the enemy would be turned to flight
(Apollodorus, Bibliotheca, 2.7.3).
This sanctuary [of Athena at Tegea] they name Eryma (Defence) saying that
Cepheus, the son of Aleus, received form Athena a boon, that Tegea should never
be captured while time shall endure, adding that the goddess cut off some of the
hair of Medusa and gave it to him as a guard to the city (Pausanias, Description
of Greece, 8.47.5).
We have seen the Gorgon’s role in the underworld, keeping the living from staying too
long and ensuring the dead do not leave as described by Odysseus. The Sirens serve a
complimentary role in gently ushering the dead to their final resting place. Ovid tells us
of their connection to Persephone, but it is the power of their music that allows them to
become muses of the underworld (Vermeule 1979, 205). In the same way that their song
lures men to forget the present, it may also create in them “a passionate love for the
heavenly and divine, and forgetfulness of mortality” (Pollard 1964, 141). This sweet singing
becomes a mournful lament to solace the dead as they move between this world and the
next, promising to tell people how they will be remembered (Tsiafakis 2003, 78).
Oh, as I begin the great lament of my great distress, what mourning
shall I strive to utter? Or what Muse shall I approach with tears or songs of
death or woe? Alas! Winged maidens, virgin daughters of Earth, the Sirens,
may you come to my mourning with Libyan flute ore pipe or lyre, tears to
match my plaintive woes; grief for grief and mournful chant for chant, may
Persephone send choirs of death in harmony with my lamentation, so that
she may receive as thanks from me, in addition to my tears, a paean for the
departed dead beneath her gloomy roof (Euripides, Helen, 164-178).

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This section has relied on literary sources (and their modern interpretations) to highlight
significant areas of overlap between Gorgons and Sirens in the ancient imagination. We
will next turn to the visual evidence to see how these figures appeared to the ancient eye.
SECTION II: MONSTERS AND MAIDENS
The literary and visual evidence for Gorgons and Sirens do not necessarily align with one
another—the former is surprisingly minimal until the Roman period—but each source
illuminates different facets of our subjects. Initially depicted as monstrous hybrids, each
figure is gradually represented as more human and more sympathetic. We see some of
this development in the literary sources, but it is difficult to make correlations between
the literary and visual material due to the disproportionate sets of evidence.
Although there is a clear change in how Gorgons and Sirens are depicted over time, it
is not a strictly linear process from monster to maiden. The development of these two
figures was multivalent and dependent on context, and we see variations in their form
depending on the function of the object and the story the artist was trying to tell. The
final section of this thesis will explore representations of Gorgons and Sirens in Greek
and South Italian vases and sculpture between the 7th
and 4th
centuries BCE, looking
specifically at their appearance in decorative, narrative, and protective contexts. This
is not intended as a chronological survey, but will instead use representative examples
to demonstrate the Gorgons’ and Siren’s complexity. Appendix 2a-b includes a selection
of objects that provide a sense of the range of imagery in these mediums during this time
period, and can be considered representative of the larger body of evidence.
Gorgons and Sirens first appear in the visual arts in the late 8th
or early 7th
century BCE,
which roughly corresponds with their first appearance in the literary sources. They are
particularly popular subjects throughout the Archaic period, and persist in varying degrees
of hybridity during the Classical period (Tsiafakis 2003, 74). Images of Gorgons and Sirens
appear on a wide variety of objects that ancient people would have used and encountered

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on a regular basis, including many different types of bronze and terracotta vessels, jewelry,
funerary sculpture, and architectural details (Mack 2002, 574). We often do not know the
exact provenience (or original location) for many of these objects, but we can make some
informed assumptions based on the information we do have.
The Archaic, the Middle, and the Beautiful: A Different Approach
The traditional way of understanding the development of Gorgons in ancient art was first
articulated by Adolf Furtwängler in the late nineteenth century. He proposed that there
are three phases of representation that emerge chronologically in the archaeological
record: the Archaic, the Middle, and the Beautiful (Karoglou 2019, 7). This view is not
incorrect so much as it is incomplete. It presents a tidy way to understand material that is
actually more complex. Kathryn Topper argued against Furtwängler’s approach in 2007,
noting that the appearance of the different “types” is associated more with context than
chronology, and that his approach is “fraught with difficulties, not the least of which is the
resistance of the three types to the neat chronological sequence he imposed” (Topper
2007, 75). Although Sirens have not received this same treatment explicitly in modern
scholarship, they appear to follow a similar pattern of chronological development, which
upon further examination is more nuanced.
There are many lenses through which Gorgon and Siren imagery may be explored, and
a thorough analysis would require more space than is available here. For the purposes
of this thesis, I will utilize a classification approach that specifically illuminates additional
areas of overlap between these two figures by examining how they manifest in decorative,
narrative, and protective contexts. Some objects fall neatly into one of these categories,
but many do not, and may straddle multiple categories simultaneously, further illustrating
their complexity (Topper 2007, 76). In Appendix 2a-b I have classified each object with a
primary context designation and found the following:

