Two tailed siren amulets against the Evil Eye
Our next group of two tailed sirens are pendants made in Naples, Italy in the late 1880s, currently in the Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford. Seven of them look like they were made in similar styles, and the last two are in a different style. While the Evil Eye is hard to define, it’s a belief that’s existed since ancient times, and is a type of curse cast by a glare or angry stare. Pendants and charms were thought to ward off the evil eye, most famously naẓar pendants, or blue glass eye charms.
In the article “Neapolitan Charms against the Evil Eye,” author Veronica Berry discusses different charms against the evil eye, noting many of them have roots in Roman myth. She also gives us a clue why two tailed sirens were chosen:
“As the first glance was considered to be the most dangerous, the amulet had to be of striking appearance, often sexual, in order to attract, to startle, to divert the attention from the wearer of it so that he or she could escape unscathed.”
Two tailed sirens are striking sexual, with their spread-tail pose. I think it’s also worth considering that Italy, since ancient times, has always had a lot of two tailed siren imagery— from these tendril goddesses on vase painting to Romanesque church art to two tailed sirens in woodcut prints. It’s not surprising that a familiar, ancient symbol was chosen as a guard against curses.
The charms themselves are all silver, many with bells, and “were suspended in the window or worn by the women and used as jingles in the same way as the hippocampi were used,” according to Berry. Most of these sirens have crowns, a symbol likely going back to heraldry, and some of them wear the familiar acanthus leaf shirt many sirens wear. They're all holding their tales, a gesture with roots in ancient Scythian art.
Here is some background on this group of charms, from the Pitts River Museum website:
“Eustace Neville-Rolfe lived in Naples between 1880 and 1900 and was an enthusiastic researcher and collector of amulets against the evil eye. He first loaned artefacts to PRM in 1892 (including a lemon stuck with nails which is now on display) and subsequently in 1893, 1903 and 1908. Rofle was consul in Naples, he was part of a network of amulet specialists including many whose collections are now at PRM.”
I’m happy Neville-Rolfe collected these amulets, because it gives us the opportunity to admire these charms. Let's take a closer look. All images are from the Pitts River Museum.
Two tailed siren, silver amulet. She's crowned, holds her tails apart, with her hands in front of her tails, and wears an acanthus leaf skirt.
Two tailed siren, silver amulet, crowned, with a very short acanthus leaf skirt. I'm not sure what the wing-like additions from her tails represent.
Two tailed siren, silver amulet. She's crowned, with an acanthus leaf skirt, and small decorative designs on her tails.
Two tailed siren, silver amulet, crowned, with an acanthus leaf skirt. It's interesting how her arms aren't visible.
Two tailed siren, silver amulet, crowned, with an acanthus leaf skirt. Like the previous siren, her arms aren't visible. I wonder what the little bells would sound like when they move.
Two tailed siren, silver amulet, crowned, no acanthus leaf skirt. Her arms are mostly hidden behind her tails, but we can see her hands holding her tails. She's sadly missing most of her bells— hopefully lost as she was helping someone ward off curses.
Two tailed siren, silver amulet, crowned, no acanthus leaf skirt. Her arms are mostly hidden behind her tails, but we can see her hands holding her tails. She's missing one bell, and also has a curling design from her tails.
Two tailed siren, silver amulet, crowned, no acanthus leaf skirt. Her arms are mostly hidden behind her tails, but we can see her hands holding her tails. Her skirt reminds me of this Turkish mosaic, the way her skirt drapes below her tails.
The last two sirens aren't labeled as Evil Eye charms by the museum, but I'm including them here for the sake of completeness:
Link to the pendant on the right; link to the pendant on the left.
While these are also silver siren charms made in Naples, I don't know if these are evil eye charms— they don't have bells, and they're clearly a different design than the others: no crown, very few details.
If the museum started selling siren charms, I'd likely buy one.
For other two tailed siren necklaces, see here.
Source:
Berry, Veronica. “Neapolitan Charms against the Evil Eye.” Folklore, vol. 79, no. 4, 1968, pp. 250–56. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/1259356. Figure 3.
