in fabulous history, certain celebrated songstress who were ranked amongst the demigods of antiquity. Hyginus places their birth amongst the consequences of the rape of Prosperine. Others make them daughters of the river Achelous and one of the muses. The number of the Sirens was three, and their names were Parthenope, Ligea, and Leucosia. Some make them half women and half fish; others half women and half birds; there are antique representations of them still subsisting under both these forms. Pausanias tells us, that the Sirens, by the persuasion of Juno, challenged the Muses to a trial of skill in singing; and these having vanquished them, plucked the golden feathers from the wings of the Sirens, and formed them into crowns, with which they adorned their own heads. The Argonauts are said to have been diverted from the enchantment of their songs by the superior strains of Orpheus, Ulysses, however, had great difficulty in securing himself from seduction.

Pope, in his notes to the twelfth book of the Odyssey, observes, that the critics have greatly laboured to explain what was the foundation of this fiction of the Sirens. We are told by some, that the Sirens were queens of certain small islands named Sirenumae, that lie near Caprea in Italy, and chiefly inhabited the promontory of Minerva, upon the top of which that goddess had a temple built by Ulysses.

Mr. Bryant says, however, that the Sirens were Cuthite and Canaanitish priests, who had founded temples in Sicily, which were rendered infamous on account of the women who officiated. They were much addicted to cruel rites, so that the shores upon which they resided are described as covered with the bones of men destroyed by their artifice.

All ancient authors agree in telling us, that Sirens inhabited the coast of Sicily. The name, according to Bochart, who derives it from the Phoenician language, implies a songstress. Hence it is probable, says Dr. Burney, that in ancient times there may have been excellent singers, but of corrupt morals, on the coast of Sicily, who, by seducing voyagers, gave rise to this fable. And if this conjecture be well founded, he observes, the Muses are not the only pagan divinities who preserved their influence over mankind in modern times; for every age has its Sirens, and every Siren her votaries. When beauty and talents, both powerful in themselves, are united, they become still more attractive.