Cleveland Museum of Art

Siren-Shaped Perfume Flask

Date

600–480 BCE

Medium

terracotta

Culture

Greece

Department

Greek and Roman Art

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

A half-bird, half-woman creature, a siren lured sailors to death by the sweetness of her song. The most famous sirens appear in the ancient epic the Odyssey . Shaped like a siren, this vessel likely held valuable perfumed oil. Its small mouth limited spillage, and a string attached to the loops on its back allowed it to hand or hold a stopper. In the Odyssey , Odysseus’s crew escapes the sirens by plugging their ears with wax.

The authoritative record is held by Cleveland Museum of Art. LinkedCulture surfaces this object and its connections; it does not alter institutional metadata.