She has fallen deeply in love with the Prince, though, so she cannot bring herself to kill him. Instead, she dives into the ocean, attempting to kill herself, where she dissolves into foam.
However, the honorable mermaid is not lost forever. Instead, she is given another chance at a soul, which she can gain after years of good deeds for mankind.
Perhaps the earliest account of mermaids is the Syrian tale of Atargatis. She is often said to be the very first mermaid, who became so after an attempt at suicide. Atargatis was a beautiful goddess who fell in love with a human shepherd. However, she accidentally kills him with her godly power. Riddled with grief, she attempts to kill herself by diving into the depths of the ocean. Generally, when gods enter the ocean they become fish.
In addition, they are known to revive drowned sailors, swimming long distances to take them to safety. Furthermore, their tears have magical powers and the ability to cast spells.
Brazilians tell the tale of a beautiful woman with long green hair and golden copper skin named Iara. Not only was she beautiful, she was also multi-talented, particularly in the art of warfare. While Iara was loved by her village, her two brothers were jealous of her skills.
They were so envious, in fact, that they tried to kill her. However, the skilled warrioress fought them off, killing both. Yet, even underwater, Iara was loved. Fish came to her rescue and used magic to revive her and turn her into one of their own — a mermaid.
Sadly, Iara never got over the betrayal of her brothers and father, so now she spends her days singing beautiful songs at the shoreline to lure men into the water where they will drown. The Aboriginal Australians tell tales of a creature who bears a striking similarity to the Intuit Qalupalik. At other times, the creature is described more like merfolk — only with more sinister intentions. Like Qalupalik, the Muldjewangk is especially fond of snatching children.
According to one tale, the Muldjewangk attacked a steamboat that carried European settlers. So, he grabbed his gun to shoot the creature.
However, Aboriginal elders who working on the boat warned him that the creature would not be easy to kill and that it would take loathsome revenge out on him. Nevertheless, the captain took his shots. Shortly after the incident, he broke out in a rash that turned into red blisters that covered his entire body, and he died a slow, agonizing death.
The Maori People of New Zealand have a number of legends about whales and sea monsters , which they collectively call taniwha. One such creature is the Marakihau.
In some versions, the Marakihau looks like a merman, with a human head and torso and a long fish tail. In other versions, the Marakihau is female.
However, far from being seductive, the Marakihau is a creature to be feared as it has a forked tongue like a snake and is known to sink canoes and other boats. The local Kei islanders were well-aware of the creatures. However, as they Orang Ikan were aggressive, the islanders did their best to leave them alone. One evening, the king of the village summoned one the leaders among the Japanese soldiers, Sergeant Taro Horiba.
The villagers had discovered a dead Orang Ikan, which they wanted him to see. Sergeant Horiba reported back to his headquarters in Japan that he did indeed see the strange creature. He even urged zoologists to study it after the war. However, reportedly no one took him seriously. The people of South Africa have a long history of mermaid sightings, which date back thousands of years.
To begin, archaeologists have discovered a number of sights in South Africa where ancient petroglyphs depict creatures who are half-human and half-fish. Yet as recently as , locals reported mermaid sightings in the Buffeljags River in a village called Suurbraak in Western Cape Province. The sighting occurred while some locals were hanging out on the riverbank. They reported hearing a loud banging noise. Thinking it might be vandals, a man named Daniel Cupido and his friends went to get a closer look.
Thinking he needed to rescue her, Daniel moved quickly towards the water. But as repelled as he was by the sight, he said he felt a hypnotic pull towards the creature.
So, he yelled to his family and friends to help him. Martin said the creature was making a strange, sorrowful sound. Similar sightings had been reported by locals in the area 15 and 20 years prior. Over the past couple of decades, people in Alaska have reported sightings of merfolk-like creatures in the sea.
Part of the triangle covers the Gulf of Alaska. In one case, two men were fishing when one caught something big. As he tried to lure it in, he was pulled into the water. His friend described seeing a creature similar to the Inuit legend of the Qalupalik. He said he saw a green webbed hand and that the creature yanked his friend overboard. His friend was never found. A couple on Kodiak island described seeing a similar creature. The man was swimming in the waves as his girlfriend read a book on the shore.
