e sacred to them.

The Sirens were another personification of the marvellous power of music
among primitive peoples. Their parentage also is variously given, though
they are usually mentioned as daughters of the river god, Achelous. They
are generally represented as maidens, with a more or less extensive
equipment of wings and other plumage. These wings were obtained at their
request when Proserpine was carried off, that they might be better able
to hunt for her. But another account says that they refused their
sympathy to Ceres, and were given their feathery coating by her in
punishment. Some writers say it was due to Aphrodite, who was angered at
their virginity. The Sirens, as well as other ambitious performers, were
rash enough to attempt a contest with the Muses, and met with the
customary defeat. The victorious nine then pounced upon the unfortunate
trio, and tore off wings and feathers.

The Sirens' chief occupation consisted in sitting on the rocks by the
sea and singing to passing mariners. According to Homer, their island
lay between AEaea and the rock of Scylla, or near the southwestern coast
of Italy; but the Roman poets place them on the Campanian coast. Their
magic power to charm all hearers was to last only until some one proved
himself able to resist their spell; and here again accounts differ.
Homer gives the credit to Ulysses, who stuffed his mariners' ears with
wax, and had them bind him to the mast. Apollonius Rhodius, however, in
the Argonautica, claims the credit for Orpheus, who saved the expedition
of the Argonauts by singing the Sirens into silence, after which the
musical damsels fell from their heights and were themselves changed into
rocks. If some of our modern musicians were put to the same test, and
condemned to death if they failed to charm their auditors, the results
would be beneficial both to art and to the cemeteries. The power of the
Sirens lasted after their death, and, like their cousins in Egyptian and
Indian lore, they used their music to charm the souls of the blessed
dead.

Leaving the realms of the supernatural, the only great name that the
student will find among the musical women of Greece is that of Sappho.
The story of her life is known only in its general outlines, and even
these have been the subject of many learned disputes. She was born near
the close of the seventh century B.C., either at Mytilene or at Eresos
in the island of Lesbos. She grew to maturity at the for