Changes: Mermaid

Revision as of 20:28, 3 July 2019

Mermaids are legendary, aquatic creatures with the head, arms and torso of a human female and the tail of a fish.

A mermaid is a mythical creature that is half woman and half fish. The name comes from 'mer' meaning sea. The male version is called a merman.

Although some mermaids are described as monstrous and ugly, they are more usually very beautiful. Above the waist they appear as a lovely young woman, whilst from the waist down, they are like a fish with fins and a spreading tail.

Mermaids like to comb their long hair. In art, they are often shown with a mirror and a comb. Sometimes they sit on a rock and sing, luring sailors to their destruction. This is why they are often confused with sirens (who also inhabit the sea). Mermaids lure handsome young men to their homes in the deep seas. Mermen, however, are usually wilder and uglier than mermaids and have little interest in humans.

All sea-faring cultures have mermaid tales. In the Breton ballads there are the 'Morgan', sea-women, and 'Morverch', sea-daughters; in Ireland and Scotland there are 'Merrow'. The Aegean Sea, it seems, was full of such creatures. In Greek legends there are mermaids that can sink ships and sirens that lure sailors to their doom. In a silvery cave, live the golden haired Nereids or sea nymphs that helped sailors fighting perilous storms. They are depicted as human from the head to the waist, with either a bird's body or a fishes tail. Other sea dwellers from Greek legend include the 3000 Oceanids, the daughters of the Titans Oceanus and Tethys.

Similar creatures live in lakes and rivers. In Slavic mythology there are the Rusalki, the spirits of young women who have met their fate through drowning. They appear in the form of beautiful fish-women or mermaids. They have lovely hair, fine features but sad fathomless eyes which tell their tragic tale. They entrance young men, taking them to the river floor to live with them.

It was always considered most unlucky to do anything unkind to Mermaids. Often in stories, they fail to thrive if brought onto land. The exception to this is the Merrow who sometimes marry humans. Mermaids live for a very long time but, according to some legends, do not have a soul.

How did the myths arise?

Legends of half-human, half-fish creatures go back thousands of years. Everyone has seen pictures of mermaids. Sightings were made by the early Arabs and the Greek Pliny in 586 A.D. Many medieval sailors claimed to have seen them and such reports continued right into the 1900's.

Most sightings by sailors were probably normal marine creatures, such as manatees, dugongs, or sea-cows (now extinct). These appear to cradle their young much as a human would carry a baby. It is possible that sailors, seeing these unfamiliar beasts, would assume that they had stumbled across some sort of humanoid species. Mermaids described by the famous explorer, Christopher Columbus, were almost certainly manatees. He reported seeing three mermaids in the ocean off Haiti, in January of 1493. He said they "came quite high out of the water", but were "not as pretty as they are depicted, for somehow in the face they look like men."

However such descriptions are very different from the usual portrayal of a mermaid and the idea, of a beautiful but dangerous creature, probably arose from the earlier stories of the Sirens of the Aegean Sea. The Sirens were sea-nymphs who had the power to charm by their song all who heard them, so that the unhappy mariners were irresistibly impelled to cast themselves into the sea to their destruction. The Sirens were first mentioned in Homer's Odyssey. This may have shaped the portrayal of mermaids from medieval times onwards. The modern view of mermaids has also been influenced by Hans Christian Andersen's fairytale, The Little Mermaid, written in 1836.

So, are mermaids good or bad?

It seems it would depend on which story you read. However, based on the evidence, you would need to be very careful if you ever encountered one.

In British folklore they can be bringers of bad fortune, capable of causing storms and killing humans.

Some of the bad things that mermaids are accused of include telling sailors their ship is doomed and enchanting sailors and causing shipwrecks. Seeing a mermaid is a sure sign of a violent storm to come. In other stories, they deliberately drag people down in the water and squeeze the life out of drowning men. They also take men down to their underwater kingdoms.

However, on occasions, mermaids can also bring good fortune by giving humans cures or granting them wishes. In some tales, they even marry and live with humans. For example, the Merrow of Ireland and Scotland.

These mermaids are beautiful, gentle, modest and kind. They wear a red cap and, if this is captured and hidden from them, they will shed their skins and stay on land. However, most times they eventually retrieve the cap and return to the sea. They also lure young men to follow them beneath the waves. Here they live in an enchanted state. Merrow music is often heard coming from beneath the waves.

How did this story come about?

