Homer never names them. The Odyssey gives the Sirens a meadow, a pile of bones, a song that promises to know everything, and not one name between them. The names arrive centuries later, from the mythographers: Apollodorus gives three, Hyginus gives three, the scholia keep a longer list. Siren names are a documented register with a silence at the center, a voice grammar holding every name up, and a bird body that the mermaid read later swallowed. This table holds 60 of them, every row with its source named.
The singers live here. The gods are the greek god names page’s own. Every name comes with a receipt.
What are siren names?
One episode, then eight centuries of names. The Odyssey, book 12, is the source: Circe warns, wax stops the crew’s ears, the mast holds the one man who may listen, and the ship rows on. Homer gives the species a name and the individuals none. The mythographers filled the silence: each list is its own row above, source named. The grammar never changes, a root for the sound plus a root for what the sound works on, and this page glosses every part. The archaeology is told honestly: in Greek art these are birds with women’s heads, the Egyptian comparison is argued rather than proven, and the fishtail is a medieval addition. The kin words and the modern lane follow the word outward, and coinages sit at the bottom, labeled coined.
Grouped by layer. The layer stays on every row.
Siren names with layer, build and meaning receipts
Name
Layer
Built from
Meaning
Copy
The Apollodorus three: the Bibliotheca’s named set: daughters of the river and a Muse
Thelxiepeia
the Apollodorus three
thelxis + epeia, enchanting words (Greek)
the Bibliotheca names her first of the three; the charm that works through speech
Aglaope
the Apollodorus three
aglaos + ops, splendid voice
the second of the three; the beautiful sound said as a name
Peisinoe
the Apollodorus three
peitho + noos, persuading the mind
the third of the three; the name is the whole trick, persuasion aimed at the mind
The Hyginus three: the Latin mythographer’s set: the Italian coast’s names
Leucosia
the Hyginus three
leukos, white, the white goddess
the Fabulae names her first; the southern Italian coast kept her tomb story
Parthenope
the Hyginus three
parthenos + ops, maiden voice
the second; her tomb stood where Naples now stands, and the city used her name first
Ligia
the Hyginus three
ligys, shrill and clear; Ligeia in some renderings
the third; the clear ringing sound worn as a name (the Ligeia spelling belongs to the gothic last names page)
The later lists: the scholia and lexica after Homer, plus the honest silence row
Molpe
the later lists
molpe, song and dance together
kept by the scholia and lexica after Homer; the name is the performance
Thelxinoe
the later lists
thelxis + noos, enchanting the mind
the charm name with the mind swapped in for the voice
Teles
the later lists
telos, the complete, the accomplished
the name that claims completeness; the song that needs nothing added
Raidne
the later lists
from the root of improvement, the bettering
a rare keeper of the list; the name promises improvement, which is the song’s hook
Himerope
the later lists
himeros + ops, the yearning voice
desire said as a sound; the longing built into the name itself
Aglaopheme
the later lists
aglaos + pheme, splendid report
the sister variant of Aglaope: the same beauty, carried by fame instead of voice
Aglaophonus
the later lists
aglaos + phone, splendid sounding
the third of the splendid family, the sound said outright
the Sirens
the later lists
Seirenes, the plural, that is all Homer gives
the Odyssey names the species and not one of them; the honest row at the top of the register
The Odyssey furniture: the episode’s own objects, book 12, glossed as name-stock
the Meadow of Bones
the Odyssey furniture
the flowery meadow heaped with the rotting
the shore the song plays from: spring flowers over the bones of everyone who stopped to listen
the Beeswax
the Odyssey furniture
the plug, worked into the crew’s ears
Circe’s countermeasure: the song cannot work on ears it cannot reach
the Mast
the Odyssey furniture
the spar and the rope
