Sirens: How to Know That You're Being Seduced?
(Purgatorio, Canto XIX): Siren, Harpies, and Sloth
There is, one knows not what sweet mystery about this sea, whose gently awful stirrings seem to speak of some hidden soul beneath...
~ Hermann Melville
Welcome to Dante Read-Along! ✨
(If this post appears truncated in your inbox you can read it on the web by clicking here. )
Welcome to Dante Book Club, where you and I descend into Hell and Purgatory to be able to ascend to Paradise. Our guide is the great Roman poet Virgil and in this Nineteenth Canto of the Purgatorio, Dante dreams of the Siren. You can find the main page of the read-along right here, reading schedule here, and the list of chat threads here.
In each post you can find a brief summary of the canto, philosophical exercises that you can draw from it, themes, character, and symbolism explanations.
All the wonderful illustrations are done specially for the Dante Read-Along by the one and only Luana Montebello.
This Week’s Circle ⭕️
Dante dreams of the Siren - Hideous and beautiful, the personification of the upper terraces - Rescued in his dream by a holy lady - The fourth P is removed from his forehead by the Angel of Zeal - Dante and Virgil pass into the fifth terrace - The terrace of the Avaricious - Souls face down in the dust - Pope Adrian V.
Canto XIX Summary:
In the hours of the early morning, just before dawn, those hours when the heat of the Earth had dissipated and the cold shed by the moon created an even greater chill, came the hour of prophetic dreams. Geomancers had an arrangement of points resembling the stars of Aquarius and Pisces called the fortuna maior, the shape of which was seen in the sky from the fourth terrace of Purgatory.
The moon is not cold in itself, but produces cold with the rays of the sun which beat upon it and which it reflects downward. Reflection that moves downward causes cold, just as that which moves upward causes warmth. And therefore the moon at night cools the air and the earth.
Francesco da Buti, Commento sopra la Divina Comedia
Bartholomew of Parma tells us that the art of geomancy originated from God and was taught to the sons of Noah by an angel who took on human form before the time of the flood. Whoever intends to practice that art should be ‘a friend of God’ and a good man of praiseworthy life…The art of geomancy is simple and easy of operation. The only instrument needed is something to make a series of points or marks with. These dots should be set down in four rows like the four fingers of a hand, but at random…The first inventors of the art are supposed to have worked out these figures ‘with great ingenuity and subtlety’ from careful observations of the stars and of the virtues of the sky.1
Dante’s second dream, on their second night on Mount Purgatory, came at this prophetic hour. In it, a deformed and sallow skinned woman, stuttering, crooked, and maimed, stumbled toward him. The defects of her body and expression symbolized the decaying nature of the sins of the flesh, which, as Dante’s dream gaze fell upon her, began to transform into, rather than the decayed representation of sin, the alluring and tempting beauty of a perfect female form. Her song began to mesmerize:
“I am,” she sang, “I am the pleasing siren,
who in midsea leads mariners astray—
there is so much delight in hearing me.
I turned aside Ulysses, although he
had longed to journey; who grows used to me
seldom departs—I satisfy him so.”
xix.19-24
Readers familiar with Ulysses’ journey may recall the famous scene in which Ulysses did not succumb to the Siren call; having filled the ears of his shipmates with wax to ensure their safety, Ulysses had himself lashed to the stern of the ship, in order to hear them but not to be able to answer their call; in this sense hearing the temptation but not falling prey to it. Dante, who, according to commentators, was unfamiliar with the Odyssey except through references in Cicero and possibly other classical authors, was probably either thinking of Circe—whom Ulysses did fall into temptation with—rather than the Sirens, or, in using Cicero’s reference, confused the outcome of the situation. Circe, in the Odyssey, spoke thus to Ulysses:
You will come first of all to the Sirens, who are enchanters
of all mankind and whoever comes their way; and that man
who unsuspecting approaches them, and listens to the Sirens
singing, has no prospect of coming home and delighting
his wife and little children as they stand about him in greeting,
but the Sirens by the melody of their singing enchant him.
They sit in their meadow, but the beach before it is piled with boneheaps
of men now rotted away, and the skins shrivel upon them.
You must drive straight on past, but melt down sweet wax of honey
and with it stop your companions’ ears, so none can listen;
the rest, that is, but if you yourself are wanting to hear them
then have them tie you hand and foot on the fast ship, standing
upright against the mast with the ropes’ ends lashed around it,
so that you can have joy in hearing the song of the Sirens;
but if you supplicate your men and implore them to set you
free, then they must tie you fast with even more lashings.
