Essays

De onsterfelijke inspiratie van kennis en leugens: sirenen in Homerus en Apollonius Rhodius

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Abstract

This article analyses and compares the motif of the ‘Siren encounter’ in the epic poems of Homer and Apollonius of Rhodes (3rd cent. BCE). After giving a detailed interpretation of the Sirens episode in the Odyssey and discussing its relation to the (Homeric and Hesiodic) Muses, the author shows how Apollonius used, adapted and expanded the information he found in Homer. Moreover, another episode, the Argonauts’ encounter with the Libyan Heroessai, is taken into account to illustrate how Apollonius ‘turns the story of the Homeric Sirens inside out’. That is to say: he precisely reverses the characteristics of the Homeric Sirens, and in an episode closely recalling the Homeric encounter of Odysseus and the Sirens, describes the Heroessai as saving deities instead of fatal creatures.

How to Cite:

Klooster, J., (2006) “De onsterfelijke inspiratie van kennis en leugens: sirenen in Homerus en Apollonius Rhodius”, Tetradio 15(1): 8, 185–200. doi: https://doi.org/10.21825/tetradio.91766