Sirens, Sirènes, Sirenas

Fondé sur une double approche iconographique et textuelle, ce livre situe pour la première fois les sirènes antiques et médiévales au sein d'une histoire globale. Cette mise en perspective qui inclut aussi une approche anthropologique, permet d'appréhender cette figure archétypale dans son unité profonde tout en rendant compte des formes paradoxales qu'elle a pu revêtir. Mais au-delà de l'histoire du mythe et de ses variantes, des croyances magico-religieuses qui y sont associées et des interprétations philosophiques et morales dont il a fait l'objet, cette étude présente surtout l'originalité d'évoquer le passage de l'Antiquité païenne au Moyen Âge occidental chrétien au moyen d'une image-symbole qui apparaît comme un révélateur de mentalités particulièrement éclairant.

Intéressé par les mécanismes subtils qui ont permis la transmission et l'assimilation d'une bonne partie de la culture antique au Moyen Âge, l'auteur s'est notamment attaché à montrer l'étonnante continuité du discours savant tel qu'il s'exprime essentiellement dans l'oeuvre exégétique des Pères de l'Eglise et dans la littérature didactique des moines et des clercs qui s'en sont inspirés. Une place importante n'en a pas moins été faite à l'apport des cultures germanique et celtique qui semblent très impliquées dans le maintien des sirènes au sein d'une certaine forme de réalité, et surtout dans leur métamorphose en femme-poisson intervenue au VIIIe siècle au plus tard. L'apparition de "bonnes sirènes" aux côtés des sirènes vampiriques toujours craintes par les masses en plein Moyen Âge, paraît aussi devoir leur être imputée.

A cette enquête complexe mais combien passionnante s'ajoute une iconographie généreuse et de qualité qui permet de découvrir comment on représenta les sirènes durant toutes ces époques. La sculpture sur pierre du XIe et du XIIe siècle y est particulièrement bien représentée car la sirène y apparaît comme un motif privilégié. Un chapitre consacré aux sirènes dans la stylistique romane tente d'expliquer cette faveur, sur base d'arguments uniquement stylistiques.

The use of classical models and archetypal structures permeates the whole body of poetry by Margaret Atwood, from her literary debut (Double Persephone, 1961) to more recent collections (Morning in the Burned House, 1996). Her 1974 collection, You Are Happy, is very significant since it reveals not only an interest, but a technique, perfectly structured inside the world of myth. Atwood’s criticism against the US Empire, against the “men with the heads of eagle”, becomes an attack against all kind of traditional discourses, and in particular against the Homeric tradition. In this paper I will examine the use of two female archetypal models, those associated with “the woman as the temptress” and with Penelope, in order to express a new kind of relationship between man and woman.
The Siren and Circe, traditionally represented as destructive female characters, undergo a major alteration in Atwood’s poems, eventually losing their ‘demonic’ features and acquiring the traits of a betrayed angered woman; at the same time, the unnamed Odysseus suffers a painful deconstruction and is exposed in his fictitious and vacuous qualities. Nonetheless, the burden of western literary tradition seems to hinder the complete release of these women, since both cannot escape their literary condition, and their victory over the male hero is nowhere to be found or at least very provisional.
The poems associated with an unnamed Penelopean speaker, on the other hand, illustrate a constant dismissal of the prison of the Homeric intertext, thus allowing a major flexibility in the use of the female archetypes. In the end, the writer is able to completely get rid of the expected traditional and ‘imperial’ associations, introducing a new kind of couple and completing the process of demythologization.

The sections in early Christian writings brought forward and discussed by Hugo Rahner and Jean Pépin gave rise to an impression that Christian allegoresis of the Odyssey could be clearly identified in these writings, with its basic shape established before the end of the 2nd c. and evolving in particulars over the following three centuries. The Christian hostility to imputing any theological significance to Homer’s poetry seems to be disregarded in the context of this issue, but the conclusion to be drawn from it leaves Christian allegoresis of Homer looking fundamentally undesirable. Platonic and Gnostic Homeric exegesis reflected in part their views on the soul and its relation to the divine. Due to this fact Homeric images colored the language in which these questions were discussed at the time when they were of interest to competing Christian, Neoplatonic and Gnostic thinkers alike. When not merely illustrative or aiding the appeal of an expression, the use of Homeric imagery in Christian authors aims to redefine the issues to which the images are being applied not the images themselves.

