Sirens

This is a very strange object. Hydria. Kerameikos,  Athens, Archaeological Museum in Athens. 660-580 BC. 

Why is it strange? Well, the vessel's body is divided into three friezes. From the bottom up:

1. Lion and red deer

2. Leopard (panther is the melanistic color variant of the leopard ) and wild boar

3. Sirens (the strange bit)

And I think that these are all animal calendar markers...

I think that the bottom frieze represents autumn, Jul/Aug-Oct/Nov. 

Both Eurasian lions and red deer mate during autumn, lions starting at the beginning of autumn and red deer at the end...

I also think that the middle frieze represents winter (Oct/Nov-Jan/Feb). 

Both Eurasian wild boar and leopard mate during winter, wild boar starting at the beginning of  winter and leopard at the end...

These animals have been used as calendar markers for these parts of the year throughout Eurasia. To read more about ancient animal and plant calendar markers, start here…then check the rest of the blog posts related to animal calendar markers I still didn't add to this page, and finally check my twitter threads I still didn't convert to blog post...I am 9 months behind now...

Anyway if the animals on the bottom frieze are calendar markers for autumn, and the animals on the middle frieze are calendar markers for winter, what are sirens doing on the top? Where logically we should find calendar markers for spring???

Well, if my logic is correct, and not completely bonkers, sirens should in some way be linked to spring...Are they? Well I couldn't find any mention of spring in relation to sirens...But I found this:

Sirens were formerly handmaidens of the goddess Persephone, and they were with her when she was abducted by Hades. 

There are two different stories about what happened to them then...

In one story, Demeter gave them the bodies of birds to assist in the search. They eventually gave up and settled on the flowery island of Anthemoessa...

In the other, Demeter cursed the Sirens for failing to intervene in the abduction of Persephone and turned them into birds with human heads...

You can read more about Sirens here. Anyway, whatever way the Sirens ended up the way they are, as birds with human heads, that happened after Persephone was abducted...When did that abduction happen?

Well, did you know that all the plants and animals featuring in the legend about the abduction of Persephone are linked to winter? Beginning of winter to be precise. You can read the full discussion in my post "Abduction of Persephone"...

So if Persephone was abducted at the beginning of winter, then the Sirens acquired their wings, either through curse or blessing, during the winter...As this is the time of the year Persephone spends in the underworld, and when the search for her takes place...

But considering that they are depicted standing and not flying, the top frieze could be depiction of the time when "...they eventually gave up and settled on the flowery island of Anthemoessa..."??? Which would be in spring...

Which means that they could be a symbol of the end of winter or spring...And which means that they do logically fit to the top frieze. And that my logic is not bonkers 🙂 Well, not always...

Oh yeah, sorry, here is the strange bit 🙂 Remember this article, in which I talked about the Ancient Greek soul bird?

And in this article I talked about the proposal (not mine btw), that during the same period when the Siren hydria we are talking about was made, human soul was by Ancient Greeks depicted as a bird with a human head...

Before the soul became completely anthropomorphised, it was depicted as bird with the head of the deceased person...Like on this Attic red-figure crater, c. 460BC-430BC, depicting the death of Procris...

And this is because the souls fly to the otherworld...

And guess who was Persephone abducted by? No other than the lord of the otherworld. And where was she taken? To the otherworld. And who can fly to the otherworld? Soul birds of course...Birds with human heads...Like Sirens...

And you know how there is this ancient belief, preserved in Slavic folklore, that it was the migratory birds which took souls of the deceased to the otherworld at the beginning of winter, and how they brought sous of the babies from the otherworld at the end of winter...

Migratory birds which were by Slavs believed to spend winter in the otherworld...The same time Persephone spent there...Soul birds...Birds with human heads...And so while they were there, they might as well search for Persephone...

And so are the Sirens the returning migratory birds which gave up looking for Persephone in the otherworld, and have returned to our world in spring? 

This is the strange bit...Very very strange...