f “Der gefährliche Mythos vom Singem: Musen und Sirenem in der europäischen Literatur des Mittelalters”

The essay traces the reception of the myths of Muses and Sirens in Medieval Literature by discussing some significant examples from Boethius’ Consolatio (ca. 524) to the Middle-High-German romance of Tristan by Gottfried von Straßburg (ca. 1210). The medieval Muses and Sirens commonly function as mythological representations of memory, poetic ability and erotic seduction. By revealing complex conceptions as well as an ambivalent status of art and music, they go beyond, and sometimes subvert, the purposes and strategies of meaning intended by the texts.