Sirena

When Sirena and her sisters sing their siren songs to the sailors on their way to the Trojan War, the men crash their ships upon the rocks. There is one survivor. Sirena defies the goddess Hera by tending his wounds and soon the two are deep in love. But does Philoctetes love Sirena's song, or her soul? And will the pull of honor prove stronger than the bond of love? Offered immortality if they can win a man's love, Sirena's mermaid sisters use their silvery voices to lure sailors to them even though it will cause the sailors certain death. Sirena, however, exiles herself from this grim mating game and winds up on the island of Lemnos. There she meets the Greek warrior Philoctetes (the subject of a famous play by Sophocles). True to the legend, this Philoctetes has been abandoned by his crew mates because of a snake bite, but instead of spending the next 10 years letting his wounds fester, per the Sophoclean model, this hero falls in love with an equally adoring Sirena. She becomes immortal, a gift that she does not want in light of her lover's inability to share it, and then she must yield him up when fate calls upon him to reenter the Trojan War Sirena is cursed. She will not become immortal unless she is loved by a human man. The siren song she sings with her mermaid sisters makes men adore her -- yet it leads them to their deaths. That is why she hides when she finds an abandoned young soldier. He wants to know her, though she should not let him near her or allow him to hear her sing. But how can she fight a love she has been waiting for all her life -- a love that will make her live forever? The Gods Grant Immortality To The Mermaid Sirena When She Rescues A Human Man From The Sea And They Fall In Love, But His Mortality Creates Great Conflict Between Love And Honor When He Is Called To Defend Greece In The Trojan War. Donna Jo Napoli. Scholastic Signature. Ala Best Book For Young Adults, 1999.