The Sirens are singing still, Weinstein.

Detail from The Sirens, John Longstaff (1892)

In ancient Greek mythology the song of the sirens lured sailors, tempted by lustful curiosity, onto a rocky shore where they either perished or, if they survived, subsequently died of starvation.

The sirens came to exist, so the story goes, because as companions of young Persephone, whose abduction and rape they had failed to prevent, they were transformed into a hybrid of bird and woman as punishment.

Margaret Atwood’s 1974 poem, Siren Song, proposes that, rather than simply being a song that couldn’t be resisted, “This song is a cry for help.”

Watching the accused movie mogul, Harvey Weinstein, enter court for the first day of his trial clutching feebly to his walking frame I couldn’t help but ponder if the voices of all the women willing to stand against him are the modern day equivalent of the sirens. Their united chorus resonating irresistibly as a powerful call for retribution. Their song dragging, rather than luring, men onto the fateful rocks of the justice system.