The Siren Parthenope and the mythical origins of Naples

Before it was called Neapolis, the «new city», Naples bore the name of a siren. Parthenope was, according to Greek myth, one of the creatures whose song lured sailors to their death. Ancient sources disagree on the names and number of the sirens, but Parthenope often appears together with Ligeia and Leucosia. Her name, which in Greek recalls the word parthenos, «maiden», has remained attached to the city as a second, poetic name, still alive today in the adjective «partenopeo».

The myth of the rejected siren

According to a widespread tradition, the sirens threw themselves into the sea after Odysseus managed to pass their song unharmed, having himself tied to the ship's mast while his companions' ears were stopped with wax, as the Odyssey recounts. In the Homeric poem, however, the sirens are two and remain nameless; it was later tradition that enriched their story. The Hellenistic poet Lycophron, in the «Alexandra», tells that Parthenope's body was carried by the waves to the shores of the future Bay of Naples, and that there the inhabitants honoured her with libations and sacrifices.

There are also later, more romantic versions, according to which Parthenope was not a siren but a Greek maiden who fled for love with the young Cimon and landed on the shores of the bay. These tales show how the myth was adapted over the centuries to the tastes of different ages, losing its dark side to become a story of a loving foundation, more reassuring for a city that wished to see itself in a gentle heroine.

The tomb and the games

Ancient authors record that the tomb of Parthenope was shown in Naples. The geographer Strabo, who lived in the Augustan age, mentions it explicitly and adds that athletic contests were held in her honour. Other testimonies speak of a lampadedromia, a torch race, said by tradition to have been instituted by an Athenian naval commander. Where the tomb stood is unknown: hypotheses place it on the Pizzofalcone hill, near the islet of Megaride or in other areas of the ancient city.

Documented history confirms that the first settlement, founded by colonists from Cumae between the eighth and seventh centuries BC, was indeed called Parthenope and stood on the Pizzofalcone promontory. In the fifth century the new city, Neapolis, was founded further east, while the old nucleus took the name Palepolis, the «old city». The siren's name survived as a sacred memory of the origins and as a title of honour for the city.

Parthenope in the image of the city

The siren has never left Naples. In the sixteenth century the Spinacorona fountain was made in the historic centre, popularly known as the «fountain of the breasts»: it shows a siren quenching the flames of Vesuvius with water from her breasts. The image turns the ancient seductress into the city's protector against the volcano. Statues and decorations have continued to depict her, often with the fish tail of medieval iconography, even though Greek sirens were portrayed as women with the bodies of birds.

The myth of Parthenope tells of a decisive passage: the song that led to death becomes the beginning of a community. The creature defeated by the cunning of Odysseus becomes the symbolic mother of a city that has made music, voice and the sea the deepest features of its identity. In this reversal, typical of foundation myths, the fear of danger turns into worship and belonging.