<i>Cosa cantavano di solito le sirene?</i> Quid sirenae cantare sint solitae?

Abstract

In the course of my research on the myth of the Sirens, I found very interesting and quibbling the question the Emperor Tiberius asked the grammarians at his court: what song did the Sirens usually sing? I have tried to answer this - ancient and modern - question not only by analysing the different solutions many scholars, writers, poets continued to find in order to satisfy, so to say, the Emperor's curiosity, but also by calling to witness all the literary characters who, besides Odysseus, were said to have heard the song of the Sirens. To introduce the topic, I have valued the attention Giacomo Leopardi payed in his works to the myth of the Sirens.