the.com/siren
half lullaby, half death sentence, depending entirely on who's listening
means A siren is either a loud warning device that wails to signal danger, or a mythical sea-creature woman whose enchanting song lured sailors to their doom — and figuratively, an alluring, dangerous woman.
from From the Greek 'Seirenes,' the sea-nymphs of Homer's Odyssey who sang so beautifully that sailors steered onto the rocks to reach them. The word arrived in English through Latin 'Siren' and Old French 'sirene.' When 19th-century inventors built a device that made an unearthly, irresistible wail, they borrowed the name — naming a machine of warning after creatures of seduction, which is a fittingly grim joke.
- origin myth
- Greek monsters who sang sailors onto the rocks
- odysseus trick
- He listened tied to the mast, crew deafened by wax
- not mermaids
- Originally part bird, not part fish
- the sound
- Emergency sirens are tuned to trigger primal alarm
- starbucks
- That logo is a two-tailed siren, not a mermaid
japanese air raid sirens — coastal early-warning sirens in japan activated during tsunami alerts since the 2011 tōhoku earthquake