Suddenly, the man said, something underwater grabbed his ankle and pulled him down. Seeing him thrashing in the waves, his girlfriend ran towards the water. She says she saw a green foot and tail, then the creature disappeared. Once she helped her boyfriend to the shore, she described what she saw, and he affirmed he saw the same thing. Just as they did centuries ago, mermaids continue to mesmerize people of diverse cultural backgrounds today.
Here are some mermaid meanings and symbols and what they could mean in your life:. In this respect, they embody a type of physical power and sensuality. Furthermore, mermaids exemplify natural beauty over artifice. While we land-dwellers plod along, fighting gravity, the mermaid flows effortless and gracefully beneath the surface of the ocean.
In essence, the mermaid is beauty in a state of flow. The mermaid reminds us that we are most beautiful when we are in our element. When this happens, the inner radiance of our spirit shines forth — and that is beauty in its finest form. Your element may be caring for others, performing, walking dogs, organizing, racing, teaching, or something else. The key is to know what it is.
Once you do, you will know it. It will feel as graceful and beautiful as a mermaid floating along a gentle current under the sea. Mermaids also symbolize the power of music. Rhythm, harmonies, lyrics, and all that music embodies has the power to heal us, energize us, and lead us down pathways of transformative emotion.
The mermaid reminds you to fill your life with music and to even consider broadening your musical horizons. Barnum teamed up with Levi Lyman, who posed as a naturalist to sell the mermaid to the public. It was a success and Barnum took it on a tour in London. Jenny Hanivers Sailors around the world in the 16 th century earned extra income by creating Jenny Hanivers as novelties to tourists.
They were advertised as mermaid bodies, but they were actually ray carcasses that had been dried and carved. They were debunked in by Swiss naturalist Konrad Gesner. Mermaids: The body found - Animal Planet aired this mockumentary full of fake footage that many people believed to be real. It promoted a narrative about real mermaids being creepy humanoid creatures who live in the depths of the sea. It attacked the subject very scientifically sounding and many people were fooled.
According to folklore mermaids and sirens are not quite the same. Sirens and mermaids are both half human, half fish. In fact, sirens are often considered to be a different type of mermaid. Sirens are predators. Sirens are the bad guys, the ones who lure sailors to their deaths. The ones who you picture with spikes, sharp teeth, webbed hands and fierce eyes. They are portrayed as monstrous beasts who eat humans in some cases. They would drive them to their death.
Mermaids are beautiful, enchanting creatures who sit on the beach singing lovely songs. They are the ones who will rescue a drowning sailor and drag him to the shore. They are the ones who will fall in love with humans and transform into one themselves. This is a generalization, but more frequently than not, this is the case for mermaids. Some stories portray mermaids as evil. Mermaids have been depicted as dangerous in certain films and stories, but they are often known to rescue sailors.
It just depends on the work of fiction they are in. Generally, it is sirens who are considered to be dangerous. However, with mermaids and humans being closely related, there are likely to be a few bad eggs. Mermaids are able to experience emotions, and probably have ideas of right and wrong. This means there could definitely be mermaids who choose to do bad things. Sirens are known to use their haunting voices to lure sailors to their death.
How they actually kill them varies. In some folklore sirens drag sailors to the bottom of the sea and they drown. In other tales, the ship crashes into rocks and kills everyone aboard. But there are also tales of man-eating sirens! Sirens may be bloodthirsty, whereas mermaids prefer a different diet. It really depends on the mermaid.
People often want to know more about the anatomy of a mermaid. What we know is that a mermaid has the upper half of a human body and a fishtail for their lower form. Some assumptions can be made based on this information. However, mermaids have the lower half of a fish, so they likely means their reproductive system would be that of a fish. Having the lower anatomy of a fish, it is likely that mermaids reproduce in the same way as fish. Fish, and therefore mermaids, do not have external parts.
