Mermaids are mythical sea creatures with a human woman’s head and torso and a fish tail. They appear in folklore worldwide, with variations in appearance and behavior. Mermaids feature extensively in literature, art, and media. The legend may have originated from sightings of manatees or seaweed.
A mermaid is a mythical sea creature with the head and torso of a human woman and the tail of a fish. The male version is known as a merman and the generic term is merman. The mermaid appears in folklore around the world, including Europe, the Middle East, the Caribbean, West and Central Africa, and Japan. As one would expect from any mythical figure with such a large geographical range, the mermaid has many variations in appearance. The European Melusina, for example, often has a snake tail or two tails, sometimes in addition to wings.
Sirens also vary in reported behavior. Some are dangerous, like the Greek Siren who sings enchanting songs from the shore to bewitch sailors or lure them to their deaths. Others are benevolent and can grant the wishes of those who see them. In Japan, eating the flesh of a mermaid is said to confer immortality. In the earliest known mermaid tradition, heralding 1st century BC Assyria, the mermaid is a goddess who leapt into the sea in grief for her lover whom she accidentally killed.
The mermaid features extensively in the literature and art of many cultures and eras. It is the subject of one of Hans Christian Andersen’s most famous fairy tales, The Little Mermaid, and the 1989 Disney film based on it. Numerous movies, cartoons, and television shows have also had the mermaid as a theme.
Mermaid tales are widely believed to have their root in sightings of manatees, aquatic mammals that can resemble humans from a distance. The way manatees carry their young, in particular, is said to resemble the way a human mother holds her baby. Manatees often sun themselves on rocks, just as mermaids do in many accounts. Alternatively, the seaweed may have given rise to mermaid legends, as to sailors it could have looked like a mermaid’s long hair floating underwater.
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