OdysseusSirens1.0021

OdysseusSirens1.0021_Waterhouse

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OGCMA s.v. "Odysseus and the Sirens

John William Waterhouse, "Ulysses and the Sirens," 1891, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne

Hobson 1980 no. 90 pl. 48

Wood 1983, p. 228

Kestner, J.A. 1989. Mythology and Misogyny: the social discourse of nineteenth-century British classical subject painting. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press. p. 297, pl 5.34

Odysseus tied to mast, sailors with covered ears, surrounded by Harpies over rough seas

Differences from "classical" are primarily in the number of Sirens (normally three), but it is likely beyond classical that the painter has the Sirens coming to the men. Kestner, whose thesis is that Waterhouse especially feared the femme fatale, points out that these dangerous mankillers are pursuing the mariners, not merely waiting for their demise upon the shoals ahead. Victorian sentiment is responsible for the equation of "Sirens" with prostitutes. Reid notes that they appear here as "Harpies", but the iconography of Sirens as birds goes far back into Greek art.

Cf. also Waterhouse's treatments of Circe — "Circe Offering the Cup to Ulysses" (1891)=OdysseusCirce1.0093_Waterhouse and "Circe Invidiosa" (1892)=Glaucus1.0026_Waterhouse.

OGCMA slides are designed by Roger T. Macfarlane for use in Classical Civilization 241 courses at Brigham Young University.
The present resource contains information assembled for The Oxford Guide to Classical Mythology in the Arts, 1300 - 1990's, edited by J. Davidson Reid (Oxford 1994), and it is used with express permission from Oxford University press.
Address concerns or inquiries to macfarlane@byu.edu.