Fish reproduce in a number of ways, depending on the species. Fish have similar reproductive organs as humans, except they are not external. The female will lay the eggs and they will be dispersed through the water where the male will fertilize them. But some fish engage in a form of intercourse or a mating ritual. There are also types of fish that can fertilize themselves. The best hypothesis for mermaid reproduction is that they mate in the same fashion.
I imagine mermaids likely have some sort of intimacy, in a more human-like process. Mermaids also are known to be polyamorous. In other words polyamory is the practice of, or desire for, intimate relationships with more than one partner, with the informed consent of all partners involved.
It has been described as "consensual, ethical, and responsible non-monogamy". Another plausible option would be that mermaids are mammals and reproduce like dolphins. They would keep their baby in their belly until it is ready to be born. German legends include Undine , a fresh-water sprite who is immortal yet has no soul. She can obtain a soul by marrying a human and bearing him a child.
Legend tells that she marries a human, and bears him a child, after which she has a soul and starts to age. Her husband then is unfaithful and she curses him and returns to the water. The later famous story of Undine , written by Friedrich de la Motte Fouque in tells that Undine is born a mermaid, but is exchanged as a child for a human child by a river god. She marries a human and thereby obtains an immortal soul.
Her husband later rejects her and Undine returns to the sea and her mermaid family, but warns her husband that he must remain faithful to her or she will be honor-bound to kill him. He fails to heed this sensible warning and recklessly marries a human woman — after which Undine kills him despite her love for him.
While the legends of Melusine inspired the Undine myth and story, so Undine seems to have inspired the fairy tale The Little Mermaid written by Hans Christian Andersen in This is the story of the little mermaid who falls in love with a human prince and gives up her voice and tail to become human and to get a human soul.
In the Disney version she marries the prince and lives happily ever after, but in the original story the prince marries another and the little mermaid dissolves into sea foam - and is then rescued in the final moments You'll just have to read the original story , which inspired the world-famous Little Mermaid Statue in Copenhagen and which has inspired or been adapted into many other works of art.
The Russian Rusalkas share some of the traits of Sirens and Mermaids, although without a fish tail. They are the ghosts or undead remains of women or girls who die tragically or violently, and live on the bottom of rivers and lakes. They can be seductive and dangerous, pulling young men into the waters. They have perpetually wet hair as they would die if their hair dried, and often carry a comb which allows them to conjure water while on land. They often come out of the water at night and sing in trees or meadows.
China has tales of mermaids with webbed feet and hands, while Cambodia and Thailand have well known legends of the golden mermaid Suvannamaccha , a mermaid princess who falls in love with a human prince and has a child with him. The African Mami Wata is a water sprite often shown as a mermaid. And in the Caribbean they have tales of Aycayia and La Sirene, both mermaids. The M iengu plural of Jengu of Cameroon are normally said to be beautiful, mermaid -like figures with long, wooly hair and gap-toothed smiles.
They live in rivers and the sea and bring good fortune to those who worship them. In Brazil there is folklore about Iara , who is a mermaid, a water nymph or a siren depending on the context or story. Iara means something like Lady of the Lake or Water Queen. According to legend Iara is an immortal freshwater nymph in the appearance of a beautiful young woman with green hair and light skin who sits on a rock by the river combing her hair or dozing under the sun.
When she feels a man around she sings to gently to lure him to her, to live out his life with her under the water. Mermaids and mermen are also part of Philippine folklore, known as Sirena and Siyokoy respectively. They are human above the waist and have fish tails. They can be good or evil, sometimes drowning sailors after luring them into the water with their spellbinding songs, and at other times trying to rescue drowning sailors.
On Java there are many ancient legends, sagas, myths and folklore stories about the Javanese mermaid queen Nyi Roro Kidul. She is tied in with many of the royals in Javas history, and is considered the Queen of the South Sea the Indian Ocean , and in control of the giant waves and Tsunamis that originate there. She is known to lure handsome young men into the sea from fishing boats or even the beach.
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