Odyssey.xii.39-54
This Siren, this malo amor, represented the sins of the upper levels of Purgatory that will be cleansed—avarice, greed, and lust. She was the temptation which could “never fulfill her promise, of course, since no secondary good can wholly satisfy our natural desire” for the highest good.2
In his dream, an unnamed saintly lady appeared next to Dante, in perfect accord, in perfect timing, as a voice of discernment who could point out the right way, as would reason, to deal with such a temptation. It is she who called to Virgil for help.
The holy lady who now comes is the personification of that light of discernment, and Virgil, in this dream, assumes the role of the will which acts upon that discernment, i.e., the awareness that the love of this Siren is a bad love. We should also recall the lesson on the operation of love as set forth in Purgatorio xviii, which comes finally to speak of a ‘virtue that counsels and that ought to hold the threshold of assent’ and of the winnowing of good and bad loves. The holy lady and Virgil act out the guarding of this threshold and the winnowing.3
Virgil acted quietly, fixedly, wordlessly, and without prelude tore the garments off the Siren to expose her belly—showing her true nature—and a terrible, we can imagine rotten, stench exuded from it. This corporality of the dream woke Dante, upon which he heard Virgil calling him to get up and journey on.4
The morning sun had risen and they walked west, counterclockwise around the terrace, with the rising sun at their backs. Dante, still heavy with the memory of the dream, was bent over with the thoughts of it, when an unearthly and beautiful voice called out to them the way to the next terrace, the fifth.
He who addressed us so had open wings,
white as a swan’s; and he directed us
upward, between two walls of the hard rock.
And then he moved his plumes and, fanning us,
affirmed that those “Qui lugent” would be blessed—
their souls would be possessed of consolation.
xix.46-51
The angel of Zeal erased the fourth P from Dante’s forehead, with the Benediction of the fourth terrace—qui lugent, those who mourn; those of the slothful spirit on the fourth terrace whose melancholy inertia prevented them from their highest, most spiritual work.
The benediction refers, not merely to the “healing tears” of the penitents, but to the fact that depression of spirits accompanies the sin of Accidie and has now been purged away.5
Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted. Matthew 5:4
And yet even with this blessing, Dante was still weighed down heavily by the imagery of his dream of the Siren. Although he had not yet shared it, Virgil knew all about it even as Dante expressed the effect it had upon him:
“The one you saw,” he said, “that ancient witch—
for her alone one must atone above;
you saw how man can free himself from her.
Let that suffice, and hurry on your way;
fasten your eyes upon the lure that’s spun
by the eternal King with His great spheres.”
xix.58-63
Dante’s prophetic dream pointed to the terraces above whose purgation they had yet to experience; Virgil left the explanation there, short and simple, as if they just needed to keep moving on from it. The heavens above with their whirling spheres acted as a lure for their upward movement, just as a falcon was called to action by the trainer's lure.
The pilgrim’s enthralled response to the siren’s song illustrates the innate human response to the stimulus of pleasure, while the holy lady’s intervention underlines the need for vigilance in determining between base and praiseworthy objects of love. As they resume their ascent, Virgil tells Dante that he has seen “that ancient witch” for whom penance is done on the terraces above by those who have sinned through misdirected love, and he explains as well how one frees oneself from her hold-which, as the dream dramatizes, is through alert and bewitched moral vision.6
Dante heeded the call of upward movement and he worked to climb through the rock walled path to the fifth terrace. The sight that met their eyes was that of souls lying prone, facedown in the dust of the path, weeping, sighing out the prayer “Adhaesit pavimento anima mea”- my soul cleaveth unto the dust.7 This was the prayer of the Avaricious, those who in life held a covetous and greedy desire for gain and wealth. Virgil asked the way, and was answered by one soul:
“O God’s elect, whose sufferings both hope
and justice make less difficult, direct
us to the stairway meant for our ascent.”
“If you come here but do not need to be
prostrate, and you would find the path most quickly,
then keep your right hand always to the outside.”
xix.76-81
Although the penitent suffered, those sufferings were justly imposed and borne with patience, making the punishment more bearable for them. The soul who answered gave a hint as to one element of the mechanics of the journey up through Purgatory: did all souls begin at the bottom, and work their way to the top, passing through the terraces that did not apply to their own errors? Or did souls, at death, appear on the terrace to which their punishment belonged? This answer indicated the former, and thinking that Dante and Virgil were souls that “do not need to be / prostrate” and wanted to move quickly, they could continue on without suffering these punishments.
