Sirens
Sea-nymphs similar to the Harpies, with birds' bodies and women's heads. Their numbers were between two and five.
Surrounded by perilous rocks, the Sirens lived on an island just off the coast of Sicily. Their singing was so entrancing that sailors went to it, only to die on the rocks during the inevitable shipwreck. The mortal man Odysseus was the only man to survive hearing the singing without dying. His crew sailed with wax in their ears and he asked to be tied to the bow. When he heard the singing, he begged to be untied, but his crewmates did not listen, sailing so far away from it that he was only freed by not being able to hear the song any longer. Another myth tells of Jason and the Argonauts who were saved from doom by heeding Chiron's warning to take Orpheus with them for protection. When the Argo sailed toward the first sounds of singing, Orpheus played his lyre so loudly that the crew could not hear the Sirens' song. The sirens were thought to be Persephone's playmates. In other myths, it was said that the Sirens, punished for being promiscuous women, were transformed by Aphrodite and became flightless because the Muses had beaten them in a singing competition and stole their flight feathers to make crowns for themselves. "Siren song" is now a modern term that implies strong temptation, that if succumbed to, will ultimately bring the person's doom.