Two articles which struck me as relevant and connected in some way too:
https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/43zaxd/sirens-greek-mythology-women-death
“To fully understand the origins of the Sirens, we have to travel back to Ancient Greece, where, according to tradition, winged and clawed bird-women lured sailors to destruction through the power of their song.”
“One can only speculate as to why Sirens took the form of a hybrid bird-woman, but avian symbolism in the Greek imagination was relatively common. In ancient mythology, birds were used to represent everything from oracles, enchantresses, messengers of deities, and mediators between the human world and the supernatural realm.”
“These clues toward the Siren’s past life as a death-spirit begin to reveal how the nature of the Siren’s power has long been misunderstood—sexualized and obscured like so many other feminine icons throughout history. The beauty of the mermaid-like nymphs is indeed difficult to surrender, but when the Sirens are situated more precisely in their classical context, we can begin to appreciate them as all-powerful creatures whose tainted reputation arise not from feminine seduction, but from “knowledge of the afterlife, the ultimate frontier for humankind. (Hastings, 2019)
(Paywall)
“Darwin pointed out that another group of primates – gibbons – sing to attract mates. And modern science offers some hints of an intimate connection between language and music in humans. Brain scans, for instance, reveal that they are processed by overlapping neural networks. But evidence that language and music emerged through sexual selection is weak, since you would expect to see large sex differences in these abilities as a result. There are other possibilities, however. Perhaps the driving force wasn’t male display, but an equal duet between mates, or even singing by parents to calm their babies.
and
“Like Darwin, Lewis believes singing was the first step to freeing up our vocal cords. In place of sexual selection, however, he suggests it emerged for protection. This idea is inspired by his work with Bayaka societies in central Africa, where people take turns to sing all night to ward off predators. Their intertwining voices, singing at different pitches, make the group sound larger, and potentially more dangerous, to animals in the surrounding forest. Similar behaviour has been found among the San people in southern Africa and Indian forest societies, he says.” (Robson, 2019)