Dante questioned Virgil with a look, his desire to question the soul who had just spoken understood by both, and approved by Virgil with a look of joy. Dante bent down to speak:
“Spirit, within whom weeping ripens
that without which there’s no return to God,
suspend awhile-for me-your greater care.
Tell me: Who were you? And why are your backs
turned up? And there—where I, alive, set out—
would you have me beseech some good for you?”
xix.91-96
The soul identified himself with the phrase “scias quod ego fui successor Petri”—you know that I was successor to Peter: St. Peter, the rock on whom the Catholic Church was founded, and whose successor would be pope. This indeed was Pope Adrian V, who identified himself through his noble family title, named after the river Lavagna. As a pope suffering from the sin of avarice, Dante was pointedly making a statement about the nature of the church; yet also, as is defined more later, by not naming himself, he had Adrian shed the notion of earthly power and fame of name. Pope for only thirty eight days, he had died of illness before he could accomplish much in office.
For one month and a little more I learned
how the great mantle weighs on him who’d keep it
out of the mire—all other weights seem feathers.
Alas, now tardy my conversion was!
But when I had been named the Roman Shepherd,
then I discovered the deceit of life.
xix.103-108
In office that short time, he understood the temptation of avarice, and even in that high and exalted position of pope, still had to truly convert at the last moment to gain his place in Purgatory. Again, Dante is making a commentary on the state of the Church. Adrian saw the misdirected love of the world, just as the Siren personified. With no higher position possible, he saw that the strife of the world brought no rest, and so set his sights higher. And yet that avarice which he held before that understanding was what brought him there, to the fifth terrace.
And it is in this fashion that riches are dangerously imperfect in their growth; for, submitting certain things to us which they promise, they actually bring the contrary. The false traitoresses ever promise to make him who gathers them full of satisfaction when they have been amassed up to a certain sum; and with this promise they lead the human will to the vice of avarice. Dante Convivio IV.xii.3
What avarice enacts is here declared
in the purgation of converted souls;
the mountain has no punishment more bitter.
Just as we did not lift our eyes on high
but set our sight on earthly things instead,
so justice here impels our eyes toward earth.
xix.115-120
The error of avarice was revealed in the contrapasso of its punishment, with the souls facedown in the dust, unable to look up to the heavens as they refused to do in life. Dante kneeled as they spoke, both to hear the soul speak, but also in reverence to his position as pope; but Adrian refused the honor, just as he had not given his own name; if they were both servants to a higher power, if all those being purged were such servants, than there was no need for the distinguishment of rank.
Then saith he unto me, See thou do it not: for I am thy fellowservant, and of thy brethren the prophets, and of them which keep the sayings of this book: worship God.
Revelation 22:9
The admonition of neque nubent, or “and nor shall they marry,” referred to the bonds of earth that were dissolved in the afterlife, the bonds of marriage, priestly marriage to the church or the marriage of two people, as well as other legal ties; this left them free to be servants of that which is higher.
Adiran desired to continue the cleansing of his debt through his tears and prayer, and asked Dante to continue on; yet to fulfill the promise Dante had made about helping him in the world below, Adrian referred to his niece Alagia, the last one of his family to keep her piousness. She was all that he had left.
💭 Philosophical Exercises
“First you will raise the island of the Sirens, those creatures who spellbind any man alive, whoever comes their way. Whoever draws too close, off guard, and catches the Sirens’ voices in the air – no sailing home for him, no wife rising to meet him, no happy children beaming up at their father’s face. The high, thrilling song of the Sirens will transfix him, lolling there in their meadow, round them heaps of corpses rotting away, rags of skin shriveling on their bones.”
~ From Homer’s The Odyssey
In Homer’s Odyssey, Circe warns Ulysses of the Sirens: creatures whose seductive song lures sailors to their doom, severing their hearts from their true course by offering an illusory destination.
Ulysses, however, commands his men to bind him to the mast so he may hear the Sirens’ song without succumbing to it. He warns them not to release him, no matter how desperately he might plead.
His crew sealed their ears with wax and obeyed. As their ship sailed close to the pernicious islands, Ulysses heard their sweet and beguiling song. Oh how pleasing, how beautiful was the song that promised him wisdom and knowledge, the secrets of the world and unsurpassable glory. They sang of unknown lands no soul had ever seen, of kingdoms richer than newly fallen Troy.
Ulysses succumbed, commanded, begged his crew to untie him. Instead of loosening the ropes, they pulled them tighter around their frantic captain.
As their ship slipped beyond the horizon, the voices of the sirens became mute. The steadfast and loyal crew untied their captain; Ulysses was free - free from ropes, and free from illusory destinations.
