History Main / SirensAreMermaids

[[quoteright:312:[[LuminousArc3 http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/sirenelulu_1487.PNG]] ]]
[[caption-width-right:312:She sings beautifully, though with instrument addition.]]

* It's popularly held that manatees (Genus ''Sirenia'') are often mistaken for mermaids.

* A little bit of FridgeBrilliance: The Zora (read: merfolk-like fish people) from ''TheLegendOfZelda'' evolve over time into the Rito (mythological siren-like bird folk). Medli, one of the main Rito in ''TheWindWaker'' even plays a harp, though not to coerce anyone to their doom, luckily.

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* [[PiersAnthony Piers Anthony's]] ''{{Xanth}}'' novel ''The Source of Magic''. The Siren is a mermaid with a voice that lures all men who hear it to her.

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* In the animated film ''{{Coraline}}'', The Other Spink sings the line "I'm known as the siren of all seven seas," while dressed as a mermaid.

This trope is an old one; the siren as mermaid was well-established in the medieval bestiary. In Thomas Hoccleve's early fifteenth century text, ''La Male Regle'', lines 233 ff. speak of mermaids singing men to their deaths, ''as old books tell us''. Of course, in more traditional definitions of mythology, the Siren is often depicted as a winged bird-woman hybrid, but somehow along the line they got confused with eachother.

* Averted in AmericanDragonJakeLong, both mermaids and sirens are present and are quite different from one another.

[[quoteright:312:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/sirenelulu_1487.PNG]]

This trope is an old one; the siren as mermaid was well-established in the medieval bestiary. In Thomas Hoccleve's early fifteenth century text, ''La Male Regle'', lines 233 ff. speak of mermaids singing men to their deaths, ''as old books tell us''.

* This trope is so widespread that in in Spanish, French, Italian, Polish, Romanian and Portuguese the word for mermaid is respectively Sirena, Sirène, Sirena, Syrena, Sirenă and Sereia.

* Pictured above is Elulu from LuminousArc3 whos job class is Siren but also bear a lot of trait similar to mermaid and not winged one.

* In {{Shakespeare}}'s ''AMidsummerNightsDream'', Oberon's story of the magic flower for the love potion includes a mermaid's beautiful singing, though she calms the sea rather than allures anyone to death.

* In Edgar Eagar's ''Magic By the Lake'', the children go on an adventure with a mermaid who "sings down a ship." Martha chastises her for luring men to their deaths.
* In the ''HarryPotter'' series, sirens are given as a Greek race of merpeople (noted as being the inspiration for their common artistic depiction, as compared to the "less beautiful [struck out by Harry and replaced with 'ugly']" Irish and Scottish merpeople seen in the series), and all merpeople are noted to share a common love of music. In ''GobletOfFire'', the second task of the Triwizard Tournament requires deciphering a clue given in Mermish song.

* The heroine of Donna Jo Napoli's StarCrossedLovers novel ''Sirena'' is one of the actual Greek sirens... and a mermaid. Of course, even the humans of her time have gotten a lot of the facts wrong about her and her fellow myths...

* PiersAnthony's ''{{Xanth}}'' novel ''The Source of Magic''. The Siren is a mermaid with a voice that lures all men who hear it to her.

[[caption-width-right:312:She sing beautifully, though with instrument addition.]]

* In {{Disney}}'s ''TheLittleMermaid'', 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.

* In the HarryPotter series, sirens are given as a Greek race of merpeople (noted as being the inspiration for their common artistic depiction, as compared to the "less beautiful [struck out by Harry and replaced with 'ugly']" Irish and Scottish merpeople seen in the series), and all merpeople are noted to share a common love of music. In ''GobletOfFire'', the second task of the Triwizard Tournament requires deciphering a clue given in Mermish song.
* In TheLionTheWitchAndTheWardrobe, mermen and mermaids sing at the Pevensies coronation and the singing is described as haunting and enchanting.
* DoubleSubverted in ''Siren'' by Tricia Rayburn. The sirens in the book don't have fins, but they need salt water to survive and can stay under water for long periods of time.

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* Subverted in an episode of ''H2OJustAddWater'' -- Cleo is normally a terrible singer, but during one of the episodes, she comes under the influence of the full moon, she briefly becomes a siren, gaining a singing voice that hypnotizes all the teenage boys in the area. Also, she did not transform into mermaid form on contact with water like usual while she was a siren.

* Subvert in ''TheMonsterGirlEncyclopedia''. Mermaids just love to sing, and men who heard their song will get charmed. However, there are also the sirens, a bird-human hybrid just like in ClassicalMythology, with similar magic song. While mermaids just love singing, sirens sing with intent to get a husband.

* Subverted in an episode of ''[=H2O=]: Just Add Water'' -- Cleo is normally a terrible singer, but during one of the episodes, she comes under the influence of the full moon, she briefly becomes a siren, gaining a singing voice that hypnotizes all the teenage boys in the area. Also, she did not transform into mermaid form on contact with water like usual while she was a siren.

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* Pictured above is Elulu from LuminousArc3 whos job class is Siren but also bear a lot of trait similar to mermaid and not winged one.

* In TheLion,theWitch,andtheWardrobe, mermen and mermaids sing at the Pevensies coronation and the singing is described as huanting and enchanting.