the other half of the trick: one man may hear it, tied where he cannot steer
the Waxless Crew
the Odyssey furniture
the rowers who heard nothing
the crew rowed on deaf and untempted; the danger was reserved for the one man curious enough to be tied
Circe’s Warning
the Odyssey furniture
the witch tells the route first
the episode arrives as advice: she has heard the whole map and hands it over with the countermeasures
the Vase Pair
the Odyssey furniture
the painters’ answer to Homer’s silence
Greek vases show two sirens where Homer counts none; art committed before the mythographers did
the Song’s Promise
the Odyssey furniture
we know whatever comes to pass on the earth
the bait in the song’s own words: not love, knowledge; the siren sells the missing years of the war and everything after
The voice vocabulary: the grammar inside every siren name, glossed
Seiren
the voice vocabulary
the Greek word itself; the root contested
one ancient read ties it to seira, the cord: what binds; another calls it older than Greek (both flagged, neither certain)
Seira
the voice vocabulary
the rope, the cord (Greek)
the binding root: the song as a rope thrown to a ship, and the mast as the answer
Thelgein
the voice vocabulary
to enchant, to soothe into stillness (Greek)
the verb under half the names; thelxis is its noun, the charm itself
Aoidos
the voice vocabulary
the singer, the bard (Greek)
the professional word for what the sirens are: singers with a repertoire and a place
Melos
the voice vocabulary
the song, the melody (Greek)
the tune as against the words; the part that reaches past the mind
Ligys
the voice vocabulary
shrill, clear, ringing (Greek)
the sound quality the names claim; Ligia is this word worn as a person
Parthenos
the voice vocabulary
the maiden (Greek)
the maiden word inside Parthenope; the register the tradition dressed them in
Thelxis
the voice vocabulary
the charm itself, the noun (Greek)
what the verb thelgein does, caught as a thing: the enchantment sitting still
Aoide
the voice vocabulary
song (Greek)
the elder Muse of song in the older list, before the Helicon nine; the root the Romans borrowed as ode
Himeros
the voice vocabulary
the yearning, the longing (Greek)
the root inside Himerope: want made into sound
Noos
the voice vocabulary
the mind (Greek)
the target, named inside two of the siren names; the aim was never the ear
The bird-woman archaeology: the art and the afterlife, contested parts flagged
the Siren Vase
the bird-woman archaeology
the Athenian cup, c.480 to 470 BC
the British Museum keeps the standard picture: Odysseus tied to the mast, and two bird bodies with women’s heads perched to sing
the Ba-bird
the bird-woman archaeology
the Egyptian soul shown as a bird
the comparison scholars reach for; whether Greek sirens descend from Egyptian soul-birds is argued, not known (flagged)
the Bestiary Siren
the bird-woman archaeology
the medieval manuscript tradition
the fishtail arrives here: the Latin bestiaries draw the singer as half fish, and the mermaid swallow the siren whole
the Sirenum Scopuli
the bird-woman archaeology
the siren rocks, the mythical chart
the little islands the tradition pins between Sicily and the mainland, marked on no real chart
the Islands
the bird-woman archaeology
the real isles off Positano, the Li Galli
the actual rocks the tradition claimed; the sirens’ address in the local guidebooks of antiquity and since
the Tomb of Parthenope
the bird-woman archaeology
the tomb story at Naples
the city’s first name was hers; a tomb was shown to visitors, and the song became a place
the Muses’ Contest
the bird-woman archaeology
the singing match the sirens lost
they challenged the Muses and were plucked of their feathers when they lost; the myth’s own account of where the feathers went
Orpheus’s Counter-Song
the bird-woman archaeology
the Argonautica’s answer
the Argonauts met them first: Orpheus sang louder, and only one man jumped
The kin words: the water-maiden family in the neighboring seas
the Lorelei
the kin words
the slate rock on the Rhine, lureln + ley
the German siren by way of literature: Brentano’s 1801 ballad made her, Heine’s 1824 poem fixed her, and the rock is real
Undine
the kin words
unda, the wave (Latin)
