History Main / SirensAreMermaids

* The Starbucks coffee house chain uses a half-woman, half-fish creature for their logo and mascot, which they say is a Siren rather than a mermaid due to the tails. It's easier to see in their original logo, which is in full view and much less stylized.

* The TV series ''Series/{{Siren}}'' is about mermaids who indeed have hypnotic singing abilities.

* In Irish folklore, merrow were beautiful mermaids who fell in love with mortal men and bewitched them into following them beneath the sea... where they used their magic to keep their husbands alive under the sea so they could live HappilyEverAfter. Male merrow were ugly and more sinister; they killed their victims and trapped their souls under the sea, although even then, some stories implied [[ObliviouslyEvil they thought their victims were happy about the whole deal]]. The fact that male merrow were so ugly and repulsive was precisely WHY female merrow were so keen on keeping their mortal husbands alive. According to some stories, they could take on human form and live on land for a while, but eventually they would want to return to the sea, and so would ultimately move the family back home.

** German even has three different words for mermaids -- "nixe" (probably etymologically a "water spirit"), "sirene" and "meerjungfrau" ("[[MermaidProblem ocean virgin]]"). According to Website/TheOtherWiki, the first one would be approximately the siren (nobody except a poet when hearing "sirene" will think other than "police siren", thus that word is obsolete) but the two are used as effective synonyms.

Subtrope of OurMermaidsAreDifferent and OurSirensAreDifferent.

* ''Film/TheLastJedi'' has a really weird variant in the form of creatures called thala-sirens that live near the Jedi Temple on Ahch-To and provide Luke with [[AlienLunch green milk]]. Unlike mermaids ''or'' classical sirens, these critters aren't humanoid at all -- but they do resemble manatees, which are often considered a major inspiration for mermaid stories.

* In the book series ''And Then I Turned Into a Mermaid'' Sirens are depicted as being a combination of their songbird and mermaid depictions being described as mermaids with wings. However, most of them had to cut them off in order to blend in among the humans

However, despite all the differences in mermaid portrayals, they seem to have one thing in common. For some reason, mermaids [[CallAPegasusAHippogriff tend to be called sirens]], and are given the ability to sing phenomenally well, to the point of leading unsuspecting people to their doom. In traditional definitions of mythology, the Siren is not depicted as a mermaid-like fish-woman, but as winged bird-woman hybrid -- in fact, the original Greek Sirens were portrayed as a cross between women and songbirds, and could die by drowning.

* In ''Series/H2OJustAddWater'' Cleo has a reaction to the full moon's reflection and gains a singing voice that is able to hypnotise all the boys in town. Lewis explains that "she's a Siren, just like the mermaids in mythology whose singing lured sailors to their deaths". Funnily enough that's the only episode of the show that doesn't feature the girls transforming into their mermaid forms.

* ''Mermaids'' (not to be confused with the 1990 Cher film): Venus, one of the mermaid sisters, is a Siren and able to hypnotize men though with her dancing and her eyes instead of singing. Her powers however don't work if someone knows that she's a Siren.
* The 1948 comedy ''{{Film/Miranda}}'' has the titular mermaid also getting a beautiful singing voice that she uses to wow everyone when she's taken on a trip to the London opera.
* The horror film ''Nymph''[[note]]American title: ''Killer Mermaid''[[/note]] features an evil mermaid as its monster -- but she also has powers of a Siren. Namely she hypnotises men with her singing and a quote about "the silence of the Sirens" is used to describe her.

** German even has three different words for mermaids -- "nixe" (probably etymologically a "water spirit"), "sirene" and "meerjungfrau" ("[[MermaidProblem ocean virgin]]"). According to Wiki/TheOtherWiki, the first one would be approximately the siren (nobody except a poet when hearing "sirene" will think other than "police siren", thus that word is obsolete) but the two are used as effective synonyms.

* In ''Fanfic/MegaManDefenderOfTheHumanRace'', in addition to a plasma staff, Splash Woman can attract robots to her.

* In Creator/{{Disney}}'s ''WesternAnimation/TheLittleMermaid1989'', Ariel has a beautiful singing voice. Most Disney heroines do, but here it's actually a plot point, since the BigBad's price for changing her into a human is her beautiful voice. However, this is taken from the original story[[note]]In the book her voice was just a fee and there was no mention of any singing.[[/note]]. Used in a more direct fashion when Ursula transforms herself into a human woman and uses Ariel's voice to cast a spell on Eric, hypnotizing him.
** The French title of the movie is ''La Petite Sirene".

* In ''WesternAnimation/IceAge4ContinentalDrift'', sirens appear as amphibious lungfish, the prehistoric equivalent of mermaids.

However, despite all the differences in mermaid portrayals, they seem to have one thing in common. For some reason, mermaids [[CallAPegasusAHippogriff tend to be called]] [[EnthrallingSiren sirens]], and are given the ability to sing phenomenally well, to the point of leading unsuspecting people to their doom. In traditional definitions of mythology, the Siren is not depicted as a mermaid-like fish-woman, but as winged bird-woman hybrid -- in fact, the original Greek Sirens were portrayed as a cross between women and songbirds, and could die by drowning.

Compare OurMermaidsAreDifferent and EnthrallingSiren.

* ''Fanfic/RainbowDoubleDashsLunaverse'': The (chronologically) first story features some {{Enthralling Siren}}s who get quite stroppy when one of the alternate Mane Six mistakes them for seaponies, and insists that they are something quite different. They're right; see Western Animation for details.

* Averted in Slavic folklore - while mermaids are present, the relevant creature is Sirin - one of the birds of Paradise, which possesses bird body, but woman's face and breasts, as well as enthralling song.

* The posters for the InUniverse ''Siren Serenade'' cartoon show Alice Angel as a mermaid.