Sailors' superstitions "Souda" (modern Lefkai). Another mythological creature, the Scylla, is a similar female sea demon that is both dangerous yet beautiful. Sirens supposedly "lured mariners to their deaths with their melodious, enchanting song", while "Scylla sent countless sailors to the depths of the sea." The albatross as a superstitious relic is referenced in Samuel Taylor Coleridge's well-known poem The Rime of the Ancient Mariner. It is considered very unlucky to kill an albatross; in Coleridge's poem, the narrator killed the bird and his fellow sailors eventually force him to wear the dead bird around his neck. Having bananas on a ship,
The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket believing the novel was an autobiographical narrative by Pym. In addition to historical sources, Poe was influenced by other writers. "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" by Samuel Taylor Coleridge was a general influence, and scenes of Pym and Dirk Peters in a cave echo scenes in Daniel Defoe's "Robinson Crusoe", which many reviewers noted at the time, including London publications such as the "Court Gazette" and the "Torch". The ship of corpses recalls the legend of the "Flying Dutchman", a ship which is cursed and unable to return home. Poe also incorporated the theories of Reynolds and John Cleves