the water spirit Paracelsus catalogued and Fouque’s 1811 tale gave a soul to
Selkie
the kin words
selch, the seal (Scots)
the Orkney and Shetland seal-wife: the skin on the rock, the woman ashore
Nixie
the kin words
nix, the water being (Germanic)
the river and pond people of German folklore; the word crossed into English whole
Rusalka
the kin words
the Slavonic water maiden
the drowned girl who keeps the river; Dvorak’s 1901 opera carried her far
Mavka
the kin words
the forest and water ghost of the Ukrainian tradition
the long-haired kin of the rusalka; the same fear, further inland
Sirena
the kin words
the word itself in Italian and Spanish
the Romance form: the same singer, the warmer sea
Merrow
the kin words
muruch, the sea maid (Irish)
the Irish mermaid by her own word; the male of her kind is the merman of the same tale
Morgen
the kin words
the sea maid of the Breton and French coast
the Morgan of the medieval romances, the fay who drew men down off Brittany
The modern lane: where the word went after the myths stopped
the Siren Call
the modern lane
the idiom the story left
the pull that cannot be refused once heard; the Odyssey’s warning, worn down to a phrase
the Air-raid Siren
the modern lane
the word given to the alarm
the singer’s name handed to the machine that clears streets; the modern ear’s first siren
the Siren Suit
the modern lane
the one-piece garment for dash to shelter
the coverall kept at the bedside for air-raid nights; Churchill wore his through the war
the Police Siren
the modern lane
the two-tone and the wail
the two sounds that own the word now: the European two-tone and the American wail
Sirenia
the modern lane
the zoological order of the manatees
science named the sea-cows for the singers: sailors had been mistaking them for sirens for centuries, so Linnaeus let it stand
Coined siren names: built on the documented voice grammar, labeled coined on every row
Kalliglossa
coined, labeled coined
kallos + glossa, beautiful tongue
built on the documented voice grammar; no source carries it
Molpanassa
coined, labeled coined
molpe + anassa, song mistress
coined for this page, labeled so
Peisagora
coined, labeled coined
peitho + agora, persuading the assembly
coined for this page, labeled so
Thelxymele
coined, labeled coined
thelxis + melos, enchanting song
coined for this page, labeled so
Aglanoia
coined, labeled coined
aglaos + noos, splendid mind
the siren grammar aimed at the target organ; coined for this page
Ligera
coined, labeled coined
ligys, the clear ringing sound
coined for this page, labeled so
The guard line: singers here, gods there
The split, above the fold where it belongs. The sirens are not gods. This page rows the singers and their register: the named lists, the episode, the vocabulary, the afterlife of the word. The greek god names page owns the deity strings: the Muses, the river Achelous, Calypso and the rest. The sources make the sirens children of that river and of a Muse, and disagree about which Muse, so the parentage sits here in prose with its flag on rather than in any god list. Circe, who gives the warning that frames the episode, is rowed on the witch names page.
The mermaid-family words ride in the kin lane until the family has its own page. For placing a siren in a cast, the how to name a character guide walks the same reasoning.
Four systems, tabled
One register, four engines. The named set says who, and which mythographer says so. The episode word gives the furniture. The voice grammar shows how every name is built. The kin word carries the family:
The four systems behind siren names
System
Grammar
Examples
What it says
The named set
source + the grammar
Thelxiepeia, Parthenope, Molpe
which mythographer says so
The episode word
an object from book 12, glossed
the Beeswax, the Mast
the furniture the story left
The voice grammar
a root + the element it aims at
Peitho + Noos, Ops
how the names are built
The kin word
a neighboring sea’s water maiden
Selkie, Rusalka, Lorelei
the family around the word
The pirate names page runs the same receipt-first shape for the other dangerous singers of the sea, and the fantasy names hub tables this page beside the whole genre grid.
