The siren is the first type of seducer. In history, we can see her personified in figures such as Marilyn Monroe and Cleopatra. The siren is sexual, she is not afraid of presenting an exaggerated feminine appearance through the way she dresses and the makeup she wears. Her voice sounds like she’s in the process of waking up from a deep sleep.
She sometimes has a playful voice, but it is never aggressive or high pitched. The siren knows how to play on the heartstrings of men, especially the intellectuals or soldiers – men who are serious, disciplined, and rational. These men are desperate for a hint of adventure in their lives and the siren, with her irrationality, is the perfect ingredient. These men are given the impression that they are protecting the siren from her own irrationality, but she is the one in charge.
Many men have destroyed themselves because of the siren. Her main strength is in knowing how to keep an appropriate distance between her and the man, maintaining the same levels of intrigue and wonder.
The man must never get too close and see the person behind the siren, instead he is constantly thrown off guard by her theatrics and changing faces. But she keeps her integrity this way. The elusive chase is what keeps men interested in her.
The End of Wisdom is the perfect book for anyone who wants to arm themselves against bullsh*t advice. Link to Book – Link to Video
If you’re interested in exploring the darker parts of human psychology that most people ignore, read The Dichotomy of the Self. Link to Book – Link to Video
To whom can I compare the lovely girl, so blessed by fortune, if not to the Sirens, who with their lodestone draw the ships towards them? Thus, I imagine, did Isolde attract many thoughts and hearts that deemed themselves safe from love’s disquietude. And indeed these two—anchorless ships and stray thoughts— provide a good comparison. They are both so seldom on a straight course, lie so often in unsure havens, pitching and tossing and heaving to and fro.
Just so, in the same way, do aimless desire and random love-longing drift like an anchorless ship. This charming young princess, discreet and courteous Isolde, drew thoughts from the hearts that enshrined them as a lodestone draws in ships to the sound of the Sirens’ song. She sang openly and secretly, in through ears and eyes to where many a heart was stirred, The song which she sang openly in this and other places was her own sweet singing and soft sounding of strings that echoed for all to hear through the kingdom of the ears deep down into the heart.
But her secret song was her wondrous beauty that stole with its rapturous music hidden and unseen through the windows of the eyes into many noble hearts and smoothed on the magic which took thoughts prisoner suddenly, and, taking them, fettered them with desire!
GOTTFRIED VON STRASSBUG. TRISTAN; TRANSLATED BY A.T. HATTO
Read The Art of Seduction