So I'm sure many of us are familiar with the mythological tails (get it?) of mermaids. We're all familiar with mermaids in pop culture in the past few decades.
But what is between ancient mythology and 20th century concepts of mermaids?
Personally, I'd like to know more about mermaids in the Victorian and Edwardian eras, but there's so much to learn!
Does anyone else share similar thoughts or have any interesting information? I'd love to hear it!
user formerly known as mermaidofthelabyrinth
In Ancient Greece, there were stories of mermaid songs that could hypnotise a man, so that the mermaids may drag them below the surface.
The story of Odysseus says that he plugged his crew ears with beeswax so they couldn't hear it, and he volunteered to hear the mermaid's song while tied himself to the mast. That caused a lot of panic among mermaids, as they started to kill themselves out of shame after men escaped their song.
The other one is the one of the Argonauts, where Orpheus played a louder song than the mermaids, rendering the mermaid song effects useless.
That's all i got.
The world sees us as Merfolk
We see ourselves as a Pod, as a family
We live to swim
Love it! I think I read the Odyssey in my freshman year of high school, we had to do a video project and I played the siren. But the Argonauts sounds fascinating, I'll have to look it up!
user formerly known as mermaidofthelabyrinth
A quick google search popped up with a few interesting things for Victorian era mermaids. There's the Fiji/Feejee mermaid hoax (here and here), mermaids according to the author Tennyson (here), mermaids from the Book of British Ballads (here - NSFW, no shell tops for those ladies), and of course the inspirational nymph/mermaid art (here - NSFW, clothing was clearly optional, haha).
This page had a bit on mermaids in ancient Babylon, but that seems to be the only mention:
"Like the Indian Varuna, the sea god, Ea-Oannes had control over the spirits and demons of the deep. The "ferryman" who kept watch over the river of death was called Arad-Ea, "servant of Ea". There are also references to sea maidens, the Babylonian mermaids, or Nereids. We have a glimpse of sea giants, which resemble the Indian Danavas and Daityas of ocean, in the chant:
Seven are they, seven are they,
In the ocean deep seven are they,
Battening in heaven seven are they,
Bred in the depths of ocean. . . .
Of these seven the first is the south wind,
The second a dragon with mouth agape. . . . 1"
As a history major, this topic interests me as well! I'll try to add to the thread if I remember something.
That's so cool! Thank you!
user formerly known as mermaidofthelabyrinth
I have all kinds of info a little published in my books! I actually do a workshop on this and am in the middle of creating a timeline infogrpahic!
Ooo! I can't wait to see it!
user formerly known as mermaidofthelabyrinth
Have you ever read The Moon And The Sun, it is written by Vonda N. McIntyre. It's a book about a mermaid (they call her sea monster) who is captured by the French court of Louis XIV so he can eventually eat the mermaid and retain her magical powers, they keep her in the fountain at Versailles to study her and one lady-in-waiting of the court begins to bond with her and schemes to let her go with the aid of another gentleman of the court.
~A mermaid found a swimming lad, picked him for her own, pressed her body to his body,and made the sea their home~
I completely forgot about that! I remember the movie hype, but I didn't know what it was about! I'll have to check it out, that sounds awesome.
user formerly known as mermaidofthelabyrinth
yeah the trailer looks really great. I didn't know it was based off a bookOriginally Posted by MermaidNerenia
yeah I had no idea about the book either
user formerly known as mermaidofthelabyrinth
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