Beautiful women have always been considered powerful and dangerous. For many thousands of years women have been viewed as a danger to men, especially women who could not be seemingly controlled or had the potential ability to control the minds of men.  In Greek mythology, sirens were depicted as bird human hybrids, who, with their beautiful singing voices lured sailors to their island. The images of sirens continued far beyond the bounds of Greek Mythology, and the Renaissance and Baroque eras. Artists such as John William Waterhouse, Herbert James Draper, Gustave Wertheimer, Henrietta Rae, Frederic Lord Leighton, and Charles Edouard Boutibonne, all did paintings of sirens. James Joyce writes about sirens in Ulysses.  By looking at and presenting examples from visual art, music, and literary sources, an in-depth comparison will draw a connecting thread through the different art forms and show a parallel development of the woman as seductress archetype.

A woman enters centre stage. She is known at the club as
La Llorona, “the weeping woman”. She emerges from the
dark space between two red velvet curtains, her auburn hair
piled high on her head, loose curls hanging down around
her face. And her face... Her face is sparkling! Her eyes are
painted bright red and yellow, her lips a deep red to match,
and there is a single glistening tear suspended from the corner
of her right eye...

An illustrated essay which explores iconography that may be related to the archetype of a fish- or snake-legged Mother Earth. Topics include Sirens, mermaids and melusines;  the Gnostic god Abrasax; the Zodiac symbol Pisces; the portrayal of Behemoth and Leviathan in Ethiopian magic scrolls; the Ouroboros; the Moon trump of the Tarot deck; the dragon and pearl motif; and, in the Book of Revelation, the Woman of the Apocalypse.

«Las sirenas en el folklore neohelénico: nereidas,lamias y gorgonas», en José Manuel Pedrosa ed., El libro de las sirenas, 2002, El Ejido: Ayuntamiento de Roquetas de Mar. Esta versión restituye el texto en griego, que no apareció correctamente en el libro.

The study is dedicated to the examination of the iconographic program of the red-figure stamnos of the Siren Painter at the British Museum (BM E 440).
The meaning of the famous scene of defeat and suicide of the Sirens is focused through the oppositional relationship with the group of flying Erotes painted on the other side of the vase: the play of the images is aimed at expressing an unexpected variant of the myth of Odysseus and the Sirens, conceivable within the cultural frame of the symposium.

El propósito del presente trabajo es ofrecer una aproximación al estado actual de la investigación sobre tres figuras femeninas monstruosas de la Antigua Grecia: Medusa, Esfinges y Sirenas. Éstas, como especializaciones de las Keres, son demones funerarios que arrancan a las personas de la vida, pero, a su vez, las conducen al Más Allá. En conjunto, son entes sobrenaturales y malignos que por su naturaleza híbrida y ambigua se constituyen como  figuras de alteridad y provocan dos sentimientos contrapuestos: atracción y repulsión.

Even though the Sirens' song poses a deadly threat to whoever listens to it, it is also paralleled to knowledge and poetry itself. The present study examines the Homeric archetype and its rewriting in Giovanni Pascoli's "Ultimo viaggio" (in "Poemi conviviali", 1904), with a wiew to illustrating how in the former case the Sirens are a danger to steer clear of, while in the latter they are the ultimate goal of Ulysses' quest for identity and the absolute - yet, this time the Sirens are silent and elusive

Platon dans sa République déclare: « Façonnons par la pensée une image de l’âme, pour que celui qui tient ces propos réalise ce qu’il dit. – Quelle image ? – Une image, comme celle de ces natures antiques dont les mythes rapportent la genèse : la Chimère, Scylla, Cerbère, et un certain nombre d’autres êtres constitués d’un ensemble de formes naturelles multiples réunies en un seul être». Force est donc de constater que cette volonté créatrice fait intrinsèquement partie de l’être humain.
Cette volonté créatrice est fruit de l’imagination, qui selon le Vocabulaire Européen des Philosophies de Barbara Cassin dérive d’imaginatio, terme découlant d’imago qui évoque l’effigie, le portrait. La racine grecque phantasia dont la traduction française est la lumière s’est, elle, développée dans le sens de fantaisie, fantasme. « La différence phantasia / imaginatio, dont témoignent les difficultés que les Latins ont éprouvées à traduire le grec, est celle entre la force créatrice des apparitions et la faculté reproductive des images, chacun des termes pouvant lui- même être travaillé du dedans par cette tension et les jugements de valeur qui s’y attachent.... Cette même tension détermine la place de l’imagination dans le jeu des facultés et des modalités d’être au monde. Est-ce une faculté nécessaire à l’exercice des autres facultés, entre passivité et activité, ou, comme dit Pascal, une maîtresse d’erreur et de fausseté?».
Créativité, imagination, fantaisie et fantasme, il y a un peu de tout ceci dans cette création humaine que sont les hybrides et dès lors s’intéresser à eux, à leur genèse, c’est s’intéresser aux tréfonds de l’âme humaine. D’où viennent donc les créatures hybrides ? Pourquoi les hommes ont-ils imaginé des individus nouveaux en agglomérant des parties de ceux qu’ils pouvaient voir autour d’eux? Comment leur est venue l’idée d’assembler des parties hétéroclites pour en faire un nouveau tout, une création inédite, créée non pas par la divinité mais par eux-mêmes ? Tant de questions qui vont bien plus loin que le simple motif décoratif qui ornera les palais de la Renaissance. Au-delà des Grottesches, des grotesques, dont le nom dérive précisément du fait que ces motifs sont des créations qui s’inspirent de ce que les artistes ont découvert en visitant les grottes romaines, des caves qui par effondrement des voûtes antiques donnaient un accès direct aux palais romains, dont la fameuse Domus Aurea, la Maison Dorée de Néron ornée de ces créatures monstrueuses, ces hybrides furent un des premiers indices des civilisations anciennes que virent les érudits du XVIe.

