Sirena Summary
Donna Jo Napoli

Sirena Summary

In Sirena, Napoli weaves the legends of the Trojan War with the myths of the Sirens and centuries-old lore about mermaids into a beautiful story of young love, with all its wonders and fluctuations. Sirena is one of ten mermaid sisters inhabiting the waters of the Ancient World. The school of ten fish-tailed beauties is matched by another four groups with ten young mermaids, just turned seventeen. Their goal in life is to attain immortality by having a human man fall in love with them. It is to this end that they have learned their song, given to them by Mother Dora, wife of Nerius, daughter of Oceanus, when she saved them from a certain death. They would have been swallowed by the nymph Rodophe after Eros had sexual relations with their mother, the parrot fish, Iris, kept as a pet by Rodophe.

When a ship is sighted...

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