Σειρην-ίδες

Grammatical information: f.

Meaning: `Sirene(s)', mythical destructive bird-like creatures (woman-birds), who, in the Od., attract those navigating by with their beautiful chant and kill them (Od.; Nilsson Gr. Rel. I² 228f.), also as des. of various seductive women and creatures (Alcm., E., Aeschin. a.o.); as des. of a wild kind of bees (Arist. a.o.; Gil Fernández Nombres de insectos 214f.).

Other forms: (Att. vase-inscr. Σιρ-; s. Kretschmer Glotta 10, 61 f. w. lit.), often pl. - ῆνες, gen. du. - ήνοιιν (Od.). Byforms Σειρην-ίδες (Dor. Σηρην-) pl. (Alcm. a.o.), - άων gen. pl. (Epich. 123, verse-end).

Dialectal forms: As 1. member in Myc. se-re-mo-ka-ra-o-re, - a-pi (Mühlestein Glotta 36,152ff.)??; wellfounded doubts by Risch Studi Micenei (Roma 1966) 1, 53 ff. Aura Jorro 255.

Derivatives: Σειρήν(ε)ιος `sirene-like' (LXX, Hld.).

Origin: PG [a word of Pre-Greek origin]X [probably]

Etymology: As the orig. (appellative) meaning is unknown, only hypotheses are possible. Purely formal (cf. Schwyzer 487) one should connect either σειρά ("the one who grasps, who snares") or Σείριος (as personification of the midday-blaze and the midday-magic), s. Solmsen Wortforsch. 126ff. (w. older lit.; to this Güntert Kalypso 174 f.), where the last idea is preferred. Acc. to others (Brandenstein Kratylos 6, 169 with Tomaschek, Lagercrantz Eranos 17, 101 ff. with diff. interpretations) Thrac.-Phryg. For Pre-Greek-Mediterr. origin e.g. Chantraine Form. 167 (with Cohen); further hypotheses in Brandenstein Festschr. Jul. Fr. Schütz (Graz-Köln 1954) 56 f. -- On the development of the word sirène in French Chantraine Institut de France (Lecture) 1954: 19, 5 f. -- Furnée 172 takes the wild bees for Pre-Greek.

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