Siren Cassiopeia (rioters pls)

Chrysi7·8/19/2018, 7:33:18 PM·9 votes·4,029 views

Hello, I was wondering if any Rioters could answer what the inspiration behind the skin was? Was it the Lesser Sirens of real life?

I always took it as the Sirens of mythology, but.. The real mythological sirens were bird women, not serpentine creatures. Pop culture mistakes Siren as the name for Mermaid-esque creatures, which is simply incorrect. I was wondering if anyone could shed light on this? Given the greek like ruins in the background, I've assumed it was greek, or greco-roman at least, but it severely bothers me that people always mistake Sirens as being mermaid like, when they aren't.

4 Comments

mzicio8/20/2018, 12:56:50 AM4 votes

In Italy we call mermaids sirens and I'm pretty sure there's no other name for them in my language. It is a "pop culture mistake" but it's... canon, I guess.

A bit controversial to put greek ruins tho, since the greek sirens were indeed birds.

Jerry SeinfeId8/20/2018, 12:48:56 PM2 votes

As someone else stated Siren is the italian word for Mermaid.

The reasoning for the switchup can (according to wikipedia) be traced back to medieval times as the greek myth indeed shows a birdlike creature, that also lured people with it's voice. They are however also related to the sea as they live in caves near it. Bring in the catholic church using it to spook you away from tiddies and some "Sea folk" (i'm not saying it ma guys, you ain't getting me that easily) mistaking manatee's below the foam/waves and you got yourself a cute girl with a fish tail and a sweet voice. So i guess it's a pretty old pop culture mistake...

As for the Ruins, Sirens still have their roots in greek mythos, both as harpy like creatures AND half fish people, which might be a reason. Aside from that they look like italian ruins, roman ruins.

I think it's safe to assume it's based on mermaids. However in modern pop culture Mermaids are friendly creatures, Siren seems to be the name used for their more predatory counterpart. You know the ones that actually wanna drown you.

Zyranium8/20/2018, 1:08:08 PM2 votes

In France we call mermaids "sirènes" also.

But thanks for reminding me that Cassiopeia needs some Splash art updates, her skins are so outdated.