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For Gorgons, approximately 25% of the objects can be classified as primarily
decorative; 50% can be classified as primarily narrative; and 25% can be classified
as primarily protective in nature.
For Sirens, approximately 56% of the objects can be classified as primarily
decorative; 12% can be classified as primarily narrative; and 32% can be classified
as primarily protective in nature.
Representations of Gorgons and Sirens appear in all three contexts, but their frequency
varies. Gorgons frequently appear in a narrative context, whereas Sirens appear more
often in a decorative context. The figures have the greatest frequency of overlap in the
protective context, which is particularly relevant in terms of their dual natures as both
fearful monsters and helpful death spirits.
Gorgons and Sirens in a Decorative Context
An image may possess multiple meanings, but likewise it may simply evoke pleasure.
Gorgons and Sirens are loaded with symbolism, but they were also frequently used as
decorative motifs (Pollard 1964, 137).
The disembodied head of the gorgoneion likely predates full-bodied representations of
Medusa and the Gorgons (Tsiafakis 2003, 85). We have discussed the apotropaic power
of its bold frontality above, and will explore this in more detail below, but sometimes
the gorgoneion was used primarily for its decorative power. It appears frequently in the
interior of plates and kylixes—objects that would have been used for festive occasions
such as symposia—and was a popular decorative device throughout the 6th
century
(Carpenter 1997, 105). On the interior of a vessel, it might appear as a mirror image of
the drinker’s own face; appearing on the exterior it created the illusion of the drinker
wearing a mask staring back at his fellows (Mack 2002, 570). Either way, it was surely
an entertaining motif.

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A red-figure plate in Munich from 570 BCE devotes the entire interior to a rather cheerful
looking gorgoneion, complete with beard and colorful curls of hair that keep rhythm with
the decorative tongue pattern around the plate’s outer rim. (Figure 11) A kylix in the
Ashmolean Museum presents a similarly jovial image approximately fifty years later,
with a smaller gorgoneion surrounded by symposiasts. (Figure 12) Images like these retain
their popularity well into the 5th
century, as seen on a red-figure hydria in the British
Museum, which presents the gorgoneion on the body of the vessel, albeit beardless, and
with the addition of small snakes framing the face. (Figure 13) Even when the story of
Medusa and Perseus loses some interest for audiences during the Hellenistic period, the
disembodied head remains a popular decorative motif well into the Roman era.
Fig 11: Black-figure plate with gorgoneion, ca. 570 BCE, Munich
Fig 12: Black-figure kylix with gorgoneion, 530-515 BCE, Ashmolean Museum
Fig 13: Red-figure hydria with gorgoneion, 490 BCE, British Museum
When represented with full bodies for decorative purposes, Medusa and the Gorgons
retain their frontal visage, and their bodies are usually depicted in a “pinwheel” running
motion. In many of these instances, there is no hint at the Perseus narrative, with artists
focusing on the decorative quality of their bodies and movement (Boardman 1993, 226;
Mack 2002, 585). A kylix in Boston from 575 BCE devotes its interior to the full-bodied
Gorgon in motion, while a lekythos in Paris from 550 BCE utilizes the Gorgons to create a

