The History of Mermaids

Mermaids can be found in virtually every culture around the world going back so far into history that when studying the History of mermaid it's hard to not wonder if there are in fact some form of half-human.

Half-fish creatures actually swimming in our oceans though the earliest use of the word mermaid wouldn't actually be unitl the 14th century half-fish humans have been included in legends starting as far back as the sumerian demigods..

Some of the names of these different legends interestingly these early half-fish people were described as male entities as opposed to today's more common portrayal of mermaids as female around 1830 bec history would introduce the world to the mesopotamian myths of kululu and kulu li ii fish man and fish woman surprisingly the fish man stories would significantly perdate that of the fish woman..

Atargaties 1000 Bec

Around 1000 bce a syrian deity known as atar goddness would be portrayed with the ability to transfer between fish tail and human legs as needed according to a third century source early worshiper of this deity would actually castrate them selves to honor the goddess only after king avgar became a worshiper of the goddness would the practice become illegal the arabian.

Collection of stories known as 1001 nights best known for the inclusion of the stories 40 thieves and aladdin later editions i might add and originally included the story a story of a hero that had to go through a number of different invention adventures including visiting a community of mermaids not all mermaids were born to the life many stories include women that as a result of unfortunate circumstances would become mermaids..

Thessalonike 352-295 BCE

Mermaids in this store in this story of a mermaid out of the aegean sea it is said that this mermaid was the sister of alexander the great and in her human life he had Alexander had come across a flask of immortal water and he had washed her hair with it following his death in her grief the sister attempted drown..

Herself as a result of her immortal hair washing earlier. In her life she was unable to drown and instead truned into a mermaid and ultimately plagued the sailors of the aegean sea..

King Triton

King triton is a well known example of a merman from greek mythology i specifically mentioned triton here because i i want to set the record straight a bit about king triton many know king triton from Disney where. he is protrayed as the father of the seven daughters including ariel little mermaid in fact many of the greek representations of triton do not include thses seven daughters and don't even associate him with what has now become his signature pitchfork triton weapon triton was actually um said to have been the herald for his father Poseidon more often shown and associated with the conch shell that he could use to bring call to the waves and either flare them up or clam them down.

King Neptun

The triton likely comes from The triton likely comes from the roman god Neptune a god only occasionally portrayed with a tail when portrayed with the tail he is often shown with his triton fun fact that image in the bottom right there is actually of the king Neptune state on the Moorhead city waterfront not all mermaids were portrayed as beautiful or even pleasing to the eyes in any way in japan there is the legnd of the ninja the ninja is described as having the head of a monkey with tail of a fish interestingly despite its unfortunate appearance encountering a ninja is meant to be a good omen.

This is an interesting contrast as many of the western stories of mermaids will portray the opposite in that the creatures will be described of immense beauty but bringing ill luck as opposed to the ninja who is not by any means beautiful but a gooMommy water is an interesting mermaid deity Worth of a presentation of her own and i would encourage anyone to look her look into her on their own mamawata is an African deity a term that alarm many because African is a continent not a country in fact continent of Africa has 54 recognize countries with over three thousand recognized tribes and almost two thousand different spoken languages this diversity is part of what makes mommy watta so fascinating because just as the mermaid myth is pary of almost every culture in the world the stories of mamiwata are also shared thoughout the tribes and countries of west central and southern Africa going so far as to jump the pond and become part of the culture in the african diaspora mommy watais portrayed portyed as a wise woman often educating about the waters and encouraging responsible costeal living though she is known to have a ventral streak needs to be a occasionally appeased as is common with mermaid through gifts and small sacrificesd omen.In thai folklore there is an interesting tale of the golden fish it is common to see the image of this golden fish hung up for good luck her story is very interesting and that she to have been a mermaid princess that was sent to stop the building of a bridge ultimately she would fall in love with the architect of the bridge allowing the bridge to br built and no longer being a threat to anybody in the area when studying different mermaid myths all the different mermaid myths and legends a pattern started to emerge of two types of mermaids on one hand there is the sweet innocent mermaid who loves humans often working to help or join the human race on other side there are the temptress mermaid that hate the human race and appear to be out to kill humans..

Usually men in some form of vengeance in 1836 the author hans Christian in 1836 the author hans Christian Anderson would pen the story of the little mermaid in this story anderson would solidify that image of the innocent mermaid that wanted become a human as opposed to the alluring somewhat hateful creatures previously portrayed more commonly portrayed in myths thought popular Anderson work would definitely not end the tradition of the alluring mermaids artists would continue to porgtray...

These alluring creatures countiuing the tradition and belief that the creatures would lure men to the sea and persumably to their death mermaids are definitely not only cree not only creatures of their ancient past their stories have continued to be told in our modern culture though literature movies art and even presentations such as this art and even presentations such as this one in 1904 j.m barry wrote the now well known story of peter pan and wendy that included a description of a mermaid grotto in peter pans homeland of neverland they're written for children this story includes an interesting combination of the sweet and innocent mermaids that also attempted to drown the character wendy out of jealousy...

Siren of the sea 1911

In 19911 the actress and annette Kellerman would be the first to prortray the creatures on the silver screen revising their role a couple more times during her career the book series knows as the chronicles of narnia that was published between 1950 and 1956 also included mermaids thought unfortunately the later movie versions of these stories would cut back the inclusion their inclusion to a brief cameo in the books the mermaids were portrayed as helpful though a bit reclusive in 1989..

Disney's The listtle mermaid 1989

In 1989 walt disney would take Anderson's story of the innocent little mermaid and bring her to the 20th century audience through his animated film the little mermaid this portrayal of the little mermaid countinus through today with what has bow become a franchise of a series of mini series spin offs sequels and lots of different types of merchandise interestingly Right alongside the beautiful and innocent portrayal of the mermaid..

The less appealing image of the mermaid with the violent tendencies continues to flourish in 2000 the movie harry Potter and the goblet of fire would include a portrayal of mermaids as less then beautiful creatures in this tale the mermaid is both violent but also helpful and a bit reclusive..

Aquaman 2018

The portrayal of the mermaid as more fish than person is continued later in the dc movie Aquaman that come out in 2018 though the br though brief in appearance these murder people known as the fisherman are shown as capable warriors but not the senselessly violent or vengeful ones shown in ancient legends probably my personal favorite portrayal of mermaids came in the film um pirates of the Caribbean on stranger ties that came out in 2011 from Disney in this film the dual image f the mermaids both beautiful and ugly and sweet and vengeful were combined in these creatures the creatures were portrayed as having the ability to switch physically between the beautiful appearance and a more fish like monster appear at will they were also shown as being violent and vengeful unless they deemed someone worthy of saving at which point they would show a more of ann innocent almost interest in the humans the whole world is a series of miracles but we're so used to them that we call them ordinary things this is a quote by hand christian Anderson and its kind of my response to those that when we talk about mermaids and the magic of the ocean and they tend to say well its really just a manatee that was misidentified or as a mermaid i ask you even if it mermaid if even if mermaids are just manatees and seashells dose that make them any less aw or any less miraculous...