Sirens and Mermaids

Sirens were beautiful women creatures, who were said to lure sailors with their enchanting songs and voices to shipwreck them on the rocky cast near their island.  They're goal was to steer the ship straight toward their island where they would crash on the rocks and ultimately die.  It was said they used the bones of the sailors they killed as musical instruments.  In Homer's Odyssey, the sirens were believed to be in mermaid form.  It was believed that these mermaids would not only use their voices and musical abilities to lure sailors to their deaths, but also they would use their upper human half to make it appear as if a woman was drowning in the water.  They used this to lure sailors into the water to try and "save them".  They would then pull the sailors down and drown them.  In the Odyssey, the sailors plugged their ears with wax so they would not be lured by the sirens' songs.  Ullysses even had his sailors tie himself to the front mast of the ship so tightly that he could not escape while the sirens attempted to lure the ship towards the rocky coast.  It was said that the sirens were so mesmerized by Ulysses' gaze and radiance that no matter what they did, sing or stay silent, they were not going to be able to lure his ship towards their rocky coast.  It was said that "Ulysses was so full of guile, was such a fax, that not even the goddess of fate could pierce his armour."  A major difference between mermaid and sirens, however, is that mermaids were human from the waist up, and fish from the waist down, while a siren was said to have a human body from the waist up, and a bird-like body from the waist down.  Visual artists have now transformed the myth to suit modern audiences by generally making these creatures seem more beautiful than evil.  Nowadays, a mermaid is generally portrayed as a beautiful, innocent creature.  Siren's, however, have maintained an evil vibe.  For example, in the Pirates of the Caribbean movies, the mermaids are innocent creatures who like to mind their own business.  They are prized for their "tears's".  The sirens, however, are evil creatures who are portrayed as mermaids, not the bird-like creature they were originally portrayed as, that lure the sailors to their deaths by their song and ultimately drowning them.  In other modern work, sirens and mermaids are portrayed as the same character, without the upper body being a beautiful woman and the lower body being a fish, no longer having the bird-like body.  Another modern reference to mermaids and sirens is at the Coney Island Mermaid Parade, which occurs each year where people dress up as mermaids and sirens.  Even in Disney's The Little Mermaid, which almost every child watches as they grow up, portrays a mermaid as a innocent creature who just wants to become a human in order to marry a man named Eric, who she is truly in love with.