179050146 MA Thesis
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decorative band around the body of the vessel, their graphic unity interrupted only by the
recently beheaded Medusa who stumbles to her knees before them. (Figures 14 and 15)
Fig 14: Black-figure kylix, 575 BE, Metropolitan Museum of Art
Fig 15: Black-figure Lekythos, 550-500 BCE, Cabinet des Medailles
Sirens appear much more frequently in a decorative context than Gorgons, with countless
examples of Sirens either on their own, or in the company of griffins, panthers, sphinxes,
and other real and imaginary creatures. Corinthian vases are especially rich in Siren
imagery, and likely played a leading role in popularizing a canonical Siren type (Tsiafakis
2003, 74). An oinochoe in Boston from the late 7th
century BCE is a typical example of this
decorative style. (Figure 16) Over one hundred years later, Sirens are still being used as a
popular decorative motif, as seen in vases like a neck amphora, also in Boston, which
depicts two large Sirens amidst palmette and lotus bud motifs. (Figure 17)
Fig 16: Corinthian oinochoe, 640-630 BCE, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Fig 17: Neck amphora, 520-510 BCE, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

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Fig 18: Corinthian aryballos, 6th
century BCE, private collection
Fig 19: Vase in the form of a Siren, 575 BCE, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Although found on a variety of vase types, Sirens are quite often found on more intimate
personal objects such as aryballoi, and lekythoi. A Corinthian aryballos in a private
collection from the 6th
century BCE shows a beautiful Siren with her wings wrapped around
the body of the vessel. (Figure 18) Far from being a monstrous destroyer of men, this Siren
appears more as a friendly companion to the woman who may have owned such an object.
Similarly, it is easy to imagine a small vessel in the shape of a Siren from 575 BCE in Boston
as part of a woman’s personal collection of perfume and cosmetics containers. (Figure 19)
The use of Sirens as decorative motifs on small personal objects is one of their most
persistent manifestations. An elaborate plastic or mold-made lekythos from approximately
425-375 BCE in Boston still presents us with the hybrid bird-bodied, winged female. By this
time she has sprouted human arms in order to play her lyre. (Figure 20) An example from
325 BCE at the Metropolitan Museum, approximately one hundred years later, shows a
Siren who has not developed much beyond this avian hybrid, although now she bears gifts
as well. (Figure 21)

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Fig 20: Lekythos with figure of a Siren, 425-375 BCE, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Fig 21: Red-figure stemless kylix with Siren, 325 BCE, Metropolitan Museum
A unique kylix in the Musée du Louvre from 565 BCE shows Sirens hovering over the heads
of symposiasts in what at first appears to be a decorative motif. (Figure 22) The Sirens are
diminutive and it is unclear whether they are intended to occupy the same physical space
as the men who are feasting below. Maria Pavlou has suggested that these Sirens may
represent soul-birds, and the artist may have intended to make a connection between
being lost to drink and being lost to the Sirens’ song: forget your worries, forget about
the past or the future, and revel in this moment outside of time (Pavlou 2012, 407). This
interesting interpretation could also apply to the decorative gorgoneions inside kylixes:
a reminder of your own mortality as you appreciate the pleasures of being alive. Although
primarily decorative, both examples allude to deeper symbolism.
Fig 22: Black-figure Laconian cup with Sirens and symposiasts, 565 BCE, Musée du Louvre

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Gorgons and Sirens in a Narrative Context
Not all objects fall exclusively into the decorative, narrative, or protective contexts, but
some objects are clearly designed to tell a story. Ancient artists selected specific elements
of the myths to depict in order to tell their story clearly and in a visually appealing way
(Woodford 20). Decorative versions of Gorgons and Sirens appear on many types of
vessels, but narrative scenes appear on an even wider variety of shapes, including
amphorae, dinos, hydriai, kraters, lekythoi, oinochoai, pelikai, pyxides, olpes, and stamnoi.
Many of these vessels would have been used primarily for storage or serving, but we often
cannot be sure of their original function due to the loss of their provenience information.
Many were likely intended for daily use, or had ceremonial, or even funerary, purposes.
Narrative depictions of the Gorgons far outnumber those of the Sirens, and almost always
focus on either the moment of Medusa’s beheading, the pursuit of Perseus by her Gorgon
sisters, or sometimes both. The Eleusis Amphora from 660 BCE portrays one of the earliest
and most unique versions of the Gorgons in pursuit. (Figure 23) The Gorgons are depicted
with massive hydria-shaped heads and no wings, both of which are extremely rare in the
visual record. From the middle of the 7th
century onward, Medusa and the Gorgons are
always depicted with human bodies and wings, but other details are subject to change
depending on the artist’s intent.
Fig 23a-b: Eleusis amphora with Gorgons and Medusa, 660 BCE,
Eleusis Archaeological Museum

