Sirin

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

For other uses, see Sirin (disambiguation).

Sirin bird on a grape tree. 1710

Sirin is a mythological creature of Russian legends, with the head and chest of a beautiful woman and the body of a bird (usually an owl). According to the myth, they lived "in Indian lands" near Eden or around the Euphrates River.

These half-women half-birds are loosely based on the Greek stories about sirens. They sang beautiful songs to the saints, foretelling future joys. For mortals, however, the birds were dangerous. Men who heard them would forget everything on earth, follow them, and ultimately die. People would attempt to save themselves from Sirins by shooting cannons, ringing bells and making other loud noises to scare the bird off.

Sometimes Sirin is seen as a metaphor for God's word going into the soul of a man. Sometimes she is seen as a metaphor of heretics tempting the weak. Sometimes Sirin was considered equivalent to the siren or the Polish Wila. In Russian folklore, Sirin was mixed with the revered religious writer Saint Ephrem the Syrian. Thus, peasant lyrists such as Nikolay Klyuev often used Sirin as a synonym for poet.

[edit] Gallery

Ivan Bilibin's Sirin	Sirin (postcard) (1908)	Sirin Russian lubok 19th century	Sirin Russian lubok 19th century
Viktor Vasnetsov. Sirin (left) and Alkonost Birds of Joy and Sorrow (1896)