About Mermaids

MERMAIDS

The word is a compound of mere, the Old English word for "sea", and maid, a woman. The male equivalent is a merman.

There are many Mermaids all over the world, the myth ( for some, the belief) can be found everywhere

Among the Neo-Taíno nations of the Caribbean the mermaid is called Aycayia. Her attributes relate to the goddess Jagua, and the hibiscus flower of the majagua tree Hibiscus tiliaceus. In the modern Caribbean the mermaid is found as Haitian Vodou Lwa La Sirene (literally, 'the mermaid') who is lwa of wealth and beauty and the orisha Yemaya. Examples from other cultures are the Mami Wata of West and Central Africa, the Jengu of Cameroon, the Merrow of Ireland and Scotland, the Rusalkas of Russia and Ukraine, the Iara from Brazil 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 ningyo can grant unaging immortality. In some European legends mermaids are said to be unlucky.

Atargatis, The first Mermaid

The first known mermaid stories appeared in Assyria, ca. 1000 BC. The goddess Atargatis, mother of Assyrian queen Semiramis, loved a mortal shepherd and unintentionally killed him. Ashamed, she jumped into a lake to take the form of a fish, but the waters would not conceal her divine beauty. Thereafter, she took the form of a mermaid—human above the waist, fish below—though the earliest representations of Atargatis showed her as a fish with a human head and legs, similar to the Babylonian Ea. The Greeks recognized Atargatis under the name Derketo. Prior to 546 BC, the Milesian philosopher Anaximander proposed that mankind had sprung from an aquatic species of animal. He thought that humans, with their extended infancy, could not have survived otherwise. This idea reappeared as the aquatic ape hypothesis in the twentieth century.

Djullanar, The Arabic Mermaid

The One Thousand and One Nights includes several tales featuring "Sea People", such as Djullanar the Sea-girl. 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 sharing in the ability to live underwater.

Chinese Mermaids and the peal tears

In some ancient fairytales of China, mermaid is a special species whose tears can turn into priceless pearls. What's more, mermaids can also knit an extremely valuable material which is not only slight but also beautiful and translucent. Because of this, fishermen longed to catch them, but it's difficult for them to survive for mermaids' splendid singing can simply drag them to coma. Actually, mermaid is a symbol of wonderful creatures in Ancient China. They are deft,beautiful and versatile. And the fishermen who want to catch mermaids are a symbol of negative character.

Sirens

The sirens of Greek mythology are sometimes portrayed in later folklore as mermaid-like; in fact, some languages use the same word for both bird and fish creatures, such as the Maltese word 'sirena'. Other related types of mythical or legendary creatures are water fairies (e.g., various water nymphs) and selkies, animals that can transform themselves from seals to humans.[citation needed]

YEMANJA ( or Yemaja ), the MERMAID

In Brazilian mythology Yemaja is known as Yemanja, she is a beautiful mermaid goddess, who appears from the water surrounded by sweet melodies and carrying a comb and mirror made from oyster and snail shells. She will rise from the water seated on a sea shell wearing a crown of pearls and starfish. Her kingdom is the all the waters of the world.

In African mythology the supreme being created the earth, and created a pantheon of gods and goddesses known as Orishas, Yemaja was the Orisha who was responisble for all the waters of the world. She regulated night and day, the tides and rain. Yemaja was also said to have brought beauty to the world.