Mermaid

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

You have new messages (last change).
For other uses, see Mermaid (disambiguation).

A mermaid (from the Middle English mere in the obsolete sense 'sea'(as in maritime,the Latin mare, "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. Much like Sirens, mermaids in stories 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.

A Mermaid by John William Waterhouse.
A Mermaid by John William Waterhouse.

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. various water nymphs) and selkies, animals that can change from one block into another type of any form of creature.

Contents

[edit] Legend and myth

The Land Baby, by John Collier(1899)
The Land Baby, by John Collier(1899)

Legends of these half-human, half-fish humanoids have circulated for millennia, even as far back as 5,000 B.C.[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. Sightings from first-hand witnesses generally describe mermaids who do not talk at all, who have green, black, brown, and blonde hair and who have a bottom half of a fish, they are also said to be sighted when Scuba Diving, rarely seen in rivers.[2]

[edit] Ancient Near East

Tales of mermaids are nearly universal. The first known mermaid stories appeared in Assyria, ca. 1000 BCE. 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., 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.[1] 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."[2]

[edit] Arabian Nights

The Arabian Nights include several tales featuring "Sea People". Unlike the depiction in other mythologies, these are anatomically identical to land-bound humans, differing only in their ability to breathe and live underwater. They can (and do) interbreed with land humans, the children of such unions inheriting the ability to live underwater. The myth will live. (See The King of Persia and the Princess of The Sea.)

[edit] British

The Fisherman and the Syren, by Frederic Leighton, c. 1856–1858
The Fisherman and the Syren, by Frederic Leighton, c. 1856–1858

Mermaids were noted in British folklore as both ominous, foretelling disaster, and provoking it. Some were described as monstrous in size, up to 160 feet.[3]

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.[4]

On occasion, mermaids could be more beneficient, giving humans means of cure.[5]

Some tales raised the question of whether mermaids had immortal souls to answer it in the negative.[6] 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.[7]

Mermen were also noted, as wilder and uglier than mermaids, but they were described as having little interest in humans.[8]

[edit] Other

Among the Neo-Taíno nations of the Caribbean the mermaid is called Aycayía.[9] Her attributes relate to the goddess Jagua, and the hibiscus flower of the majagua tree Hibiscus tiliaceous.[10] 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. [3], [4]

It is rumored amongst some of the "Cape Coloured" communities of South Africa that mermaids are found in the Little Karoo. Some older Cape Coloureds claim to have seen mermaids in fresh water pools during their childhood. Whilst the Little Karoo is a very dry area, pre-hisotically it formed a part of an ocean which is substantiated by evidence such as fossiled shells in the area. The story of mermaids has been orally passed down through an unknown number of generations. It is thought that some local bushman rock art depicted at approximately 11 rock art sites around the Little Karoo illustrates the existence of mermaids. Other explanations are that the rock paintings illustrate a bird called a swallow with the figure of a human head. This illustration represents the outer body experience of spiritual men during spiritual ceremonies undertaken to conjure up rain. Since the Cape Coloured community stems from a mixture of white settlers and local indigenous tribes such as the Khoi and San, it is thought that the story of mermaids was brought with the white settlers and misinterpreted is this rock art.

[edit] Entertainment

[edit] Literature

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.

T.S. Eliot, in "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock", uses the metaphor of mermaids to emphasis Prufock's plight:

I have heard the mermaids singing, each to each.
I do not think that they will sing to me.

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.[11]

One of the stories embedded in L. Sprague de Camp's The Goblin Tower, as being told by the book's story-telling protagonist Jorian, is about a human king who fell in love with a mermaid. The story tells with hilarious detail of the couple's difficult efforts to physically consummate their love, which nearly ends in disaster (he nearly drowns in trying to have sex underwater, and she is nearly killed by his bodyguards in revenge). In the end, the king marries a human woman, though keeping a platonic friendship with the mermaid.

In the comic book series, Tales to Astonish, in issue #4 (July 1959), the 4-page story "I Love a Mermaid!" presented a sailor falling in love with a mermaid named Alethea. By story's end, the sailor turned out to be a lost merman who found his true home with Alethea at his side.

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. One may also note that she has the initials L.L. the same as several of Superman's other love interests like Lois Lane and Lana Lang

In the forth Harry Potter novel, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Harry encounters a community of Merfolk living beneath the surface of the Hogwarts grounds lake. The lake would appear to be a saltwater lake, since a Giant Squid lives in it as well. In this novel, Merfolk are regarded as being comprised of both male and female individuals. They are portrayed as having green hair and skin, and yellow, mossy teeth. The Merfolk observe his attempt at the second Task, which is to rescue the thing he holds most dear from the merfolk. That 'thing' is, in fact, his best friend Ron Weasely. When it becomes clear that one of the other Champions is not going to come to rescue her similarly bound younger sister, he takes her as well and brings them to the surface of the lake. While the Merfolk are portrayed as being rather wild and menacing, they are ultimately accommodating and fair, telling Professor Dumbledore of Harry's bravery in their lake. Similar to other humanoid magical creatures in the Harry Potter universe, they do not wield or understand magic themselves.

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.

In the book "The Tail of Emily Windsnap", Emily takes a swimming class and discovers her tail. She goes out looking for her dad and convinces King Neptune that humans and merfolk can live together.

