sure, polyphemus might be a villain, but the sirens are definitely not.

the whole discussion i started (or brought up again, this reddit has been around for a while lol) on whether polyphemus is a villain or not gained a lot more traction than i thought it would, so i decided to switch topics and look at whether the sirens are evil or not

i'd say no, and heres why.

the sirens sit and wait for sailors to come by, then they sing them to their death and eat them. sounds, villainous, right?
well, not really. that's just how they hunt. we don't get on spiders back for making webs and eating whatever lands on it.
the sirens are portrayed as another evil antagonist who ody and his crew face on their journey home, but i fully agree with apollo and don't understand athena's argument.

she says "now they'll tread with caution first to live another day and sing another verse"
uhh, sorry, no, they wont live another day. they're dead. and even if some of them escaped and lived, what caution could they take to not have their prey retaliate? do you just want them to starve to death?

it's kinda hard to notice if sailors have beeswax in their ears, lest have it be a super important sailor who athena cares about.

while no one's really in the wrong, ody could've shown mercy to them. whether he did or didnt it wouldn't really matter, neither would be "evil," but it would've been kinder to just let the sirens go unharmed and not kill them just for trying to survive.
I see why he killed them, given that if he let them live then more of his species, humans, would've died, so again, no one's in the wrong, but the sirens definitely are more of a roadblock from ody's perspective, not villains.

thoughts?