Sirens

The selkies, the seal people of the Orkney and Shetland Islands, may wish to live harmoniously with the humans who love the sea as much as they do, but the sirens have no interest in creating anything but death and chaos for seafarers. In Greek lore, there were at first only two sirens, large birdlike beings with the heads of beautiful women and the gift for singing so soothingly and sweetly that no sailor could resist their enchanting duets. As the popularity of the legend grew, storytellers increased the number of sirens to three. Later, with the passing of time, the sirens became an entire chorus of mesmerizing female voices. They also evolved in their appearance, from the large birdlike entities with human heads to creatures more in the style of the mermaid tradition. In Homer's Odyssey, Odysseus foils the sirens by ordering his men to stuff their ears with wax so they cannot hear their fatal songs.

Sources: Larousse Dictionary of World Folklore. New York: Larousse, 1995.