The picture on all of the vessels is based on Homer, Odyssey (XII.39 – 54). In this scene Odysseus and his comrades are about to leave the sorceress Circe´s island. They have a final conversation in which Circe tells Odysseus about the dangers that lie ahead on his journey back to Ithaka. " First you will come to the sirens; they enchant all mortals who approach them. If in ignorance a man draws near and hears the song of the sirens, he will never find his wife or little children standing near him and delighting at his homecoming; but with their shrill tones the sirens will bewitch him, as they sit in a meadow. Men´s rotting corpses lie in heaps around them, and the skin shrivels on their bones. You must row past there; and knead sweet wax and stop up the ears of all your crew, so that none of the others may hear the song. But if you yourself wish to hear it, then have them bind you both hand and foot in the swift ship, as you stand upright against the mast-stay, with the rope ends tied to the mast itself; so you may take delight in hearing the two siren´s voices (v. 52). If you implore your crew and beg them to untie you, then they must bind you fast with more bonds again. " Concerning the illustration of this scene there has been some scientific discussion. The sirens on all of the vases are pictured as woman-headed creatures with a bird´s body. Sparkesímplication for the red figure stamnos (2.4.), that this style must have been adopted from the middle-east seems valid considering the many mythological winged creatures, which are combinations of human and animal bodyparts1. Looking closer at Homer´s text, however, there is no description of the physical appearance of the sirens. The assumption that their appearance will be that of beautiful women seems to me to be a younger implication. Considering the artistic interpretations, this can easily be underlined. The representation of the sirens as human female earliest comes to show in Roman times 2. Another grave difference between written source and oral myth is that Circe/Homer is repeatedly telling us that the meadow was inhabited by exactly two sirens, whereas in most of the vase paintings there are clearly three of them visible. Another matter is the surrounding area. Homer speaks of meadows with heaps of rotting flesh of all the miserable men who were drawn ashore by the sirens. The vase-paintings however, show a rocky landscape with ledges on both sides occupied by the sirens. Presumably this setting is chosen due to the restricted frame of a vase-painting. This way it is possible to show the ship on the waves as well as the approaching sirens, leaving the very centre of the scene to the bound Odysseus. By choosing this arrangement it was clear to all the audience which story was told here.

Ho raccolto in queste pagine il tema trattato in due incontri, tenuti dallo scrivente nell’ottobre 2017 dentro la Pieve di Codiponte,  ove ho parlato dei segni e simboli presenti in queste tre chiese della Lunigiana Orientale.  Sono circa una quindicina di segni convoglianti a mandare un unico e solo messaggio…..Un messaggio che svelerò solo alla fine.
Si parlerà di questi segni: Losanga, Fiore della vita, Segni d’acqua, segno a cuore, segno a M, segno a Y, segno a X, mani in alto, segno dell’infinito, svastica,  segno a U o arco, ankh,  spirale, pigna, uroboro ed altro.

La ricerca verte sulle modifiche di carattere iconografiche che hanno riguardato alcune creature prodigiose del bestiario classico: Cerbero, le sirene e i draghi marini. L’obiettivo di questo studio è quello di analizzare come alcune di queste creature siano state tramandate, da una cultura all’altra, a livello iconografico.