The Lizard in Cornwall is a high plateau surrounded by the sea, with numerous hidden little coves and beaches, just the sort of area for mermaid stories.

Many Cornish people, particularly sailors, have claimed to have seen or heard a mermaid and belief in them was once widespread. There are many stories of mermaids seen on the rocks and of mermaids sitting weeping and wailing on the shore.

The mermaids in Cornish stories possess many of the features of mermaids the world over. They are beautiful, often seen combing their golden hair and live for a long time without ageing. Like many British and Irish mermaids, the mermaid in this story has more sympathy, inquisitiveness and interest in humans than other mermaids.

It was often thought that people with a knowledge of healing or a knowledge of the future gained these powers by supernatural means, either from the witches, fairies or, in this case, a mermaid. This is not the only tale passed down the generations, of special powers given to an ancestor from a mermaid. Preparing a vessel of water, which would show the face of a thief, as in the story, is a common means of detection that occurs in many myths.

Mermaids are one of the most famous mythical creatures, depicted regularly in literature and film. The "Mermaid's Rock" can still be seen off the coast and you can visit Kynance cove and the beaches by the Lizard.

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
 {{Creature
 |Name=Mermaid
-|Image=Mermaid-4.jpg
+|Image=Waterhouse a mermaid.jpg
 |Caption=
 |Mythology= Numerous mythologies
@@ Line 10: / Line 10: @@
 |Roman=
 |greekmythologywiki=
+}}'''Mermaids''' are legendary, aquatic creatures with the head, arms and torso of a human female and the tail of a fish.
-}}
+A mermaid is a mythical creature that is half woman and half fish. The name comes from 'mer' meaning sea. The male version is called a merman.
-'''Mermaids''' are legendary, aquatic creatures with the head, arms and torso of a human female and the tail of a fish. The male version of a mermaid is called a merman; gender-neutral plurals could be "'''merpeople'''" or "'''merfolk'''". Various cultures throughout the world have similar figures. Because mermaids thrive in salt-water conditions, they would rarely be found in a freshwater lake or stream. Rather lagoons are much more frequented by these beauties. It is important to recognize this key difference between lakes and lagoons.
+Although some mermaids are described as monstrous and ugly, they are more usually very beautiful. Above the waist they appear as a lovely young woman, whilst from the waist down, they are like a fish with fins and a spreading tail.
-==Etymology==
-The word "mermaid" is a compound word of the Middle English '''mere''' meaning "sea" and '''maid''' meaning woman. The Old English equivalent of mermaid is '''merewif''', meaning "water-witch".
+Mermaids like to comb their long hair. In art, they are often shown with a mirror and a comb. Sometimes they sit on a rock and sing, luring sailors to their destruction. This is why they are often confused with sirens (who also inhabit the sea). Mermaids lure handsome young men to their homes in the deep seas. Mermen, however, are usually wilder and uglier than mermaids and have little interest in humans.
-==In Mythology==
-Much like the [[Sirens]] of [[Greek mythology]], mermaids would sometimes sing to sailors and enchant them, distracting them from their work and causing them to walk off the deck or cause shipwrecks. Other stories would have them squeeze the life out of drowning men while trying to rescue them. They are also said to take them down to their underwater kingdoms. In Hans Christian Andersen's ''The Little Mermaid'', it is said that they forget that humans cannot breathe underwater, while others say they drown men out of spite. The Sirens of Greek mythology are sometimes portrayed in later folklore as mermaid-like; in fact, some languages use the same word for both creatures. Other related types of mythical or legendary creature are water fairies (e.g. naiads and various water nymphs) and selkies, animals that can transform themselves from seals to humans. Prior to the mid-19th century, mariners referred to manatees and dugongs as mermaids.
