Mermaid

File:1921MermaidLegs.jpg

Cartoon "A mermaid looks up at the legs of a swimmer"

A mermaid (from the Middle English mere in the obsolete sense 'sea' + maid(en)) is a legendary aquatic creature with the head and torso of human female and the tail of a fish. The male version of a mermaid is called a merman; the gender-neutral plural is merfolk. Various cultures throughout the world have similar figures. They were known to sing to sailors and enchant them, distracting them from their work and either causing the sailors to walk off the deck, or crash the boat, like the Siren, or squeeze the life out of drowning men, while trying to rescue them. They are also known to take them down to their kingdom. In Hans Christian Andersen's The Little Mermaid it is told that they forget that humans can't breathe underwater while others say they do it out of pure spite.

The Sirens of Greek mythology are sometimes portrayed in later folklore as mermaids; in fact in some languages the name sirena is used interchangeably for both creatures. Other related types of mythical or legendary creature are water fairies (e.g. various water nymphs) and selkies.

Legend and myth

Legends of these half-human, half-fish humanoids have circulated for millennia, even as far back as 5,000 B.C.E.[1] It has been widely suggested or implied that manatees or dugongs could be behind the myth of the mermaid. These large aquatic mammals are notable for the way in which they carry their young, cradled in their arms much as a human would carry a baby. It is possible that sailors seeing these unfamiliar beasts for the first time, would assume that they had in fact stumbled across some sort of humanoid species, and consequently spread their accounts of the sightings through their homelands on their return from voyages. It has even been posited that the traditional image of a mermaid with long flowing hair could be attributed to manatees breaking the ocean surface underneath patches of seaweed, and giving the unfamiliar observer the impression of having long hair.

A Mermaid by John William Waterhouse.

Ancient Near East

Tales of mermaids are nearly universal. The first known mermaid stories appeared in Assyria, ca. 1000 B.C.E. Atargatis, the mother of Assyrian queen Semiramis, was a goddess who loved a mortal shepherd and in the process killed him. Ashamed, she jumped into a lake to take the form of a fish, but the waters would not conceal her divine nature. Thereafter, she took the form of a mermaid — human above the waist, fish below — though the earliest representations of Atargatis showed her as being a fish with a human head and legs, similar to the Babylonian Ea. The Greeks recognized Atargatis under the name Derketo, where she was often conflated with Aphrodite.

Prior to 546 B.C.E., the Milesian philosopher Anaximander proposed that mankind had sprung from an aquatic species of animal. He thought that man with his extended infancy could not have survived, originally, in the manner he does presently. This idea does not appear to have survived Anaximander's death.

A popular Greek legend has Alexander the Great's sister, Thessalonike, turn into a mermaid after her death. She lived, it was said, in the Aegean and when sailors would encounter her, she would ask them only one question: "Is Alexander the king alive?" (Greek: Ζει ο βασιλιάς Αλέξανδρος), to which the correct answer would be "He lives and still rules" (Greek: Ζει και βασιλεύει). Any other answer would spur her into a rage, where she transformed into a Gorgon and meant doom for the ship and every sailor onboard.

Lucian of Samosata in Syria (2nd century CE) in De Dea Syria ("Concerning the Syrian Goddess") wrote of the Syrian temples he had visited:

"Among them - Now that is the traditional story among them concerning the temple. But other men swear that Semiramis of Babylonia, whose deeds are many in Asia, also founded this site, and not for Hera Atargatis but for her own Mother, whose name was Derketo"

"I saw the likeness of Derketo in Phoenicia, a strange marvel. It is woman for half its length, but the other half, from thighs to feet, stretched out in a fish's tail. But the image in the Holy City is entirely a woman, and the grounds for their account are not very clear. They consider fishes to be sacred, and they never eat them; and though they eat all other fowls, they do not eat the dove, for she is holy so they believe. And these things are done, they believe, because of Derketo and Semiramis, the first because Derketo has the shape of a fish, and the other because ultimately Semiramis turned into a dove. Well, I may grant that the temple was a work of Semiramis perhaps; but that it belongs to Derketo I do not believe in any way. For among the Egyptians, some people do not eat fish, and that is not done to honor Derketo."

