After researching mermaid and siren folklore’s and sightings the past few months, we thought it would only be appropriate to arm you with a few defense mechanisms that you could use against potential mermaid/siren attacks. There are various ways to kill a mermaid/siren and they all differ depending on where you look ethnographically. For example, in Japan mermaids are not seen as immortal creatures that are unable to die, while in Brazil they are seen as immortal creatures. The immortality plays a large part in whether you can kill it, hence the immortal part. In many countries it is believed that if you consume the flesh of a mermaid, you could gain immortality. The only problem in this situation is finding a way to kill a mermaid/siren. After hours of research, the only plausible way to kill a siren came from the one and only Supernatural Wiki. An unreliable source, yet it seems to be the only place that seems to be putting any thought into the safety of our sailors. Here are some possible ways to kill a siren:
- Bronze dagger through the heart
- Beheading
- Slit the sirens throat
On the subject of mermaids, there is no reliable source telling us how we could ever possibly kill a mermaid and obtain that immortality we so direly need. So we must only assume that mermaids could be killed any way that a human could. They are half human after all.
Now we may not be able to provide you with much in terms of killing sirens and mermaids, but what we can tell you is how to thoroughly avoid them and their deadly, temptress ways. Sirens and mermaids tend to lure sailors to their deaths by enticing them with beautiful songs about worlds under the sea and the promise of happiness or love. In simple terms, the easiest way to avoid death by mermaid/siren is to simply not hear the song they are projecting to your ready and willing ears. We have obtained two examples of ways this death can be easily avoidable, thanks to Homer’s Odyssey and the Myth of Orpheus.
In Homer’s Odyssey, Circe warned Ulysses of the sirens that were to come in his travels. Having heard the warning and how to avoid the death of his whole crew and himself, Ulysses plugged the ears of his sailors with wax so they could not hear the sirens song. He tied himself to the mast of the ship, allowing himself to hear the song without being at risk of death. (Homer, 850 BC)
We were taught another way of avoiding being enticed by the siren song in the story of Orpheus. When Orpheus and Odysseus approached the island of sirens Orpheus played his lyre so sweetly that he drowned out the song of the sirens. The sirens later threw themselves into the ocean and died because they were so upset they could not lure Orpheus and Odysseus to their deaths. (Colum, Padraic, October 29, 2011)
Additional Reading
- Homers “The Odyssey” Book 12 https://www.bartleby.com/22/12.html
- The Golden Fleece and The Heroes Who Lived Before Achilles by Padraic Colum http://www.gutenberg.org/files/37881/37881-pdf.pdf
Bibliography
Colum, Padraic, “The Golden Fleece and The Heroes Who Lived Before Achilles”, October 29, 2011, November 29, 2018, http://www.gutenberg.org/files/37881/37881-pdf.pdf.
Homer, “The Odyssey”, Bartleby, 850 BC, November 29, 2018,
https://www.bartleby.com/22/12.html
Image Bibliography
“Mythical Creatures: The Seductive Sirens”, Steemit, December 3, 2018, https://steemit.com/history/@wdoutjah/mythical-creatures-the-seductive-sirens
“Chinese Ordos Style Bronze Dagger, The Blade Cast With Repeating Animal”, The saleroom, March 20, 2013, December 3, 2018, https://www.the-saleroom.com/en-us/auction-catalogues/gardiner-houlgate/catalogue-id-srgard10027/lot-dd03c462-a6aa-4ec2-981a-a45400d5565f
Page written and created by Connor B., Kenzie S., and Ten H.
