"The wine-dark sea" is an epithet that Homer used to describe the Aegean Sea. I doubt that Homer's Odysseus ever sailed the waters off of the Yucatan Peninsula, but if he had, would he have heard the sirens' song as I have? Or the mermaids singing?And now, because I can't stop the chain of consciousness that wells up from my distant college past from time to time, I am compelled to quote "The Love Song of Alfred J. Prufrock" by TS Eliot:
"I shall wear white flannel trousers, and walk upon the beach.I have heard the mermaids singing, each to each.I do not think that they will sing to me.I have seen them riding seaward on the wavesCombing the white hair of the waves blown backWhen the wind blows the water white and black.We have lingered in the chambers of the seaBy sea-girls wreathed with seaweed red and brownTill human voices wake us, and we drown."
But I am not Prufrock, nor was meant to be. . . .