+All sea-faring cultures have mermaid tales. In the Breton ballads there are the 'Morgan', sea-women, and 'Morverch', sea-daughters; in Ireland and Scotland there are 'Merrow'. The Aegean Sea, it seems, was full of such creatures. In Greek legends there are mermaids that can sink ships and [[siren]]s that lure sailors to their doom. In a silvery cave, live the golden haired Nereids or sea nymphs that helped sailors fighting perilous storms. They are depicted as human from the head to the waist, with either a bird's body or a fishes tail. Other sea dwellers from Greek legend include the 3000 Oceanids, the daughters of the Titans [[Oceanus]] and [[Tethys]].
-==In Popular Culture==
-Mermaids have been present in fictional literature for centuries and cinema since the early twentieth century.
-===Film===
-*Mermaids appear in the movie ''Pirates of the Caribbean:On Stranger Tides.'' They are shown to be vicious, seducing men and dragging them to the ocean floor to drown them, before eating them.
-*A mermaid princess, Ariel, appears in the Disney adaption of Hans Christian Anderson's ''The Little Mermaid. ''She lives in an underwater kingdom inhabited entirely by merpeople.
-*A mermaid that falls in love with a man appears in the film ''Splash'' with Tom Hanks.
+Similar creatures live in lakes and rivers. In Slavic mythology there are the Rusalki, the spirits of young women who have met their fate through drowning. They appear in the form of beautiful fish-women or mermaids. They have lovely hair, fine features but sad fathomless eyes which tell their tragic tale. They entrance young men, taking them to the river floor to live with them.
-===Literature===
-*''The Little Mermaid'' by Hans Christian Andersen published in 1837 combined mermaid myths from around the globe. Also becoming a standard for mermaids in media and literature thereafter.
-*Mermaids also made an appearance in the famous novel ''Moby-Dick'' by Herman Melville published in 1851.
-*''One Thousand and One Nights'', originally a set of Persian and Indian folktales released in the 8th century was published in English in 1706. It includes mermaids myths from the Middle East and Southern Asia.
-*Writer L. Frank Baum, introduced merpeople in both '''The Sea Fairies''', published in 1911 and ''The Scarecrow of Oz'' published in 1915.
-*''Wet Magic'' written by Edith Nesbit and published in 1913. See's four children who save a mermaid from the circus and return to the Kingdom of the merfolk with her.
-*Mermaids are featured throughout ''The Chronicles of Narnia'' series by C.S. Lewis.
-*''The Goblin Tower'' by L. Sprague de Camp published in 1968. Showcases a romantic relationship between a mermaid and a human prince.
-*Mermaids are featured in the 1979 Poul Anderson novel, ''The Merman's Children''.
-*The 1988 novel ''The Mermaid Summer'' by Mollie Hunter a man faces the wrath of a mermaid.
-*Two siblings capture a mermaid in ''The Moon and the Sun'' written by Vonda N. McIntyre and published in 1997.
-*Mermaids are also featured throughout the ''Harry Potter'' series by J.K. Rowling.
-**''Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire'' and ''Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince'' features them the most.
-*''Aquamarine'' published in 2001 and written by Alice Hofman. Showcases two teenage girls who befriend a mermaid of the same age.
-*''A Sereia de Curitiba'' by Rhys Hughes, tells the stories of mermaids around the globe.
-*Tera Lynn Childs novel, ''Forgive My Fins'' tells the story of a half-mermaid princess.
-**Sequels ''Fins Are Forever'' and ''Just For Fins'' also feature mermaids.
-*''The Forbidden Sea'' written by Shiela A. Nielson showcases a girls trying to protect her sister from a mermaid who surrounds the island.
-*''Real Mermaids Don't Wear Toe Rings'' by Helene Boudreau tells the story of an aquaphobic mer-girl who tries to find her missing mermaid mother.
-*Carolyn Turgeon's ''Mermaid'' published in 2007. It retells ''The Little Mermaid'' fairytale as a love triangle between the mermaid, the human princess, and the prince.
-*2010 novel, ''The Mermaid's Mirror'' by L.K. Madigan tells the story of a surfer girl who finds a mermaid.
-*In the Ted Price novel ''Meredith the Mermaid'', a landlocked mermaid tries to make her way back to the ocean.
-*The ''Emily Windsnap'' series by Liz Kessler, follows a young girls who discovers she is half-mermaid.
-*2010 novel ''Keeper'' by Kathi Appelt, follows a young girl in search of her mermaid mother.
-*''Lost Voices'' is the first in a series by Sarah Porter, about young girls who turn into mermaids after traumatic events.
-*''The Spiderwick Chronicles'' by Tony DiTerlizzi and Holly Black, features merfolk.
-*The ''The Sisters Grimm series'' by Michael Buckley, features the little mermaid character.
