J. Davidson Reid, The Oxford Guide to Classical Mythology in the Arts, 1300 – 1990s (OUP 1994), s.v. “Sirens” click here

a brief definition of who the Sirens were, then several dozen modern manifestations of the myth since Dante

Maybe worth looking into:
Siegfried de Rachewiltz, De Sirenibus: an inquiry into Sirens from Homer to Shakespeare (New York: Garland, 1987).

— Rachewiltz gleans 63 figures for illustration from 570 BC to the 16^th Century

E. Hofstetter, Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae, Supplement, s.v. “Seirenes” (click here and here )

Brills New Pauly, s.v. “Sirens” = " Sirens." Brill’s New Pauly. Brill Online , 2013. Reference. Brigham Young University. 22 January 2013 http://referenceworks.brillonline.com/entries/brill-s-new-pauly/sirens-e1114170 or click here

typically female, though sometimes male

a pair or three

Odysseus, Jason, Argonauts all experience the threat of the Sirens

victims fall subject to their magic, then remain ever with the Sirens til they perish of starvation

variously named: Aglaope, Aglaopheme, Himeropa, Leukosia, Ligeia II, Molpe, Parthenope, Peisinoe, Thelxiepea, Thelxinoe, Thelxiope

Menader uses the term “siren” for men and women who deceive

bird/woman mix goes back at least to ApRhod 4.898-899

Observations on their powers
They block thought on present or future events, thus destroy (see C. Segal, Singers, Heroes and Gods in the Odyssey (1994) 100-106. “The content of the Sirens’ song is the epic tradition, the heroes’ efforts at Troy, as well as ‘what passes on the wide-nurturing earth’.” For Odysseus to return to the land with future (Ithaca), “he must resist the blandishments of a heroic traditionthat is frozen into spellbinding but lifeless song.”

they know their victims by name

have power over winds

are goddesses

sing shrilly

were brought up with Persephone

play instruments

know the laws of Hades

Homer, Odyssey 12.39-54, 158-200

Plato Republic 617B

Apollonius Rhodius Argonautica 4.891-921

Vergil, Georgics 4.336f

Ovid Metamorphoses 5.52-63

Apollodorus Bibliotheca 1.3.4 and Ep.7.18-19

Pausanias Description of Greece 9.34.3, 10.5.12, 10.6.5

Hyginus, Fabulae 125, 141

Kossman anthologizes

Igor Vishnevetsky, “Odysseus’ Temptation” OGCMA1008NOTSirens_Vishnevetsky

“What an end, what an instantaneous hell / you have traded for sleepy Ithaca!”

Linda Pastan, “The Sirens” OGCMA1008NOTSirens_Pastan

Nice: once Odysseus is infected, he will return again and again

Margaret Atwood, “Siren Song” OGCMA1008Sirens_Atwood

“Shall I tell you the secret / and if I do, will you get me / out of this bird suit?”

“Help me! / Only you, only you can / you are unique / at last.”

Ronald Botrall, “Haven” OGCMA1008NOTSirens_Botrall

The speaker welcomes the Sirens’ song, now “the State failed to wither”. Huh?

Richard Wilbur, “The Sirens” OGCMA1007Sirens_Wilbur

No mention of sirens, per se, within the poem. Yet the speaker is “richer for regret”.

Mandelbaum: “Whoever, unaware, comes close and hears / the Sirens’ voice will nevermore draw near / his wife, his home, his infants…” trans. of Od. 12.

The present resource contains information assembled for The Oxford Guide to Classical Mythology in the Arts, 1400 - 1990's, edited by J. Davidson Reid (Oxford 1994), and it is used with express permission from Oxford University Press.