Invisible Man 1

I was fascinated to see Ellison use an allusion or reference to the Sirens in Greek mythology in describing the naked blonde woman that danced immediately prior to the battle royal. Ellison stated, “She seemed like a fair bird-girl girdled in veils calling to me from the angry surface of some gray and threatening sea” (p. 19). Of course according to Greek mythology the Sirens were described as winged maidens who would sing to passing sailors from rocky cliffs and in this way lure the vessels into treacherous waters where they would be crushed. The narrator says he was “transported” be her dancing as if he were being drawn to her like a Greek sailor to the call of a Siren. The effect of this allusion highlights to the reader the seductive danger of the blonde, white woman. I suspect however, based on the disturbance that she caused among the “big shots,” that the allusion not only predicted the narrator’s peril but also that of the rich, white men gathered in the room.