I. How to Know That You’re Being Seduced? (Or, How to Recognise a Siren When You See Her)
The Sirens of Homer resemble the Siren Dante encounters in his vision on the terrace of Sloth. Though the symbolic meaning of the Siren, and of Ulysses himself, runs in parallel between Homer and Dante, there is a curious paradox: our great Florentine poet never read the Iliad nor the Odyssey.
‘The gods are fugitive guests of literature’ wrote the great compatriot of Dante - Roberto Calasso. The mysterious presence of the gods, often arriving without the author’s consent, and their inherent meaning and symbolism seem to transcend even the masterpieces of literature, within whose sentences they play a central role.
We have met Ulysses in the Inferno, and we have explored the key sources that Dante based his story of Ulysses: Cicero, Virgil and Horace.
“Next to Homer’s conception of Ulysses, Dante’s, despite its brevity, is the most influential in the whole evolution of the wandering hero” 3 claims Dante scholar W.B. Stanford in his The Ulysses Theme, not a small achievement by Dante considering he did not know about Homer’s Odyssey.
~ from The Art of Resilience: How to Choose Your Own Destiny?
Horace, in particular, saw the Siren not merely as a bewitching creature whose song lulls consciousness to sleep, but as a demon who deliberately diverts ambition from its true course toward a goal that drains our zeal for meaningful journey.
“You must avoid sloth, that wicked siren.”
~ Horace
Dante’s terrifying Siren in this canto echoes the Harpies of Virgil’s Aeneid - monstrous bird-women who defile Aeneas’s food and foretell suffering. More than mere physical threats, they poison Aeneas’s spirit, casting doubt on his mission and attempting to convince him that his journey is futile and will bear no fruit.
Dante’s vision of the Harpies, who first appear as monstrous creatures, then transform into a beguiling Siren, only to be unmasked again by Virgil (Reason, aided by divine intervention), is a powerful illustration of sloth, despair, and misplaced love, vices that are truly monstrous at their core, yet disguise themselves in seductive beauty to pollute the spirit.
II. Philosophical Exercises
The English poet Robert Graves in his Greek Myths writes that Sirens die if their song fails to seduce and bring to peril their prey. So, since Ulysses and his crew survived, that means that their Sirens met their own end as they saw the mast of Ulysses ship fading beyond the horizon.
But, what is the symbolism of Sirens? What do they mean to you? To me?
I think this means that we must expose our false ambitions, our vain goals, and deluding desires. Sirens promise Ulysses knowledge and wisdom for a reason, that is what he wants, that is what he craves. We have explored this when we met Ulysses in the Inferno. Ulysses is obsessed with the new lands, of going beyond what gods allow mortals to see, and for this he is forever doomed to be in the Inferno.
In the Odyssey, a work Dante never read, Ulysses chooses to face the Sirens despite Circe’s warning.
Why?
To return home, Ulysses must uncover the truth behind his vain ambitions, the Harpies that disguise themselves as Sirens.
We must thus do the same. We must expose our weaknesses, the destinations that divert us from the true meaning we seek for. Sirens hypnotise one’s vision, they show an oasis when there is none. They are the inventors of mirages.
This Week’s Sinners and Virtuous 🎭
(Themes, Quotes, Terms and Characters)
I. Siren etymology
The word Siren may stem from the Greek σειρά (seirá, “rope, cord”) and εἴρω (eírō, “to tie, to fasten”). A Siren, then, is not merely a singing temptress, but someone who binds. No wonder, then, that Dante’s vision of the Siren appears on the terrace of Sloth. What is sloth, if not a state of the soul that feels tied down: entangled, unable to move forward, spellbound by desires that paralyse rather than ignite?
Quotes 🖋️
(The ones I keep in my journal as reminders of eternal wisdom):
Let that suffice, and hurry on your way;
fasten your eyes upon the lure that’s spun
by the eternal King with His great spheres.~ 61-63
Lynn Thorndike, A History of Magic and Experimental Science: The first thirteen centuries of our era 837-838
Charles S. Singleton, Commentary on Purgatorio 451
Singleton 451-2
Almost 300 years later, Edmund Spenser wrote a similar scene in the Faerie Queene I.ii, when the false Duessa was exposed to be of a hideous countenance.
Dorothy L. Sayers, Purgatory 222
Richard Lansing, The Dante Encyclopedia 784
Psalm 119:25
False ambitions, vain goals, and deluding desires. Avarice, the extreme greed for wealth or material gain, is truly a sin of our current times.