Posted on June 21, 2005 - by deCadmus

How the Siren Lost Her Nipples

At the risk of seeming Mermaid-obsessed of late, yet another post about Starbucks…

“…there is a lot of confusion between the different mythological half-women. Typically they are called Sirens - both the half-bird/half-woman and the half-fish/half-woman varieties. The fish type are usually called Mermaids. Both types according to the ancient Greeks were in the business of seducing mariners with songs and promises of sex and then killing them, but Hans Christian Andersen and Disney mostly made everybody forget that.”

I’ve read a number of accounts of how the Starbucks mermaid (siren, really) has transformed over the years from how she first appeared (how she still appears, actually, at the Pike Place Market storefront in Seattle.) Deadprogrammer has upped the ante, however, by digging up the original 15th century engraving from which the very first logo was cribbed. It’s logo forensics… or C.S.I. : Seattle.

Via BoingBoing.