Illustration
Detail of the Odysseus and the Sirens mosaic from Dougga (Tunisia) depicting Odysseus' encounter with the Sirens. The three Sirens stand on a rocky island. The creatures are depicted with the legs and wings of birds and hold a variety of musical instruments. Their irresistible songs are said to enchant and hypnotize those who hear them, often leading sailors to shipwreck on rocky shores. (The Odyssey, Homer, 39-54). The mosaic is dated to the 2nd century CE.
Bardo National Museum, Tunisia.
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This image was first published on Flickr.
Original image by Carole Raddato. Uploaded by Carole Raddato, published on 14 October 2024. The copyright holder has published this content under the following license: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike. This license lets others remix, tweak, and build upon a work even for commercial reasons, as long as they credit the author and license their new creations under the identical terms. When republishing on the web a hyperlink back to the original content source URL must be included. Please note that content linked from this page may have different licensing terms.
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Cite This Work
APA Style
Raddato, C. (2024, October 14). The Sirens. World History Encyclopedia. Retrieved from https://www.worldhistory.org/image/19557/the-sirens/
Chicago Style
Raddato, Carole. "The Sirens." World History Encyclopedia. Last modified October 14, 2024. https://www.worldhistory.org/image/19557/the-sirens/.
MLA Style
Raddato, Carole. "The Sirens." World History Encyclopedia. World History Encyclopedia, 14 Oct 2024. Web. 28 Mar 2025.
