The Slavic Song Bird

The Sirin is found in the mythos of Russia along with areas of Central

and Eastern Europe. She is said to be a creature who has the body of a

bird, but the head of a beautiful woman whose song is known for

enchanting anyone who hears it. Once a person is enthralled by the

Sirin’s song, they will descend into a state of pure bliss or even death.

Humans will follow the Sirin to their end.

The Sirin may have been influenced by Greek mythology and is often

compared the Greek Siren that is also known for its enchanting songs

which lure sailors to the death.

So, where did these beautiful, yet dangerous Sirins come from? As

always, there are different ideas, different stories and so it is always

prudent to look at the origin of myths from every angle you can.

The Sirin of Slavic folklore is a creature that is somewhere between the

fairy folk and a spiritual being. Her appearance is that of a beautiful

woman, with a bird like body which, in some stories, is that of an owl and

in others a bird with beautiful feathers that shimmer across the spectrum

of colour and resemble a sky at twilight.

Some believe that the Sirins live in the heavenly realms, and there are

references to the Sirin in the books for the Gospel from the 10 th -12 th

Century. Pomors (a group of people whose name means ‘living near the

sea’) depicted a Sirin within the Book of Genesis. They were the birds

who were sitting in the paradise tree.

Sirins appeared in pagan houses alongside the Alkonost, and they were

seen as protective birds who led to good fortune. If a house had these

carvings, it was believed that the Sirin would protect the house during

the hours of dark and the Alkonost during day times. However, as time

passed, the two birds began to take on different aspects and the Sirin

became a creature that led men to their death whilst lost in a sense of

total bliss.

If people ever heard the song of the Sirin, she should be scared away by

making noise. The village people would shoot cannons, ring bells, and

make as much noise as possible to scare her away so that no one was

tempted to follow her and meet their doom.

There are tales in some cultures that the Sirin acts as a guide to the

afterlife, but if the stories of her mesmerising voice and ability to charm

men to the point that they follow her to their end are to be believed, she

may have been the reason they needed to go to the next world in the

first place! So really, if you think about it, it is the least she could do for

them!!!

We could look at the Sirin as a warning against temptation. When she

sings, it leads people to forget everything else and as a result they

neglect their responsibilities, their work, their families and only care

about the bliss that they feel from her song. The Sirin’s song leads

people to experience a feeling of sheer ecstasy, and they fall into a

trance where all that matters is her song. Is that not how some people

can be with other worldly things, Money? Gambling? Drinking? Sexual

conquests?

There is a very fine line between complete happiness and complete

oblivion and ruin. The Sirin is a symbol of what happens when a person

gives in to the lure of temptation and only focuses on the highs that they

experience in the short term. But all good things come to an end and

unfortunately often end in destruction if they are the only focus of a

person’s life. Continuing of the biblical these from earlier, she could be

seen as working in the same way as the devil himself. Luring people to

their doom by offering everything they ever wanted and desired, but at a

terrible cost – the loss of their soul.