-*The novel ''Deep Trouble'' in the ''Goosebumps'' series by R.L. Stine, a boy finds a mermaid.
-*The ''Everworld series'' by K. A. Applegate, features both mermaid and mermen.
+It was always considered most unlucky to do anything unkind to Mermaids. Often in stories, they fail to thrive if brought onto land. The exception to this is the Merrow who sometimes marry humans. Mermaids live for a very long time but, according to some legends, do not have a soul.
-===Comic Books===
-*''Namor the Sub-Mariner'', a series that started in 1939 featuring Marvel's first antihero, Namor McKenzie. Whom is a part of the fictional ''Homo mermanus'' race, of half mermaid/mermen and humans.
-*''Superman'': Clark Kent had a mermaid love interest names Lori Lemaris.
-*''Arabelle the Last Mermaid'': a comic strip by Jean Ache about a mermaid who gets plastic surgery to obtain legs. Published in the French newspaper France-Soir between 1950 and 1962.
-*''One Piece'': A manga which features various mermaids.
-*''Rave Master'': A manga series by Hiro Mashima features mermaids named Celia and Mildesta.
-*''Dragon Ball'': In chapter 25, "A Rival Arrives!!", Master Roshi asks Goku to bring him a pretty girl, and if he did, he would train him, Goku finds a mermaid.
-*''Mermaid Saga'': A manga series by Rumiko Takahashi which features two types of mermaids. The first may gain human appearance when they eat the flesh of an immortal girl; the second has two legs and feed on the flesh of mermaids who live in water, specifically when they are about to give birth.
-*''Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch'': A manga about a group of mermaid princesses who become pop singers and use their voices as weapons against their enemies.
-*''My Bride is a Mermaid'': A manga about a man who is saved from drowning by a mermaid and is then forced to marry her.
-*''07-Ghost'': The mermaid Lazette sings and plays an organ in a church. She can shapeshift her face into that of other people. If people eat her scales it allows them to breathe underwater.
-*''Legendz'': In the manga, Ken Kazaki's friend Ririko Yasuhara has a mermaid named Tetty.
-*''Aion'': A manga by Yuna Kagesaki which features various mermaids.
-*''Akazukin Chacha'': A manga about a mermaid named Marin, who can change into human form when her tail is dry.
-*''Black Cat'': A manga where one of the main characters, Eve, uses nanomachines to give herself transformation abilities, and once she transforms into a mermaid.
+== How did the myths arise? ==
-===Film===
+[[File:Mermaid and merman.jpg|thumb|342x342px|Mer people]]
-* Merpeople (Dsiney's ''The Little Mermaid'')
+Legends of half-human, half-fish creatures go back thousands of years. Everyone has seen pictures of mermaids. Sightings were made by the early Arabs and the Greek Pliny in 586 A.D. Many medieval sailors claimed to have seen them and such reports continued right into the 1900's.
-** Ariel
-** Triton
+Most sightings by sailors were probably normal marine creatures, such as manatees, dugongs, or sea-cows (now extinct). These appear to cradle their young much as a human would carry a baby. It is possible that sailors, seeing these unfamiliar beasts, would assume that they had stumbled across some sort of humanoid species. Mermaids described by the famous explorer, Christopher Columbus, were almost certainly manatees. He reported seeing three mermaids in the ocean off Haiti, in January of 1493. He said they "came quite high out of the water", but were "not as pretty as they are depicted, for somehow in the face they look like men."
-* Aquamarine (''Aquamarine'')
-* Merpeople (''Pirates of the Caribbean'')
+However such descriptions are very different from the usual portrayal of a mermaid and the idea, of a beautiful but dangerous creature, probably arose from the earlier stories of the Sirens of the Aegean Sea. The Sirens were sea-nymphs who had the power to charm by their song all who heard them, so that the unhappy mariners were irresistibly impelled to cast themselves into the sea to their destruction. The Sirens were first mentioned in Homer's Odyssey. This may have shaped the portrayal of mermaids from medieval times onwards. The modern view of mermaids has also been influenced by Hans Christian Andersen's fairytale, The Little Mermaid, written in 1836.
-===Television===
-* Merpeople (''H2O: Just Add Water/Mako: Island of Secrets'')
+== So, are mermaids good or bad? ==
-* Merpeople (''American Dragon: Jake Long'')