The research focuses on iconographic changes that have affected some prodigious creatures of classic bestiary: Cerberus, the mermaids and the sea dragons. The aim of this study is to analyze how some of these creatures have been handed down, from one culture to the other, at iconographic level.

Il tema di Ulisse e le sirene è stato ampiamente trattato nel corso degli studi, soprattutto nel caso di particolari reperti. Il presente articolo si propone l'obiettivo di fornire una panoramica sulla rinascita di questo episodio in vari contesti specialmente nell'ambito del III secolo: quello funerario con l'esempio dei sarcofagi, con gli oggetti d'uso comune come le lucerne e con l'architettura residenziale. Durante questo periodo quindi viene ripresa l'iconografia della vicenda omerica che si era sviluppata già ampiamente nei secoli passati, attribuendo anche un significato diverso e soterico se visto in ottica cristiana.

The theme of Ulysses and the Sirens has been thoroughly studied, especially in the case of particular finds. The aim of this paper is to give a global view on the revival of this episode in different contexts, especially during the third century: the funerary one with the example of the sarcophagi, with the ordinary use objects as the oil lamps, and with the residential architecture. So, during this period the Homeric iconography which was much developed in the last centuries is resumed, also giving a different, esoteric mean, if read from a Christian perspective.

Ho raccolto in queste pagine il tema trattato in due incontri, tenuti dallo scrivente nell’ottobre 2017 dentro la Pieve di Codiponte,  ove ho parlato dei segni e simboli presenti in queste tre chiese della Lunigiana Orientale.  Sono circa una quindicina di segni convoglianti a mandare un unico messaggio…..Un messaggio che svelerò solo alla fine.
Si parlerà di questi segni: Losanga, Fiore della vita, Segni d’acqua, segno a cuore, segno a M, segno a Y, segno a X, mani in alto, segno dell’infinito, svastica,  segno a U o arco, ankh,  spirale, pigna, uroboro ed altro.

Revista Ostara N° 1 y 2, Época 1, Aguascalientes: Universidad Autónoma de
Aguascalientes, enero de 2009, pp. 145-168.

En este trabajo nos planteamos los modelos ortodoxos y heterodoxos de relación entre género y los arquetipos nacidos de los mismos. Nos centramos en el arquetipo de la mujer fatal, y de su amplio tratamiento mitológco-artístico-literario seleccionamos un fascinante tema para su estudio: el de la petenera, un género musical transfronterizo que a partir de sus transformaciones y adaptaciones al entorno del Viejo al Nuevo Mundo , muestra cómo el tema de la mujer-perdición de los hombres toma un cariz bastante diferente.
La petenera nos introduce en el estudio del mito de la sirena y su fascinante historia. A partir de este estudio podemos aprender que los símbolos y los temas mitológicos se resignifican en los nuevos contextos culturales, y si el estudio de su genealogía es importante para el historiador, es el complejo significativo en que se inserta y gana y pierde acepciones lo que interesa al antropólogo.

Ho raccolto in queste pagine il tema trattato in due incontri, tenuti dallo scrivente nell’ottobre 2017 dentro la Pieve di Codiponte,  ove ho parlato dei segni e simboli presenti in queste tre chiese della Lunigiana Orientale.  Sono circa una quindicina di segni convoglianti a mandare un unico e solo messaggio…..Un messaggio che svelerò solo alla fine.
Si parlerà di questi segni: Losanga, Fiore della vita, Segni d’acqua, segno a cuore, segno a M, segno a Y, segno a X, mani in alto, segno dell’infinito, svastica,  segno a U o arco, ankh,  spirale, pigna, uroboro ed altro.