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

[edit] 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.
  • Head (1968) - starring The Monkees briefly featured two mermaids in the opening "Porpoise Song" sequence, surrounded by psychedelic effects.
Madison, the mermaid from the movie Splash.
Madison, the mermaid from the movie Splash.
  • 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[12] followed in 1988. It starred Amy Yasbeck and Todd Waring.
  • 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 their 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.
  • The third and fourth films in the adult film series Talk Dirty To Me featured a mermaid who came ashore to find a man. Just like in Splash, the mermaid could walk on dry land, and her legs would become a fishtail in water. In Talk Dirty To Me Part III, the mermaid was played by the then-underaged Traci Lords. This version of the film was pulled from shelves once Lords' true age became public and replaced with an edited version, which subbed in scenes reshot with Lisa DeLeeuw in the mermaid role. The edited version is called The New Talk Dirty To Me Part III and is the only version of the movie currently available.
  • In Talk Dirty To Me IV, Taija Rae played a mermaid in a costume that was far inferior to those of the previous film. In TDTM III, the mermaid costumes were fair representations of mermaid's tails; they were skintight and reached as high as the actresses' waists. Rae's mermaid costume in TDTM IV was quite bulky, covered her breasts, and appeared to be fashioned from leaves, plastic daisies, and foam rubber scales.

[edit] 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.[citation needed] 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.[citation needed]

[edit] 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 Phoebe 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 anime series Mahou no Mako-chan is a 1970's modern retelling of the "Little Mermaid" fable
  • Episode 12 of Cutie Honey (Original series) Seiji tells a legend about a red pearl, The Mermaid's Tear. During the early 19th century a mermaid was found by a group of fishermen. She begged for freedom, and cried a red pearl in exchanged for liberty. However, the fishermen wanted more tears, and proceeded to beat the mermaid to death. The mermaid was known as Chiruru, and her sister, Marara swore to avenge her sister. She was later transformed into an android, Sea Panther. Honey faces Sea Panther, but does not like to kill her.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • 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".
  • Claire Holt, Phoebe Tonkin and Cariba Heine as the mermaids from H2O: Just Add Water
    Claire Holt, Phoebe Tonkin and Cariba Heine as the mermaids from H2O: Just Add Water
    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 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".
  • 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.
  • The 1999 Disney Channel original movie The Thirteenth Year, tells the story of a young boy that begins to gain mermaid characteristics when he turns thirteen. He then has an encounter with his real mother who is a mermaid.

[edit] 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.[13]

[edit] 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 did not resurface until the 1970s. It is currently in the collection of Andrew Lloyd Weber.

[edit] Heraldry

Coat of arms of Warsaw
Coat of arms of Warsaw

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 city of Norfolk, Virginia also uses a mermaid as a symbol, and a civic art project with variously decorated mermaid sculptures has been displayed all over the munincipal area.

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

[edit] Advertising

A cartoon mermaid (seen at left) is the mascot for the Chicken of the Sea brand of tuna.

The Starbucks Coffee logo is not a mermaid, but a mixoparthenos, a creature with a maiden's torso ending in two snake tails.

[edit] 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.

[edit] 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".[14]

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ Teacher's GuidePDF (246 KiB)
  2. ^ Lucian of Samosata, De Dea Syria Part 2, Chapter 14
  3. ^ Katharine Briggs, An Encyclopedia of Fairies, Hobgoblins, Brownies, Boogies, and Other Supernatural Creatures, "Mermaids", p 287. ISBN 0-394-73467-X
  4. ^ K. M. Briggs, The Fairies in English Tradition and Literature, p 57 University of Chicago Press, London, 1967
  5. ^ Katharine Briggs, An Encyclopedia of Fairies, Hobgoblins, Brownies, Boogies, and Other Supernatural Creatures, "Mermaids", p 288. ISBN 0-394-73467-X
  6. ^ Katharine Briggs, An Encyclopedia of Fairies, Hobgoblins, Brownies, Boogies, and Other Supernatural Creatures, "Mermaids", p 289. ISBN 0-394-73467-X
  7. ^ Katharine Briggs, An Encyclopedia of Fairies, Hobgoblins, Brownies, Boogies, and Other Supernatural Creatures, "Liban", p 266-7. ISBN 0-394-73467-X
  8. ^ Katharine Briggs, An Encyclopedia of Fairies, Hobgoblins, Brownies, Boogies, and Other Supernatural Creatures, "Mermen", p 290. ISBN 0-394-73467-X
  9. ^ http://www.conexioncubana.net/tradiciones/diccionario/a.htm
  10. ^ http://www.hear.org/starr/hiplants/images/thumbnails/html/hibiscus_tiliaceus.htm
  11. ^ John Grant and John Clute, The Encyclopedia of Fantasy, "Mermaids" p 639 ISBN 0-312-19869-8
  12. ^ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0096159/
  13. ^ http://www.snopes.com/photos/tsunami/mermaid.asp
  14. ^ Dorothy Dinnerstein, The Mermaid and the Minotaur. New York: Harper and Row, 1963. Cited by Northstar Gallery

[edit] External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:
Look up mermaid in
Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org../../../m/e/r/Mermaid.html"