Mermaid

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Marine Lexicon — Marine mammals — Mythical creatures — Activities related to marine mammals — Toponomy — Zooarchaeology — Historical sources — Cite Marine Lexicon

Mermaid and Merman in Cosmographia by Sebastian Münster, 1578.

Mermaid speaks to European men. Pieter van der Aa, 1707. Naaukeurige versameling der gedenk-waardigste zee en land-reysen na Oost en West-Indiën zedert het jaar 1524 tot 1526. In het ligt gegeven te Leyden, Pieter van der Aa, boekverkoper in de St. Pieters Koorsteeg. https://jcb.lunaimaging.com/luna/servlet/s/52a4dv

mermaid • Female creature with a fish tail and human body (male counterpart: merman). Merpeople feature in numerous legends, stories, and even religions. One of the earliest representatives is probably the Sumerian god Ea. Ea was a.o. the god of water, light, and fertility. During the day, Ea came on land, come night fall, he would retreat back to sea. He was thus depicted as part fish, or as a human with fish swimming up to him. Greek mythology, too, is rich in references to merpeople (e.g. Triton). Plinius mentions mermaids and mermen in his Historia Naturalis, influencing literature until medieval times. After disappearing from scientific literature, merpeople continued to play a role in folk tales and myths. In the 19^th century, authors like J. Grimm and W. Grimm in Germany, H.C. Andersen in Denmark, and P.C. Asbjørnsen and J. Moe in Norway started collecting and recording fairy tales. While H.C. Andersen's "lille havfrue" is probably the most famous mermaid, merpeople are common along the entire Atlantic coast. Their appearance and size can vary from country to country, and from region to region.

English

Mermaid; Siren

Portuguese

Sereia; Serena

Norwegian

Havfrue

Dutch

Zeemeermin; Meermin

German

Meerjungfrau; Seejungfrau; Nixe; Fischweib

French

Sirène

Spanish

Sirena

Catalan

Sirena

Italian

Sirena

Greek

Σειρήνα; γοργόνα

Creole

Muala de fundo (Forro, creoule of São Tomé and Príncipe)

References

• Video Mermaids and Manatees, CHAM-Centre for the Humanities
• Communication Rosa, M.F. & Brito, C. Hybrid Beings and Aquatic Mammals in the Greco-Roman Accounts.
• Brito, C. 2016. New Science From Old News: Sea monsters in the early modern Portuguese production and transfer of knowledge about the natural world. Scientia et Historia, Escola de Mar nº 1. ISBN: 978-989-9931-11-4
• Brito, C. 2019. Fantasy, Cryptozoology and/or Reality: Interconnected stories of mythological creatures and marine mammals. In: Mário S. Ming Kong. Maria do Rosário Monteiro & Maria João P. Neto (Eds) PHI: Intelligence, Creativity and Fantasy. CRC Press, Taylor & Francis Group, Boca Raton, London, New York, Leiden: 335-351.
• Hendrikx, S. 2018. Monstrosities from the Sea. Taxonomy and tradition in Conrad Gessner’s (1516-1565) discussion of cetaceans and sea-monsters, in Jacquemard, C., B. Gauvin, M.-A. Lucas-Avenel, B. Clavel & T. Buqet (éds), Animaux aquatiques et monstres des mers septentrionales (imaginer, connaître, exploiter, de l’Antiquité à 1600). Anthropozoologica 53 (11): 125-137. https://doi.org/10.5252/anthropozoologica2018v53a11
• https://sciencepress.mnhn.fr/en/periodiques/anthropozoologica/53/11
• Leclercq-Marx, J. 2018. Entre tradition classique et imaginaire germano-celtique : les monstres anthropomorphes des mers septentrionales, au Moyen Âge et au début de l’époque moderne, in Jacquemard C., Gauvin B., Lucas-Avenel M.-A., Clavel B. & Buquet T. (éds), Animaux aquatiques et monstres des mers septentrionales (imaginer, connaître, exploiter, de l’Antiquité à 1600). Anthropozoologica 53 (3): 53-65. https://doi.org/10.5252/anthropozoologica2018v53a3
• https://sciencepress.mnhn.fr/en/periodiques/anthropozoologica/53/3