Riassunto. Questo articolo indaga la presenza della sirena sull'acquasantiera nel Medioevo. L'esame è stato condotto sui casi conservati e oggi noti, tutti concentrati cronologicamente (XII secolo) e territorialmente (Italia del Nord). Si tratta del pezzo nella pieve romanica di San Giorgio a Ganaceto (non lontano da Modena), dell'acquasantiera nella pieve romanica di Santa Maria Assunta a Rubbiano, nel comune di Montefiorino (nell'Appenino modenese), e della pila lustrale nel battistero del duomo di Cremona. Lo studio, che si avvale dei precedenti e non discute la cronologia e l'attribuzione già oggetto di ampio dibattito da parte di altri studiosi, ha riesaminato invece l'iconografia, giungendo a ipotizzare che non sempre è possibile identificare i soggetti scolpiti con le sirene, come è stato fatto in passato. Appare invece opportuno riconoscervi esseri più mostruosi, come la lamia o l'arpia, forse per valorizzare maggiormente le qualità salvifiche dell'acqua benedetta. Anche sui fonti battesimali la sirena appare personaggio poco sfruttato, ma l'indagine in questo contesto è ancora da svolgere in maniera sistematica.
[en] The Mermaid and the Holy-Water Font in the Middle Ages: a difficult combination Abstract. This paper investigates the presence of the siren on the holy-water font in the Middle Ages. The study was carried out on the preserved and known cases, all grouped chronologically (12th century) and territorially (Northern Italy). This is the piece located in the Romanesque church of San Giorgio in Ganaceto (near Modena), the stoup in the Romanesque church of Santa Maria Assunta in Rubbiano, in the municipality of Montefiorino (in the Modenese Apennines), and the lustral pile in the baptistery of cathedral of Cremona. The study, which makes use of the precedents and does not discuss the chronology and the attribution already subject of wide debate by other scholars, has instead reexamined the iconography, coming to hypothesize that it is not always possible to identify the subjects sculpted with the sirens, as has been done in the past. On the other hand, it seems appropriate to recognize more monstrous beings, such as the lamia or the harpy, perhaps to enhance the salvific qualities of holy water. Moreover on the baptismal fonts the siren appears as a little exploited character, but the investigation in this context is still to be carried out in a systematic way.

The Sirens, hybrid creatures (mix genus), are female marine daemonic deities. daughters of the river-god Acheloos or Phorkys and Chthona or Sterope, or according to other myths of Melpomene or of Terpsichore, they enchanted passing sailors with their enticing song, luring them to their death. In this study six thematic units referring to figurines of Sirens are developed: 1) Their production and dispersion, with particular reference to local clays, 2) the techniques of their manufacture, 3) typological and stylistic analysis of the material, 4) the workshops that were producing these particular figurines, 5) their function and their association with rituals relating to water, love and death (and mainly their funerary use), 6) their interpretation, as conclusion, the results of the exhaustive study of the subject are presented, with parallel reference both to the ancient Greek literary sources and the papyri, inscriptions and other sources. Examination of the particular stylistic and iconographic traits allows us to proceed to the typological classification of these figurines into five basic types. Although Sirens are first encountered in ancient Greek literature in Rhapsody xii of Homer’s Odyssey, and are identified as a motif in ancient Greek art by the eighth century BC, the provenance of these beings is certainly not Greek. Their conception as a subject is attributed to the influence of eastern models and specifically to the Egyptian concept of the soul, Ba. The material on which the study is based comes from excavations in various areas of the Aegean.

In Eur. Hel. 164-178, after talking to Teucer, Helen prays for the Sirens to join her in Egypt and accompany her lament for the dead killed in the Troika's disaster. It is likely in the passage that the winged virgins are sent by Persephone, who in Hades will receive the song of Helen and Sirens, in the form of a «paean» νέκυσιν ὀλομένοις (v. 178). After an examination of this section of the parodos, I propose a comparison with the epic and tragic motif of a heroine who seeks her own death by invoking the intervention of rapacious entities such as Harpies and θύελλα(ι). The component of the θέλγειν that typically characterizes the voice of Helen and the Sirens here is thus enhanced. On this basis I suggest that in the Euripidean verses there is a spellbinding purpose in the song to be received by Persephone in Hades. That purpose could be used by Helen to pacify the thirst for vengeance of the dead, who considered her the primary source of their misfortunes.

Les contacts entre les mondes orientaux et méditerranéens se manifestent avec une grande intensité à l'époque dite « orientalisante », de la fin du viiie au vie siècle avant notre ère. Ce processus de diffusion, d'adoption et d'adaptation d'innovations techniques, d'objets, d'images et d'idées, a eu un impact considérable dans l'histoire des représentations de nombreuses cultures méditerranéennes, en particulier grecques, italiques et ibériques. Perçus chez Hésiode et les philosophes présocratiques tels Empédocle d’Agrigente comme un symbole du chaos originel, les hybrides – ces êtres composites créés par l'assemblage ou la fusion d'éléments de différentes espèces, humaine, animale ou végétale – en sont l’une des manifestations les plus caractéristiques. L’étude de l’oiseau anthropocéphale, souvent nommé « Sirène » d’après l’Odyssée d’Homère, permet d’esquisser le parcours tant iconographique qu’idéologique d’une image d’hybride féminin dans la sphère des contacts interculturels, des antécédents égéo-orientaux aux diverses expérimentations méditerranéennes.