British

Mermaids were noted in British folklore as both omnious, foretelling disaster, and provoking it. Some were described as monstrous in size, up to 160 feet.

Mermaids could also swim up rivers to freshwater lakes. One day, in a lake near his house, the Laird of Lorntie saw, as he thought, a woman drowning, and went to aid her; a servant of his pulled him back, warning that it was a mermaid, and the mermaid screamed after that she would have killed him if it were not for his servant.

On occasion, mermaids could be more beneficient, giving humans means of cure.

Some tales raised the question of whether mermaids had immortal souls to answer it in the negative. The figure of Liban appears as a sanctified mermaid, but she was originally a human being transformed into a mermaid; after three centuries, when Christianity had come to Ireland, she came to be baptized.

Mermen were also noted, as wilder and uglier than mermaids, but they were described as having little interest in humans.

Other

Among the Neo-Taíno nations of the Caribbean the mermaid is called Aycayía. Her attributes relate to the goddess Jagua, and the hibiscus flower of the majagua tree Hibiscus tiliaceous. Examples from other cultures are the Mami Wata of West and Central Africa, the Jengu of Cameroon, the Merrow of Ireland and Scotland, the Russalki of Russia and Ukraine, and the Greek Oceanids, Nereids, and Naiads. One freshwater mermaid-like creature from European folklore is Melusine, who is sometimes depicted with two fish tails, and other times with the lower body of a serpent. It is said in Japan that eating the flesh of a mermaid can grant unaging immortality. In some European legends mermaids are said to grant wishes.

Also, some people claim they have seen dead or living mermaids in places like Scotland, Malaysia and British Columbia. Two most recent Canadian sightings took place in the Straight of Georgia. [2], [3]

Entertainment

Literature

File:The Little Mermaid 4.jpg

The statue of The Little Mermaid, a monument to Hans Christian Andersen, in Copenhagen harbour.

Mermaids are one of the most famous creatures of popular culture, and are depicted regularly in literature and film. This is likely due to the influence of Hans Christian Andersen's fairytale The Little Mermaid (1836), which has been translated into many languages. Andersen's portrayal, immortalized with a famous bronze sculpture in Copenhagen harbour, has arguably become the standard and has influenced most modern Western depictions of mermaids since it was published. The story has been retold in other films and television programs, and regularly features in collections of fairytales. It has been adapted into various media, the most famous of which is the 1989 Disney movie of the same name.

L. Frank Baum (creator of Oz) wrote a novel about merfolk, The Sea Fairies.

Mermaids appear in the Peter Pan novel and in adaptations of it (such as the film Hook) and the Harry Potter series, specifically in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.

Many mermaids appear in works of fantasy fiction, including Poul Anderson's The Merman's Children.

The comic book superhero Superman had a romantic love interest with a mermaid named Lori Lemaris. The name Lori Lemaris was probably drawn from Lorelei rock in the Rhine added to maris, from the Latin mare, meaning ocean.

Aquamarine, a novel by Alice Hoffman, is about two 13 year old girls who discover a sassy teenage mermaid. The novel was popular among teen and preteen girls. The novel was made in to a film released in 2006 by Twentieth Century Fox and starred Sara Paxton, Emma Roberts and JoJo.

As with many other mythological creatures, mermaids appear in Dungeons & Dragons games (see Merfolk (Dungeons & Dragons)).

Film

• Miranda (1948), starring Glynis Johns, is another popular film to feature a mermaid. This film was followed by a sequel, Mad About Men (1954).

• Mr. Peabody and the Mermaid (1948) starring Ann Blyth, was another variation on the theme.

• The Mermaids of Tiburon(1962) - starring Diane Webber, George Rowe, and Timothy Carey.

• Beach Blanket Bingo (1965) - beach movie starring Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello followed a sup-plot of the character, Bonehead (Jody McCrea), falling for a mermaid portrayed by Lost in Space's Marta Kristen.

• Head (1968) - starring The Monkees briefly featured two mermaids in the opening "Porpoise Song" sequence, surrounded by psychedelic effects.

• In Splash (1984), starring Daryl Hannah and Tom Hanks, Hannah played a mermaid who fell in love with a man. She could walk dry land as a human female, but whenever water touched her legs they changed into a fish-tail. Much of the movie revolves around her humorous attempts to conceal her true identity from her lover. A made-for-television sequel, Splash, Too followed in 1988. It starred Amy Yasbeck and Todd Waring.