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Pursuit scenes often double as decorative scenes as the elements of the pursuit become
somewhat canonized (if not standardized). The key element that designates a scene as
narrative instead of purely decorative is Medusa herself, identifiable in the act of her
beheading. A dinos in the Louvre from 600-580 BCE provides a typical example of a
decorative-narrative scene, with Medusa as the figure who breaks the decorative rhythm
in her moment of death. (Figure 24) An unusual pyxis from 525-475 BCE, also in the Louvre,
shows a pursuit scene with Gorgons who are much more maiden than monster. (Figure 25)
Medusa’s missing head provides the key narrative component, but this time her figure has
not yet lost its stride. The artist includes an additional narrative element by including small
figures of Chrysaor and Pegasus, Medusa’s children who emerge from her severed neck.
Fig 24: Black-figure dinos, 600-580 BCE, Musée du Louvre
Fig 25: Black-figure pyxis, 525-475 BCE, Musée du Louvre
We see images of both the pursuit and the beheading throughout the 6th
century, usually
with all three sisters represented, but occasionally with Medusa shown on her own with
Perseus. A panathenaic amphora in Munich from 490 BCE depicts Medusa fleeing Perseus,
her head an embodied gorgoneion with its grimace and snaky hair. (Figure 26) Medusa’s
appearance frequently fluctuates between Archaic monster and more Classical maiden
between 525-450 BCE. As gorgoneion she is almost invariably decorative, and rarely
narrative; as embodied Medusa she is inherently narrative, albeit frequently with a
decorative quality.

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Fig 26: Red-figure Panathenaic amphora, 490 BCE, Munich
During the 5th
century we see fewer images of the Gorgon sisters, with artists focused
more specifically on Medusa herself. The old Archaic-Middle-Beautiful typology is most
apparent in this narrative context, with Medusa increasingly depicted as a very human,
often sleeping maiden, instead of on the run. A hydria from 460 BCE in the British Museum
shows a winged woman fallen to the ground between Perseus and Athena, her severed
head looking perfectly peaceful in the hero’s sack. (Figure 27) No longer a decorative motif,
Medusa is the center of a narrative moment. Another hydria from 450 BCE in Virginia
increases the narrative tension by presenting Medusa immediately before her death,
sleeping under a small tree. Her body is human except for the wings, and her face is
peaceful, if rather enlarged. (Figure 28) A pelike from 450 BCE in the Metropolitan
Museum again shows a completely human Medusa, still asleep even as Perseus holds his
blade to her neck. (Figure 29) In most of these examples, Athena now has a prominent
presence. On a bell krater in Boston from 400 BCE, she is the one who holds Medusa’s
head aloft, gazing at her reflection in the shield below, foreshadowing the gorgoneion that
will appear on her aegis thereafter. (Figure 30) Medusa’s narrative all but disappears from
the visual record at this point, but the gorgoneion persists.

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Fig 27: Red-figure hydria, 460 BCE, British Museum
Fig 28: Red-figure hydria, Nausikaa Painter, 450 BCE, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts
Fig 29: Red-figure pelike, Polygnotos, 450-400 BCE, Metropolitan Museum
Fig 30: Red-figure bell krater, Tarporley Painter, 400-385 BCE, Museum of Fine Arts Boston
Narrative scenes depicting the Sirens are comparatively rare and inevitably focus on
Odysseus (Tsiafakis 2003, 75). All have the common elements of the hero tied to the
mast of his ship, with the bird-bodied Sirens looking down at him from their seaside cliffs.
The earliest example is found on a small globular aryballos in Boston from 575-550 BCE.
(Figure 4) We do not see the scene again until 525-500 BCE on an oinochoe in Berlin.
(Figure 31) In both examples, the Sirens are essentially plump birds with women’s heads.
An oinochoe from 525-475 BCE in a private collection depicts the same scene, but with
greater emphasis on the Sirens, who now possess arms holding instruments, highlighted

