Funerary siren from Kerameikos

National Archeological Museum, Athens, Greece

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Material: Pentelic marble
Date: ca. 370 BC
Origin: Kerameikos cemetery, Athens

This Siren statue served as a grave marker in the sacred cemetery of Kerameikos in ancient Athens. Sirens were mythical creatures believed to sing beautiful songs for the dead, guiding souls to the afterlife with their music.

The statue shows the Siren playing a lyre, a holy instrument in Greek religion associated with mourning rituals and honoring the departed. The lyre was made from a tortoise shell, and holes in the sound box show where bronze strings were once attached separately.

This Siren likely sat beside another similar statue, flanking a grave monument for Athenian warriors who died in battle in 394-393 BC. Greeks believed these winged beings had spiritual power to comfort the dead through their sacred songs and connect the living world with the realm of the deceased.

Museum label reference:
Funerary statue of a Siren, Pentelic marble, from the ancient cemetery of Kerameikos, Athens.

Funerary statue of a Siren. Pentelic marble. Found in the ancient cemetery of Kerameikos, Athens. The Siren, with its wings raised, laments the dead man, playing a lyre made of a tortoise shell. The right hand, in which she would have held the plectrum, is missing. The holes in the instrument's sound box indicate that the strings were made separately, probably of bronze. The plumage and other details of the body were indicated with colour. This Siren, probably along with inv. no. 775, flanked the stele of the Athenian horseman Dexileos who fell in battle in 394/93 BC, now in the Kerameikos Museum. 370 BC.

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Supplementary images:

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Funerary siren lamenting the dead in classical Athens

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Source:  Athens, Greece