• In Local Hero (1984), Marina (Jenny Seagrove) is suspected by her love interest of being a mermaid.

• The Little Mermaid (1989 film) is a movie produced by Walt Disney Studios which portrays a variant of the story by Hans Christian Anderson about the mermaid that wished for legs. This film was followed by a sequel, The Little Mermaid 2: Return to the Sea

• Magic Island (1995) featured a character named Lily, a young mermaid who befriends a group of buckaneers (and Zachary Ty Bryan) and joins them on their quest for Blackbeard's treasure.

• In the original cut of Turbo: A Power Rangers Movie (1997), a mermaid named Mandika was briefly featured, and was intended to help the rangers on thier journey to the island of Muranthias. Due to timing restraints, her scenes were cut from the final film. The edited scenes included helping the rangers find the Ghost Galleon ship, rescuing Kimberly, Bulk, and Skull from drowning, & being saved from Divatox's torpedoes by Adam on a bungee rope.

• She Creature (2001) featured a villainous mermaid who seemed to have a taste for human flesh and lesbian tendencies.

• Maddogz Productions produced the 2006 short film "Heart's Atlantis" which features a beautiful mermaid. It tells the story of a grieving young boy who finds solitude in a mermaid in his backyard pool. Hannahh Fraser plays the mermaid, with Sam Wallis and Ty Hungerford also starring in the film. The tail in the film was created by H2O Just Add Water and Aquamarine prosthetic designer Jason Baird of JMB FX Studio.

• In "Aquamarine (film)" (2006), two young girls (13), Claire and Hailey, befriend a mermaid by the name of Aquamarine. They soon begin a quest to help her win a boy working at Claire's Grandparents' beach club, Raymond.

Music

Mermaid Music Mermaids have long been associated with music, and much like that of Orpheus, the power of their singing voices had the ability to enthrall. Along with their legendary vanity, the hair-combing and mirrors, the association of mermaids with music is coupled with another association of a vocal nature: they are said to be able to confer verbal eloquence, much like the Muses of the ancient Greek myths. Mermaids and other mers are associated with many attributes and assigned different themes around the world, of course, but of the half-human, half-other type of animal creations of lore, the mermaid seems to have survived at least in the West, more ably than other chimerical mythic beings. The fact that the mers have fish tails is significant, and points to our ancient origins as denizens of the deep, and the nature of the mystical and mysterious fathoms have given rise to symbolism of these sea people in our concept of the subconscious realms. Standing in usually for the mysteries of female sexuality and for the libertine behavior most myths ascribed to the wild women of the seas, so, too, was the music made by mermaids seen as somewhat depraved as well as dangerous. Forever our imaginations will be stirred by the love and death themes implied by the music of the mers in all their pitiless, heart-breaking vanity.

Mermaid Music is a CD by the singer-songwriter, Ocean (Singer). The Little Mermaidmusic by Disney

Television

• In the fifth season of Charmed, there is a two-parter concerning mermaids; A Witch's Tail (Part 1) and A Witch's Tail (Part 2). The Charmed Ones are drawn to an innocent mermaid who must elicit a proclamation of love from her mortal boyfriend or lose her immortality to a water demon known as the Sea Hag. Determined to save the mermaid, the Charmed Ones cast a spell, unfortunately turning Pheobe into a mermaid. Confused and surprised by Cole's unexpected return from the Underworld, Phoebe finds a new sense of independence in the sea and refuses to return to land. Fearing for the life of their sister, Paige seeks out Cole to aid her in returning to normal while Piper and Leo try to vanquish both the Sea Hag and the Skeleton Demon.

• The television show Fantasy Island had a mermaid character named Naya, played by Michelle Phillips of The Mamas & the Papas in three episodes.

• In the Futurama episode The Deep South, the crew encounters Mermaids (which evolved from humans) who inhabit the fabled lost city of Atlanta in the year 3000. The concept of mermaids not having the same reproductive functions as humans in the show is a reference to the mermaid problem.

• In a 1971 episode of Bewitched entitled "Samantha and the Loch Ness Monster", an old flame of Samantha's cousin Serena puts a spell on her - temporarily turning her into a mermaid.

