Today I learned that the sirens in Greek mythology were not seductive cannibals as they are usually depicted

It seems like everyone depicts sirens as sexually attractive creatures who sing an enchantingly beautiful song that makes sailors want to approach them for carnal desires, and then when they crash their ships the sirens swarm over to eat them. However, the sirens in the Odyssey say:

"Once he hears to his heart's content, sails on, a wiser man. We know all the pains that the Greeks and Trojans once endured on the spreading plain of Troy when the gods willed it so—all that comes to pass on the fertile earth, we know it all!"

Their song isn't appealing to the flesh, but to the spirit. Odysseus was lured to them because they promised to prophesy to him. They promised to tell him truths about the Trojan War he was longing to know that would positively affect his life forever after. The real lie was that he could "sail on" after hearing the truths.

Also, they probably weren't cannibals, because the following is related by Circe:

"they sit in a green field and warble [men] to death with the sweetness of their song. There is a great heap of dead men's bones lying all around, with the flesh still rotting off them."

If the sirens were cannibals, there wouldn't be flesh left on the bones to rot off. It seems more likely that the sailors who arrive never want to leave, just staying to hear more and more prophecies and oracular information until they starve to death.

This is so much deeper than the sirens depicted in common representations, thinking about today's world of information. Carnal pleasure is fleeting, but what keeps you so focused you forget to eat is an endless supply of information that you think has the promise of improving your life.