179050146 MA Thesis
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with added white paint. (Figure 32) A charming lekythos in Athens from 500 BCE again
shows the Sirens playing instruments to Odysseus, but a stamnos in the British Museum
from 480-470 BCE presents the Sirens without either arms or instruments. (Figures 33 and
10) While there is a general trend of Sirens becoming increasingly human, as with Gorgons,
this evolution is not linear, and we find different artistic interpretations coexisting.
Fig 31: Black-figure oinochoe with Odysseus and Sirens, 525-500 BCE, Berlin
Fig 32: Black-figure oinochoe, 525-475 BCE, private collection
Fig 33: White-ground lekythos, 500 BCE, Athens
A second narrative category can be identified in depictions of the Sirens without Odysseus
or any other characters, but with small narrative elements such as instruments and rocks
beneath their feet. Although these could be considered decorative, these details refer to
the stories about both their musical abilities and their seaside location. A kylix at the
Metropolitan Museum from 475 BCE is a typical example, and shows three Sirens perched
along a rocky outcrop, playing flutes, a lyre, and kymbala. (Figure 34)

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Fig 34: Black-figure kylix, 475 BCE, Metropolitan Museum of Art
Although famous for their song, the Sirens are rarely shown singing. A terracotta sculptural
group from 330-300 BCE at the Getty Villa is unique for its depiction of two Sirens in the
act of singing, or having suddenly stopped mid-melody, in response to the seated figure
of Orpheus. (Figure 35) Originally brightly painted, the Sirens stand on rocks, their bird feet
clutching the stones, and their large bird tails extended below their clothing. Their torsos
and vertical posture are otherwise completely human. These sculptures were likely part
of a funerary group, and so we may conceive of them as simultaneously narrative and
protective. As discussed earlier in this thesis, the Sirens’ song is a seductive lament for the
dying. They don’t only play for heroes, but they play for each of us as we make the great
transition from life to death.
Fig 35: Orpheus and the Sirens, 330-300 BCE, J. Paul Getty Museum

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Gorgons and Sirens in a Protective Context
We see Gorgons and Sirens represented in different ways in decorative and narrative
contexts over time, but they have the greatest area of overlap when we examine them
within a protective context. Their association with death and the underworld—with both
destruction and protection—is a large part of the power these figures share.
The interest in Medusa’s personal mythology significantly decreased in the 4th
century, but
the power of the gorgoneion remained popular throughout antiquity (Karoglou 2019, 16).
As the oldest interpretation of the Gorgon, it is generally understood as an apotropaic
symbol, “a dangerous threat meant to deter other dangerous threats, an image of evil
to repel evil” (Glennon 2017). Athena’s aegis and the warrior’s shield were common
locations for the gorgoneion, simultaneously representing battle fury and protection from
danger on the battlefield. This imagery appears repeatedly in sculpture and vase painting
between the 7th
and 4th
centuries, and the Gorgon’s face in this context is remarkably
constant. An amphora in Berlin from 525 BCE depicts a particularly large and detailed
version of Athena’s gorgoneion, and as is often the case, the snake imagery extends to the
aegis’ fringe. (Figure 36) A terracotta relief in the Metropolitan Museum from 600 BCE and
an amphora in the Louvre from 550-540 BCE portray the gorgoneion on warriors’ shields,
offering protection to them as they stride into battle. (Figures 37 and 38) Unlike decorative
or narrative depictions of Medusa, the gorgoneion in its protective context retains its most
monstrous aspects.

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Fig 36: Red-figure amphora, Andokides Painter, 525 BCE, Berlin
Fit 37: Terracotta relief fragment, 600 BCE, Metropolitan Museum
Fig 38: Black-figure amphora, 550-540 BCE, Musée du Louvre
As Greek culture spread to Southern Italy in the 6th
century, one of the most readily
adopted images was the Gorgon, especially in architectural decorations like antefixes.
These elements are decorative additions to any building, but in the case of Gorgons they
also provided protection (see also Apollodorus and Pausanias writing several centuries
later). Gorgons are used to deter evil spirits and protect buildings and their occupants
from malicious actions, and were often included on temples and other civic structures
(Wohl 1996, 13). Unlike images on shields, we see great variety in the faces presented
on antefixes, with some much more monstrous, and others almost human. Four examples
from the Getty Villa and Metropolitan Museum ranging from 580 to 400 BCE demonstrate
this variety. (Figures 39-42)
Fig 39-42: Terracotta antefixes, 580-570 BCE, Metropolitan Museum; 500 BCE, J. Paul Getty
Museum; 500 BCE, Metropolitan Museum; 4th
century BCE, Metropolitan Museum

