History Main / EnthrallingSiren

* On ''Series/{{Batman}}'', Joan Collins played the Supervillainess Lorelei Circe, [-AKA-] The Siren, who was able to put any man under her spell by singing a note of three octaves above high C; she used her ability to entrance Commissioner Gordon into sneaking into the Batcave, to cause Chief O'Hara to jump into a lake, and to induce Bruce Wayne into signing his fortune over to her.

* The {{Bad Powers Bad People}} trope is surprisingly averted by the Siren in {{Extreme Ghostbusters}} as she's one of the very few ghosts that actually care about the mortals she seduces with her singing voice. Her sister Banshee forces her into stealing the youth of her listeners to sustain her strength. She finally develops a backbone and rejects her sister when she coerces her to steal the remaining life force of her agefied audience (including Roland, who fell under her spell) and willingly allows herself and her sister to be captured and put into containment by the team.

-->"Them si-reens done loved Pete up and turned 'im into a -- ''[[IfYouKnowWhatIMean horny toad]]!"''

Sirens have enthralling voices, ranging from just very attractive when you've been out at sea for some time to a form of {{Glamour}} or out and out MindControl. They are at least humanoid, though the lower half is flexible. They lure someone to their doom, though not ''necessarily'' immediate death. In ClassicalMythology, sirens were bird-women, split about the same as a [[OurCentaursAreDifferent centaur]]; in most modern depictions of sirens, the bird characteristics will be dropped and they'll be just beautiful women with beautiful voices, if they aren't [[SirensAreMermaids mermaids]].

* ''The Golden Apple'', another loose Americanization of ''Literature/TheOdyssey'', represents the sirens as a group of singers in a waterfront dive who sing "Goona-Goona." In this tale, Ulysses doesn't think to plug his men's ears, and most of them end up shanghaied.

* [[TheOdyssey Odysseus]] ran into two sirens, who were bird-women who lured sailors with their enchanting voices and music. His men stuff their ears with wax, but, [[FatalFlaw true to]] [[{{Pride}} form]], Odysseus just has them tie him to the mast. Because he wants to hear the songs and be able to say that [[BadassBoast he's the only man to have heard the song and lived.]]

* The three young women doing wash in ''OBrotherWhereArtThou'' function as sirens. No surprise, given it's a retelling of ''TheOdyssey''.

* ''The Golden Apple'', another loose Americanization of ''TheOdyssey'', represents the sirens as a group of singers in a waterfront dive who sing "Goona-Goona." In this tale, Ulysses doesn't think to plug his men's ears, and most of them end up shanghaied.

** BrightestDay introduced a new Siren as a foe for {{Aquaman}} [[spoiler: who's his sister-in-law]].

* [[TheOdyssey Odysseus]] ran into two sirens, who were bird-women who lured sailors with their enchanting voices and music. His men stuff their ears with wax, but, [[FatalFlaw true to]] [[{{Pride}} form]], Odysseus just has them tie him to the mast. Because he wants to hear the songs.
** Not just that - he wants to be able to say that [[BadassBoast he's the only man to have heard the song and lived.]]

* ''The Golden Apple'', another retelling of ''TheOdyssey'', represents the sirens as a group of nightclub singers who sing "Goona-Goona."

* One episode of ''So Weird'' dealt with a siren who looked like an attractive young human girl and sang in a nightclub. Any man who heard her fell under her spell, while women thought her voice was pleasant but couldn't understand the fuss all the men were making over her.

-->--'''Tim Buckley''', "Song to the Siren" (later CoveredUp by ThisMortalCoil)

* The {{Bad Powers Bad People}} trope is surprisingly averted by the Siren in {{Xtreme Ghostbusters}} as she's one of the very few ghosts that actually care about the mortals she seduces with her singing voice. Her sister Banshee forces her into stealing the youth of her listeners to sustain her strength. She finally develops a backbone and rejects her sister when she coerces her to steal the remaining life force of her agefied audience (including Roland, who fell under her spell) and willingly allows herself and her sister to be captured and put into containment by the team.

* The {{Bad Powers, Bad People}} trope is surprisingly averted by the Siren in {{Xtreme Ghostbusters}} as she's one of the very few ghosts that actually care about the mortals she seduces with her singing voice. Her sister Banshee forces her into stealing the youth of her listeners to sustain her strength. She finally develops a backbone and rejects her sister when she coerces her to steal the remaining life force of her agefied audience (including Roland, who fell under her spell) and willingly allows herself and her sister to be captured and put into containment by the team.

Classical sirens were closer in appearance to what modern viewers might call harpies: they were bird-women, split about the same as a [[OurCentaursAreDifferent centaur]]. They had beautiful voices that lured sailors off their course and into rocks to their doom, and were very specific beings--though even the original mythology couldn't keep that entirely straight. Their number was somewhere between two and five, and each had [[TransliterationTrouble some name]]. They were all female.

Sirens have enthralling voices, ranging from just very attractive when you've been out at sea for some time to a form of {{Glamour}} or out and out MindControl. They are at least humanoid, though the lower half is flexible. They lure someone to their doom, though not ''necessarily'' immediate death. Sometimes the half-bird depiction will be dropped and they'll be just beautiful women and there's also been [[SirensAreMermaids a tendency to confuse them with mermaids.]]

For LostInTranslation reasons, be careful when adding examples to this page: if they are ''explicitly'' referred to as only sirens, they fit here. If they are bird-women type sirens, they fit here. If they are fish-people with beautiful voices, they're probably [[OurMermaidsAreDifferent mermaids]]. If someone uses ''both'' titles, see SirensAreMermaids.

* In general (Greek): They were bird-women, they lured young sailors to their deaths via song that took them into rocky cliffs, there were between two and five, though [[RuleOfThree three was common]]. Their names were a little...fluid.

* ''StarTrekTheAnimatedSeries'' episode "The Lorelei Signal". A group of alien women send out a song over subspace radio once every 27 years to lure a starship to their planet. They must do this so they can drain the male crew members of their LifeForce in order to survive. The episode title is a reference to the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lorelei Lorelei of German folklore]].

[[folder:Folklore]]
* One version of the German [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lorelei Lorelei]] legend is that of a kind of siren who was believed to live on a rock in the Rhine River and sing, which lured sailors to crash on the rocks.

* A famous German poem by Heinrich Heine describes the Lorelei, a beautiful maiden who sat on a rock in the middle of the Rhine, singing and combing her hair, who lured sailors to their deaths. [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZdOUWbYnsFA Set to music]] by Friedrich Silcher, it has become one of the most beloved German folk-songs.