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Mermaids appear in the folklore of many cultures worldwide, including Europe, Asia, and Africa. Mermaids are sometimes associated with perilous events such as floods, storms, shipwrecks, and drownings.
mermaid, a fabled marine creature with the head and upper body of a human being and the tail of a fish. Similar divine or semidivine beings appear in ancient mythologies (e.g., the Chaldean sea god Ea, or Oannes).
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
- A mermaid is a fabled marine creature with the head and upper body of a woman and the tail of a fish. In European folklore, mermaids were natural b...
- Many folktales record marriages between mermaids (who might assume human form) and men. In most, the man steals the mermaid’s cap or belt or her co...
- Though sometimes kindly, mermaids were usually dangerous to humans. Their gifts brought misfortune and could cause disasters. They sometimes lured...
- "The Little Mermaid" is a fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen about a young mermaid who longs to be part of the human world.
- Aquatic mammals, such as the dugong and manatee, that suckle their young in human fashion above water are considered by some to be the origin of my...
Sep 29, 2018 · They are creatures of the sea and known to spend the majority of their lives in this environment, though some tales claim that there were mermaids who had the ability to live on both land and sea. This was often done by shedding their fish tail or skin and hiding it while they were on land.
15 Real Life Mermaid Sightings From History. Mind Boggler. 2.94M subscribers. 70K. 7M views 4 years ago #mermaid #sightings #mindboggler. ...more. Since the beginning of recorded history,...
Mar 31, 2022 · Learn about the ancient and diverse origins and meanings of mermaids in various cultures and myths. From Assyria to Greece to Europe, discover how mermaids have been depicted as gods, monsters, lovers and symbols of life and death.
- JAPAN // NINGYO. Vastly different than the Western version of a beautiful mermaid, this monster found in Japanese folklore is described as a giant fish with a human face and a monkey's mouth, and sometimes even horns and fangs.
- SCOTLAND AND ORKNEY ISLANDS // SELKIE. Wikimedia Commons // CC BY-SA 3.0. Selkies are gentle creatures who live their lives as seals while in the water and shed their skin to become human on land, but they're frequently equated with mermaids because in Gaelic stories they are associated with maighdeann-mhara, or "maid of the sea."
- AFRICA // MAMI WATA. The "water spirit" Mami Wata is sometimes described as a mermaid, sometimes as a snake charmer, and occasionally as a combination of both.
- BRAZIL // IARA. Wikimedia Commons // Public Domain. The idea of mermaids in Brazil comes from the tale of Iara, the "Lady of the Waters." Iara was originally known as a water snake, but through folklore became an immortal woman with green eyes and brown skin who was known lure sailors to her underwater palace, where they became her lovers.
A mermaid is a mythical sea-dwelling creature, often described as having the head and body of a woman and a fish's tail below the waist. Stories of mermaids have existed for thousands of years and span cultures across the world - from coastal settlements in Ireland to the landlocked Karoo desert in South Africa.