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There are no examples of Gorgons or Medusa as freestanding sculpture in antiquity. Her
visage is always contained within other forms, possibly as a way to harness her power.
Gorgons occasionally appear on grave markers, although this is not common. When they
do, they typically appear in their characteristic pinwheel pose, perhaps offering protection
beyond the grave in the way that Sirens would embody much more fully. (Figure 43)
Fig 43: Marble stele fragment, 550-525 BCE, Metropolitan Museum
Sirens do not protect you on the battlefield or deter your enemies, but they assist
with the next step: your journey to the underworld. More than dangerous monsters
encountered by sailors, the appearance of Sirens on funerary objects and grave
monuments attests to their significance as guardian spirits since at least the late 7th
century (Tsiafakis 2013, 78). Many objects with Sirens on them—especially aryballoi and
lekythoi—have been found in graves and sanctuary deposits, indicating that they may have
been protective talismans or offering to deities (Pavlou 2012, 404). Small vases in the
shape of a Siren like one from 540 BCE in the Walters collection were common. (Figure 44)
Two lekythoi dating to 500-480 and 460-450 BCE, in the British Museum and Winterthur
respectively, show how Sirens could still look quite different even when employed for
similar purposes. One Siren plays a lyre before a man with his hands on his hips (possibly

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the deceased), while the other does not even have human arms with which to hold an
instrument. (Figure 45 and 46)
Fig 44: Vase in shape of a Siren, 540 BCE, Walters Art Museum
Fig 45: Black-figure lekythos, 500-480 BCE, British Museum
Fig 46: Red-figure lekythos, 460-450 BCE, Winterthur
It was common to include protective animal figures on funerary sculpture during the
Archaic and Classical period, including lions and sphinxes, and the Siren can be seen as
a further manifestation of this practice (Hardy 2015, 27). Sirens often appear atop grave
stelae in the late 5th
and early to mid 4th
centuries, watching over the deceased. A grave
stele from 400 BCE in Berlin shows two bird-bodied Sirens facing each other, playing the
lyre and flutes above the main panel. (Figure 47) A stele in Boston from approximately fifty
years later depicts a more upright Siren, with one hand to her chest and the other held to
her head in a mourning gesture. (Figure 48) This latter representation becomes the most
common way to portray Sirens in a funerary context.

179050146 MA Thesis
58
Fig 47: Siren relief, 400 BCE, Berlin
Fig 48: Grave stele of a Young Woman, 355-345 BCE, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
The so-called “mourning Siren” became popular in the mid-4th
century BCE, and harkens
back to the Siren’s visual origins in the 7th
century. A funerary plaque in Boston from 625-
610 BCE depicts a Siren standing below a table where two women in mourning gesture
prepare a body for burial. (Figure 49) Several centuries later, we see the Siren herself adopt
this same gesture to mourn the deceased. As she becomes more human in appearance,
she is also able to show human emotion such as grief (Hardy 2015, 21). In most instances,
the Siren retains her bird feet and lower body, and certainly her wings, but her torso and
face become increasingly emotive, as seen in a very colorful and feathery grave statue
from 350-300 BCE in Yale’s collection. (Figure 50) When not actively mourning, the Siren
may often play the harp, as seen in another grave monument from 350 BCE in the Walters
collection. (Figure 51) It is easy to imagine how a winged harp-playing Siren may have
eventually developed into the angels we see in later Christian imagery. Lest we lull
ourselves into thinking we are witnessing a linear development, however, many funerary
vases in Southern Italy continued to portray a much more bird-like Siren through the end
of the 4th
century. (Figure 52)
As this section has illustrated, all three contexts—decorative, narrative, and protective—
reveal a variety of representations of Gorgons and Sirens over several centuries. Changes

A Tale Of Two Sisters Gorgons And Sirens In Ancient Greek Art And Literature

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