The bird body, told honestly
The siren you are picturing is the later one. In the Greek vases, the siren is a bird: a woman’s head on a bird’s body, wings, talons, and often instruments in her hands. The Siren Vase in the British Museum, painted around 480 to 470 BC, shows the standard scene, Odysseus lashed to the mast while two of them sing. The fishtail arrives in the medieval bestiaries, and from there the mermaid read replaced the bird read so completely that the older picture now looks like the surprise. The row over the Egyptian ba-bird comparison carries a flag, because scholars argue that line of descent without settling it.
The archaeology lane rows the evidence: the vase, the bestiary, the rocks, the tomb city, the contest with the Muses, and the Argonauts’ earlier pass with Orpheus singing the other side. A name is rowed here when a source puts it on a siren or on the register around them. Everything else is labeled coined.
The voice grammar
Peisinoe is a recipe, not a flourish. Take a root for the sound, Ops or Phone or Pheme, and weld it to a root for what the sound is aimed at, Noos the mind or Parthenos the maiden, and the name assembles. The charm root Thelgis fronts two of the documented names. The song root Melos and the shrill-clear Ligys each wear as names too. The coined lane at the bottom follows the same recipe, and every row there says coined on its face, because this page does not launder invention into mythology.
When you name a character, the honest move is the documented one: a voice, a target, and a source you can name. The character naming guide walks the same reasoning for the whole cast.
Siren names questions, answered
Did Homer name the sirens?
No, and that silence is the register’s first fact. The Odyssey says the Sirens, plural, and never gives a number or a name. The names arrive centuries later: the Bibliotheca gives Thelxiepeia, Aglaope and Peisinoe; Hyginus gives Leucosia, Parthenope and Ligia; the scholia and lexica keep a longer list. Every named row above carries its source, and the unnamed truth sits rowed as itself.
Are sirens mermaids?
No, and the tail is the receipt. In Greek art the siren is a bird: a woman’s head and chest on a bird’s body, wings for hands, talons for feet, as the Siren Vase shows around 480 BC. The fishtail arrives in the medieval Latin bestiaries, and the mermaid read swallowed the bird read whole. The kin words lane rows the mermaid family across the seas, Lorelei and Selkie and Rusalka, each with its own source.
What is a good siren name?
Build it the way the mythographers did: a root for the voice plus a root for the target. Ops for the voice, Peitho and Noos for the mind it works on, Thelxis for the charm, and the name assembles itself: the Peisinoe grammar. The coined rows at the bottom follow exactly that grammar and are labeled coined, because no source carries them. This page does not pass made up names off as mythology.
Are the sirens goddesses?
No, and the boundary is stated on both sides. The sirens are singers, dangerous ones, but the god register belongs elsewhere: the greek god names page rows the deities, the Muses and the rivers among them. The sources make the sirens daughters of the river Achelous and a Muse, and even that parentage shifts between writers, which is why it lives here in prose with the flag on it, not in a god list.
Where these names come from.The episode lane follows Odyssey book 12. The named sets follow the Bibliotheca of Apollodorus (Thelxiepeia, Aglaope, Peisinoe), Hyginus (Leucosia, Parthenope, Ligia), and the later scholia and lexica (Molpe, Thelxinoe, Teles, Raidne, Himerope, Aglaopheme, Aglaophonus), with the Ligia row noting the Ligeia variant, whose spelling is rowed on the gothic last names page. The bird-woman archaeology follows the Siren Vase (British Museum, c.480 to 470 BC), the bestiary tradition, the Naples tomb story for Parthenope, Apollonius Rhodius for Orpheus, and Joyce’s Ulysses (1922) for the modern echo; the Egyptian ba-bird comparison is flagged as argued rather than proven. The kin words name their sources: Brentano 1801 and Heine 1824 for Lorelei, Fouque 1811 for Undine, Paracelsus for the catalog, Dvorak 1901 for Rusalka. The word-etymology row flags both ancient reads of Seiren as contested. Every coined row is labeled coined. No frequency ranking is claimed; none exists. Where every name’s receipt comes from →