There is an innate desire in human nature to reside near the sea.
It is one of the top tourist destinations in almost every country with a coastline, but there may be another reason why people have gravitated towards the seaside Sorrento, Italy since ancient times.
The city’s name, Sorrento, probably derives from the Roman name of Serentum or Sirentum meaning ‘Land of the sirens.’
The region of the Sorrentine Peninsula and the island of Capri are home to legends written into Homer’s Greek epic, The Odyssey, where the hero himself, Odysseus, resisted the temptation of sirens.
The Sirens by Homer's Greek Epic
Odysseus found himself in these Mediterranean waters on his venture home from Troy to Ithaca after the ten-year Trojan war that took place in Homer’s previous epic, the Iliad.
The story goes that after being warned of Sirens by the sorceress, Circe, he hears the songs of the beautiful half-bird women on the rocky cliffs off Capri and Sorrento.
Then he ties himself to the mast of the ship and makes his crew plug their ears with beeswax.
This was the only way for Odysseus to still hear the sirens’ beautiful calls without being lured into their deadly trap.
The Myth of The Sirens
The Sirens in the Mediterranean originated from women who were granted wings by the Greek goddess Demeter so they could search for her daughter, Persephone.
She was abducted by the God of the Underworld, Hades.
When these women did not return with Persephone, Demeter condemned them to live on the rocky cliffs by the sea.
The Legends of the Sirens are the reason Sorrento has its name, and you can still feel the mysticism of these entities while sailing around the Sorrentine Peninsula and the rocky Island of Capri.
It is almost as if you can imagine yourself as Odysseus hearing their beautiful calls while seeing these birdlike women perched over the sea, looking to lure in the next ship full of men.
To see where the sirens are said to once reside and be in the waters where Odysseus resisted their temptation, we reccomend to take a boat from the Sorrento port of Marina Piccola.
There are many ferries that leave from the marina every day to locations such as Capri, Positano, Amalfi, and Ischia where you can see Sorrento from a different point of view.
Ciao!
Emma