• There was an adaption made of the classic story "The Little Mermaid" in a 1987 episode of Faerie Tale Theatre, starring Mork and Mindy's Pam Dawber as Pearl.

• In 1991, manga artist Rumiko Takahashi, creator of Ranma 1/2, created a three-volume horror manga series called Mermaid Saga, which was based on the Japanese myth that eating mermaid's flesh can grant immortality.

• Anime Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch and its sequel, Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch Pure focuses on mermaid princess and their adventures in the human world trying to protect both land and sea creatures.

• In 1999, a made-for-television movie Sabrina, Down Under (a spin-off special from the TV series Sabrina, the Teenage Witch) finds Sabrina (Melissa Joan Hart) traveling to Australia's Great Barrier Reef with her best friend Gwen (Tara Strong), a fellow witch from England, for a week-long vacation where they try to help protect a hidden mermaid/mermen colony whose habitat is threatened by ocean pollution, and by a local marine biologist, Dr. Julian Martin (Peter O'Brien), determined to find the colony as his claim to fame. While Sabrina finds romance with Barnaby (played by Scott Michaelson), a merman from the mermaid colony, his mermaid sister Fin (played by Lindsay Sloane), upset at Barnaby's interacting with the humans, tries her best to keep the secrets of the location of the merpeople colony safe from the humans. Barnaby in this story, is suffering from the effects of pollution, but is cured after meeting Dr. Martin. Sabrina eventually must save his mermaid sister, their mer-colony, and the Great Barrier Reef of Australia from the pollution as well.

• In 2003 the television movie Mermaids was released. This TV movie starred Sarah Laine, Nikita Ager, and Australian model Erika Heynatz as a trio of mermaid sisters who band together to avenge their father's death.

• Marina was a 2004 TV show from the Philippines which starred Teleserye Queen (as the mermaid Marina) and Filipino superstar Claudine Barretto. It was the first fantasy teleserye on ABS-CBN and became very popular. It first aired in February and ended in November.

• The Canadian TV series Seriously Weird featured a mermaid in an episode entitled "Harris and the Mermaid", in which the main character (Harris) was desperate to learn to swim. The mermaid (Muriel) offered to teach him, but in the end, fooled him into switching places with him - leaving him with a tail, and her with legs.

• In 2004, The Backyardigans was a chapter (Viking Voyage) where Tasha was a mermaid, and she sings "The Mermaid Song", inspired in the song "The Yellow Rose Of Texas".

• Australian television series, H2O: Just Add Water (2006), involves 3 teenage girls who, after encountering a mysterious island grotto, transform into mermaids whenever water touches any part of their bodies.

• In Power Rangers Mystic Force (2006), Madison (the Blue Ranger) turns into the Mermaid Titan. This is based upon MagiMermaid, the Majin form of MagiBlue in Mahō Sentai Magiranger

• In Power Rangers Lightspeed Rescue (2000), Chad (the blue ranger) finds a love interest in a mermaid named Marina, who had saved his life from an underwater rockslide. She appeared in 2 episodes entitled "Ocean Blue" and "Neptune's Daughter".

• The 1985 Japanese TV show, Dengeki Sentai Changeman, Change Mermaid symbolizes a mermaid.

• In 2006, NBC's soap opera Passions added a mermaid character named Siren, brought to life by the toddler witch Endora to keep her half-brother's fiance from leaving him.

Hoaxes

In the 19th century, P. T. Barnum displayed in his museum a taxidermal hoax called the Feejee [sic] Mermaid. Others have perpetrated similar hoaxes, which are usually papier-mâché fabrications or parts of deceased creatures, usually monkeys and fish, stitched together for the appearance of a grotesque mermaid. In the wake of the 2004 tsunami, pictures of Fiji "mermaids" were passed around on the internet as something that had washed up amid the devastation, though they were no more real than Barnum's exhibit.

Artwork

Perhaps one of the most famous mermaid paintings in the world was created by John William Waterhouse, painted from 1895 to 1905, entitled A Mermaid, (see the top of this article). An example of late British Academy style artwork, the piece debuted to considerable acclaim (and secured Waterhouse's place as a member of the Royal Academy), but disappeared into a private collection and didn't resurface until the 1970s. It is currently in the collection of Andrew Lloyd Weber.