+It seems it would depend on which story you read. However, based on the evidence, you would need to be very careful if you ever encountered one.
-** Silver
-** Dolores Derceto
+In British folklore they can be bringers of bad fortune, capable of causing storms and killing humans.
-* Merpeople (''Sofia the First'')
-** Oona
-** Cora
-** Queen Emmaline
-** Plank
+Some of the bad things that mermaids are accused of include telling sailors their ship is doomed and enchanting sailors and causing shipwrecks. Seeing a mermaid is a sure sign of a violent storm to come. In other stories, they deliberately drag people down in the water and squeeze the life out of drowning men. They also take men down to their underwater kingdoms.
-* Meeshell Mermaid (''Ever After High'')
-* Sirena Von Boo (''Monster High'')
-* Mermando (''Gravity Falls'')
-* Aquaphonis (''Tara Duncan'')
+However, on occasions, mermaids can also bring good fortune by giving humans cures or granting them wishes. In some tales, they even marry and live with humans. For example, the Merrow of Ireland and Scotland.
-===Video Games===
+These mermaids are beautiful, gentle, modest and kind. They wear a red cap and, if this is captured and hidden from them, they will shed their skins and stay on land. However, most times they eventually retrieve the cap and return to the sea. They also lure young men to follow them beneath the waves. Here they live in an enchanted state. Merrow music is often heard coming from beneath the waves.
-=== Literature ===
-* Merpeople (''Harry Potter'')
-* Merpeople (''The Chronicles of Narnia'')
+== How did this story come about? ==
-===Music===
+The Lizard in Cornwall is a high plateau surrounded by the sea, with numerous hidden little coves and beaches, just the sort of area for mermaid stories.
+Many Cornish people, particularly sailors, have claimed to have seen or heard a mermaid and belief in them was once widespread. There are many stories of mermaids seen on the rocks and of mermaids sitting weeping and wailing on the shore.
-== Gallery ==
+The mermaids in Cornish stories possess many of the features of mermaids the world over. They are beautiful, often seen combing their golden hair and live for a long time without ageing. Like many British and Irish mermaids, the mermaid in this story has more sympathy, inquisitiveness and interest in humans than other mermaids.
+It was often thought that people with a knowledge of healing or a knowledge of the future gained these powers by supernatural means, either from the witches, fairies or, in this case, a mermaid. This is not the only tale passed down the generations, of special powers given to an ancestor from a mermaid. Preparing a vessel of water, which would show the face of a thief, as in the story, is a common means of detection that occurs in many myths.
+Mermaids are one of the most famous mythical creatures, depicted regularly in literature and film. The "Mermaid's Rock" can still be seen off the coast and you can visit Kynance cove and the beaches by the Lizard.
+==Gallery==
 <gallery>
+il_570xN.1319744786_gxk5.jpg
-Mermaid.png
+.jpg|Mermaid from The Spiderwick Chronicles.
-Mermaid_Queen.png
+20190703_151519.jpg
-File:Keto-Esu_ELMG.png|A monster mermaid
+db4sgd5-a7424ea4-d5bb-46c7-ab82-c5f9b5d90ba5.jpg
-Ariel-1.png|Ariel, a mermaid in Disney's ''The Little Mermaid''.
-One_of_the_Merpeople_of_Hogwarts_Lake_(Concept_Artwork).jpg|Selkie mermaid (Harry Potter)
-Mermaids_Cropped.jpg|Merpeople in ''Pirates of the Caribbean'' film series.
-Seapeoplefilm.jpg|Merpeople in ''The Cronicles of Narnia''.
-Mermando_appearance.png|Mermando, a merman in ''Gravity Falls''.
-Lorliei.jpg|Aquaphonis, a mermaid in ''Tara Duncan''.
-Silver_2.jpg|Silver...
-Decerto7.png|and Dolores Derceto, merpeople in ''American Dragon: Jake Long''.
-Sofia's_Mermaid_Form_1.png|Sofia the First, in her mermaid form in ''Sofia the First''.
-Mako_Mermaids_as_Mermaids.jpg|Lyla, Nixie and Sirena, mermaids in ''Mako: Island of Secrets''.
-Sirena_Von_Boo™.png|Sirena Von Boo, a half-mermaid, halfghost hybrid in ''Monster High''.
-Meeshell_Mermaid_Profile_Art_HQ.jpg|Meeshell Mermaid, a mermaid in ''Ever After High''.
 </gallery>
-[[Category:Mythical Creatures]]
+[[Category:Mythical creatures]]
 [[Category:C. S. Lewis Mythology]]
 [[Category:Merpeople]]
@@ Line 134: / Line 69: @@
 [[Category:Humanoids]]
 [[Category:Hybrid]]
+[[Category:Graeco-Egyptian Mythology]]
+[[Category:Chinese mythology]]
+[[Category:Japanese mythology]]
+[[Category:Caribbean Mythology]]