The Argonautica

A brisk wind bore them; soon they saw the island

bright Anthemoessa, home of singers clear and shrill,

Sirens, daughters of Achelous, worked ruin with sweet

enchanting songs on whoever cast his cable beside the island.

After she shared Achelous' bed, the beautiful Terpsichore,

one of the Muses, bore the Sirens; once they served

mighty Deo's daughter, still an unwed maiden,

singing near her; winged bird-shapes formed one portion,

and partly in outward appearance resembled young maidens.

Always keeping their watch from a lookout above the fair harbor,

often indeed they had stolen the honey-sweet homecoming of many,

wasting them slowly with pining; and heedlessly now at the heroes

they sent from their mouths a lily-like voice. The men from the ship

already poised to cast the ship's cables on the beaches,

unless the Thracian bard, Oeagrus' son Orpheus,

stretched his Bistonian lyre into tune between both his hands

and rang a rapid strain of smooth, cascading song,

so all their ears might ring as he swept wildly across the strings

with violent thrumming; the lyre overpowered the maidens' voices.

Zephyr and roaring waves together bore the vessel

rising astern; the Sirens poured indistinct song.

Still Teleon's noble son, lone among comrades,

first leapt headlong from the polished rowing-bench into the sea,

Butes, his heart warmed through by the Sirens' clear-ringing voice;