Heraldry

File:POL Warszawa COA 1.svg In heraldry, the charge of a mermaid is commonly represented with a comb and a mirror, and blazoned as a 'mermaid in her vanity.' Merfolk were used to symbolize eloquence in speech.

A shield and sword-wielding mermaid (Syrenka) is on the official Coat of arms of Warsaw, the capital of Poland.

The personal coat of arms of Michaëlle Jean, Canada's Governor General, features two Simbi, mermaid-like spirits from Haitian vodun, as supporters.

Sirenomelia

Sirenomelia, also called "mermaid syndrome", is a rare congenital disorder in which a child is born with his or her legs fused together and the genitalia reduced. This condition is about as rare as conjoined twins and is usually fatal within a day or two of birth because of kidney and bladder complications, though there are three known survivors of this disorder alive today.

Symbolism

According to Dorothy Dinnerstein’s book, The Mermaid and the Minotaur, human-animal hybrids such as the minotaur and the mermaid convey the emergent understanding of the ancients that human beings were both one with and different from animals and that, as such, humans' "nature is internally inconsistent, that our continuities with, and our differences from, the earth's other animals are mysterious and profound; and in these continuities, and these differences, lie both a sense of strangeness on earth and the possible key to a way of feeling at home here".

Merman

File:Merman.jpg

Merman (17th century)

Mermen are mythical male legendary creatures who are human from the waist up and fish-like from the waist down, whose consorts were their female counterparts, the more commonly known mermaids. In Greek mythology, mermen were often illustrated to have green seaweed-like hair, a beard, and a trident.

The actions and behavior of mermen can vary wildly depending on the source and time period of the stories. They have been said to sink ships by summoning great storms, but also said to be wise teachers, according to earlier mythology. A merman, like a mermaid, attracts humans with singing and tones.

Notable mermen

• The most well-known merman was probably Triton, son of Poseidon and Amphitrite. Although Amphitrite gave birth to a merman, neither Poseidon nor Amphitrite were merfolk, although both were able to live under water as easily as on land. Triton was also known as the Trumpeter of the Sea for his usage of a conch shell.
• Other noteworthy mermen were the Babylonian Oannes and Ea and the Sumerian Enki.
• Another notable merman from Greek mythology was Glaucus. He was born a human and lived his early life as a fisherman. One day, while fishing, he saw that the fish he caught would jump from the grass and into the sea. He ate some of the grass, believing it to have magical properties, and felt an overwhelming desire to be in the sea. He jumped in the ocean and refused to go back on land. The sea gods nearby heard his prayers and transformed him into a sea god. Ovid describes the transformation of Glaucus in the Metamorpheses, describing him as a blue-green man with a fishy member where his legs had been.
• Norse mythology, in particular Icelandic folklore has mermen, known as Marbendlar.

Trivia

• In UFOlogy, the alien race called Nommos are mermen from Sirius who, according to some authors, visited Ancient Egypt.
• In the movie Zoolander, the miners at the bar are all laughing at Zoolander's "mermaid" commercial. At the mention of Derek's mother's death, his father quips "I just thank the lord she didn't live to see her son as a friggin' mermaid!" Derek, hurt, responds, "Merman... Merman!"
• Erotica author Megan Hussey has written several romantic e-books pertaining to the merman legend, including "A Good Catch" and "Prince of the Seas," released through Silk's Vault publishing, as well as "Azure Masquerade" and the upcoming story "Passion Storm" through Midnight Showcase (in print, audio and e-book versions).

External links

• American Monsters
• The Cryptid Zoo
• Beautiful Mermaid Art Collections of mermaid art, folk tales and myths.
• Mermaids on the Web annotated directory of 400 websites and 1,250 images
• "The Mermaid" by Heinz Insu Fenkl, from the mermaid-themed Summer 2003 issue of the Journal of Mythic Arts
• The mermaid goddess Derketo from Lucian of Samosata's On the Syrian God (2c. AD)
• Coney Island Mermaid Parade mermaids on parade
• Mermaid picture hoax
• The Doll Palace : Mermaids for kids provides mermaid images in pixel-art (Mermaid Dolls)

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