Short Assignment #2: Option 1

Ulysses and the Sirens, by Herbert James Draper displays a very romanticized depiction of the Sirens. They are portrayed as very feminine, with long beautiful hair and pieces of cloth gracefully draped over their bodies. The Sirens are also in a way sexualized as they are nude and very exposed in front of all these men. This could be representative of the artists’ perspective on women enchanting men with their bodies. In the Odyssey, the Sirens lure men with their voices, but do not come face to face as depicted by Draper’s painting. The Sirens are very much coming into contact with Odysseus and his men and are violently trying to lure them. Draper’s painting of the Sirens gives them a very human aspect, which is not evident in the Odyssey. They are essentially just beautiful women attacking Odysseus and his men, trying to make them “unwelcome home by their wives and children”. Draper’s human like depiction of the Sirens goes slightly against what women represent in the Odyssey. In the Odyssey, women are very much monstrous. The Sirens eventually kill men, Scylla eats them and Charybdis drowns them. In Draper’s painting the Sirens are quite beautiful and almost innocent. Maybe Draper was trying to portray that women enchant men with their beauty and sexuality and it is that sexual power which presents the greatest danger for men. While in the Odyssey, the Sirens are not quite beautiful and seem to be evil as there is no male figure in their lives to exert some kind of control. The Sirens are monsters because they have no man to grieve for and are allowed to roam the sea freely. They are for that reason presented as dangerous. Draper’s sirens are very light skinned and wear bright colors, which depicts them as much less dangerous than they are. Draper could be trying to display that the greatest danger is often hidden behind an innocent appearance. While it could also be representative of the man and woman dynamic of the Victorian era, which Draper was a part of. Women are pure and untouched while men are beaten by their travels and worn out, which perhaps displays them as the workers or providers for the family. What is interesting about Draper’s painting is how the Sirens’ tails start disappearing as they get on board of the ship. What this could represent is that the Sirens are offering their bodies to the men or maybe that they are trying to seduce them with human-like appearance and femininity. As they are in company of men, the Sirens start losing their identity and simply become women.

John William Waterhouse’s depiction of the Sirens is very different than Draper’s. It is much more representative of Homer’s image of the sirens. In the Odyssey, birds are often seen as omen. And the fact that Waterhouse painted the Sirens as half birds could be a representation of women as carriers of bad luck and disaster. They are not very beautiful at all and are quite repelling. As opposed to Draper’s Sirens, Waterhouse’s Sirens are much more darker and more animal than human. They do not acquire a human body and do not use it as a way to seduce men. Odysseus and his men are portrayed as pray much more than subjects of Sirens’ fancy. They are almost like food, waiting to be eaten by the Sirens. Once again, the Sirens do not wait for the men to come to them, but rather face them face to face. However, this image of the Sirens, portrays a very scary amount of power that women have over men. In Draper’s image, the Sirens utilized their bodies and femininity as a way to perhaps entrap men. While in Waterhouse’s depiction, the Sirens do not need their bodies and femininity, they have the ultimate control. Therefore, perhaps Waterhouse could be depicting women in a good light. Birds do often represent wisdom and perhaps it is the women’s intellect or wise words which make them superior to men in Waterhouse’s view. Giving a woman a voice or power could be disastrous. Maybe it is the woman’s intellect which scares men and presents the greatest danger.