New look on the Sirens' song in Odyssey.
A long tradition of interpretation based on subsequent poetical elaborations and allegorical readings of Homer has overshadowed the literal meaning of the passage dedicated to the Sirens in Odyssey XII. But in a narrative characterized by specularity, the poet focuses his attention only on the Sirens'  voice and song so as to illustrate their ambivalence : involved, as a derridean pharmakon, both in the figure of the epic bard and of the melic chorus, the Sirens embody the interference of two opposite poetical practices which, while coexisting in the Iliad, are blurred in the Odyssey, in connection with the figure of Ulysses, a witness hero who builds himself and asks from other singers his own song of glory so to mirror in it.
Une longue tradition d’interprétation fondée sur des réélaborations poétiques postérieures et des lectures allégorisantes d’Homère a fini par occulter la lettre du passage du chant XII de l’Odyssée consacré aux Sirènes. Or, dans un récit caractérisé par la spécularité, seuls la voix et le chant des Sirènes intéressent en réalité le poète qui s’attache à en montrer l’ambivalence : participant, telles un pharmakon derridéen, à la fois de la figure de l’aède épique et de celle du chœur mélique, les Sirènes incarnent les interférences de deux types de pratique poétique opposées qui, coexistant dans l’Iliade, se brouillent dans l’Odyssée, en relation avec la figure d’Ulysse, héros témoin qui construit lui-même et réclame aux autres chanteurs un chant de gloire auto-réflexif pour s’y mirer.

Ho raccolto in queste pagine il tema trattato in due incontri, tenuti dallo scrivente nell’ottobre 2017 dentro la Pieve di Codiponte,  ove ho parlato dei segni e simboli presenti in queste tre chiese della Lunigiana Orientale.  Sono circa una quindicina di segni convoglianti a mandare un unico e solo messaggio…..Un messaggio che svelerò solo alla fine.
Si parlerà di questi segni: Losanga, Fiore della vita, Segni d’acqua, segno a cuore, segno a M, segno a Y, segno a X, mani in alto, segno dell’infinito, svastica,  segno a U o arco, ankh,  spirale, pigna, uroboro ed altro.

Continuation of the third section of the first chapter of our online book "Winged Mythical Singers of Cosmic Music" (http://eprints.ucm.es/23744/), where we deal with the iconography of the soul as a winged being, and with its similarities to the iconography of the sirens.

Grek sanatında sıkça tasvir edilen karışık yaratıklar Antik çağ insanının inanç sisteminde önemli bir yere sahiptir. Bu yaratıklar; o dönem insanının bazen hayalleri veya korkularından; çoğu zaman da anlaşılamayan soyut kavramların somutlaştırma çabasının bir sonucu olarak ortaya çıkmışlardır. Böylece, başta tabiat olayları olmak üzere, birçok anlaşılamayan olay kişileştirilerek somut bir şekle sokulmuştur.
Yaratıkların ortaya çıkışındaki diğer önemli bir etken ise, tanrılar ile insanlar arasındaki boşluğu dolduracak, tanrılara hizmet edecek, bir varlığa ihtiyaç duyulmasıdır. Bunun sonucunda gövdesinde insan veya birden fazla hayvanın uzuvlarının bir araya getirilmesi ile karışık yaratıklar ortaya çıkmıştır. Karışık yaratıkların en erken örnekleri ise, çok geniş bir inanç sitemine sahip, Mısır ve Mezopotamya sanatlarında ortaya
çıkmıştır. M.Ö. 4. binden itibaren sıkça tasvir edilmeye başlanan bu yaratıklar, ortaya çıktıkları dönemden çok sonra, özellikle M.Ö. 8-7. yüzyıllarda gelişen deniz ticareti yoluyla, Yunanistan’a aktarılmıştır. Doğu sanatlarından alınan bu yaratıklar kimi zaman alındığı anlam ve şekliyle korunurken, çoğunlukla da farklı bir mitolojik kompozisyon içinde değerlendirilerek, yeniden anlamlandırılmış ve şekillendirilmiştir. Bu
aşamada sürekli bir gelişim ortaya koyan yaratıklar ilk ortaya çıkışlarından çok farklı bir anlam ve şekle bürünerek Grek sanatında ki yerini almıştır. Bu araştırmayla da, Grek sanatında sıkça görülen yaratıkların; kökenlerinin, ortaya çıkış yeri, zamanı ve işlevlerinin tespit edilerek, izlenebilen gelişimleri ortaya konulmaya çalışılmıştır