#siren folklore

[catcgamingyt]

Random Fact: Sirens originally weren’t half fish-half woman creatures, they actually were half-bird-half women. First appearing in Homer’s Odyssey in 750 BCE, they soon merged with European mermaid folklore, becoming symbols of vanity and deadly temptation.

[chaosjester666]

I may or may not have forgotten I had turned asks off 💀

Anyway RAMBLE TIME!

So how this AU came into existence was, I was once again hyper fixating on mythology and folklore, and I had also been listening to sea shantys. And I wanted to do a Siren!Sabre Au and next thing I know I've created an AU where all the sky People are sirens!

Fun facts about this AU!

- sirens, according to Greek mythology, are actually avian. And entice sailors to their deaths by enticing them with their deepest desires.

- however in modern times, sirens are depicted as being aquatic, and are typicly portrayed as a more benevolent variation of mermaids.

- modern/aquatic sirens tend to fall into two different variations, hauntingly beautiful or monstrous in appearance.

~ when it comes to depictions of hauntingly beautiful, the sirens use their appearance to draw in their victims with their enchanting vocal abilities being a secondary form of enticing their prey. They are characterized as being master manipulators.

~while for the more monstrous in appearance, they 'hypnotize' their prey with their voice, leading their prey to veiw them as more beautiful than they actually are. And are also characterized as being far more aggressive and brutal.

- The Sky People are more or less a collective of sirens from every type of Siren depicted in mythology and folklore.

@mochi-munchies thanks for letting me ramble about this AU!

[druzydabbles]

Inspired by @mvcreates‘ comment on my Forest siren post, have a somewhat educational siren rant. Because I’m feeling in a ranty mood. Apologies in advance.

SO. SIRENS. HUH? WHERE’D YOU GET THESE IDEAS FROM, QUILL?

Mostly Wikipedia.

See, the original mythology behind sirens, as far as I can find, was Greek. But these sirens weren’t fish-like at all, at least, not originally. It seems they were a combination of bird and beautiful women (and earlier on, men as well) in varying manners. It seems birds were chosen for their pretty songs? These sirens would wait on the rocks of island cliffs and sing to lure in sailors, who would shipwreck on the dangerous shores.

Later on, sirens lost all of their bird-like features aside from the voice, becoming beautiful women that some said would lull mariners to sleep with their song, and proceed to climb aboard and tear them apart. How nice!

So where did the fishy sirens come from? Honestly, I have no idea, but I tend to draw inspiration from the Filipino mythological creature sirena. These are the vicious mermaid-like creatures that live in the ocean (although it seems their origins were the rivers of the Ilocos region). They have the hypnotizing songs and beauty which they use to cause shipwrecks and drown humans, and some think to abduct them to sacrifice to water deities, also how nice!

Kataws are another Filipino mythological creature that I draw inspiration from! They appear human aside from having gills and fins on their arms, and they also are said to have the ability to control water-type elements! Although it does seem some sources depict the kataw as almost identical to the sirena, so I really have no idea what I’m talking about here.

Anyways, I’m in no way an expert, so if anyone else has some input about siren folklore and mythology, I would love to hear it!