Mermaids’ Features Deeds, AND Environs
http://freeebooks.us/most-popular-ebook-downloads/
Of course, certain common mermaid characteristics figured prominently while in the mythology of diverse cultures, long back the periods of travel as well as exploration inside late Middle Many years in addition to the Renaissance. Chief among these are mermaids’ enchanting voices, their sensuality, and more than that their devastating potential—all of the same thing lie at the core of the mermaid mystique.
The Mermaid’s Song
“[T]he secret of the power in their song: it is the sound of the subversive, luring us from the orderly conscious world down within the depth of the world of dreams, in addition to the harder we try to ignore that singing, the more we desperately want to hear it.”
—Meri Lao, Seduction in addition to the Secret Power of Women: The Lure of Sirens plus Mermaids
According to almost all legends and more than that stories, a mermaid’s voice isn’t merely melodious enough to rival the record of operatic divas. It’s so mesmerizing that men who hear it go wild with delight and sometimes jump from their boats or rush into the sea—in addition to subsequently drown. Some sailors, captivated plus disoriented by the mermaids’ hauntingly gorgeous singing, run their ships aground on rocky shores and, in a place of delicious delirium, they go to their watery graves.
Interestingly, among the numerous reports given during the many years by populace who claim to have found mermaids, few mention hearing the infamous singing. Perhaps if they had heard the mermaids’ songs, they you as you probably possibly not have lived to tell the tales!
“In stories, poems and sometimes myths, hearing a mermaid’s song was considered a haunting in addition to hazardous experience. Typically, it lured the listener to toss aside safety and sometimes his or her whole, known world, in addition to plunge into the ocean. Such a leap could bring doom or it could bring salvation. Sometimes it brought both. The mermaid’s song complimentary calls us to the unknown, on the impassioned world of change plus possibility. Ultimately mermaids follow it in the imagination as the they represent a primal human need: to dive deep into the mystery of our un-lived life.”
—Sue Monk Kidd, bestselling author of The Mermaid Chair and more than that The Secret Life of Bees
MAPPING MERMAIDS
As early sailors ventured farther out to sea, mapmakers started to picturing mermaids plus other military services oddities on maps. Mermaids may have been intended as symbols of the sea itself, or as alerts to seafarers of the mysteries they you you would possibly possibly encounter on their voyages. Mermaids frequently appear on medieval mappa mundi, such because thirteenth-century rendering signed by Richard de Haldingham e de Lafford in addition to in these days housed in Britain’s Hereford Cathedral.
Literary Accounts of Mermaids’ Songs
The indigine One Thousand and One Nights says that mermaids’ songs rendered sailors helpless as well as lured them to their doom. The infamous Sirens of naturelle Greek myth are presented as melodious but malevolent temptresses—no man could resist their tantalizing singing. Inside 3,000-year-old Odyssey, Odysseus (or Ulysses in Latin) is warned within the Sirens’ powers; he therefore ties himself to his ship’s mast in addition to his sailors put wax in their ears so they won’t be driven mad by the enchantresses’ songs. Our modern-day remember “siren,” rooted inside Greek myths of the Sirens of old, has the connotation of a seductive and potentially dangerous human femme fatale.
Folklore remains pretty quiet to the subject of mermen’s singing ability. Some sources depiction the males as having “silvery” or “fluted” voices, though nothing as exquisite as those of the females. One Cornish legend tells of a handsome young man from town of Zennor who goes to live with the mermaids—yet population in the town still say they hear his handsome tenor voice wafting for the wave form. But now as the mermen don’t possess the bewitchingly an attractive voices of the females of the species doesn’t mean that they lack musical talent. The Scandinavian Havman is said to be an accomplished violinist who enchants women with his skillful playing, in addition to the Greek’s Triton blew a conch shell like a trumpet.
HERBERT JAMES DRAPER, ULYSSES AND THE SIRENS
Deadly Beauties
“[B]ehind this seductive image of the Siren lurks the a metaphor of death, for enticed by her promise and sometimes attraction, a long time have been lured to their certain doom in a thousand exclusion stories that proclaim the basis of powerful and sometimes enduring myths and more than that legends that continue to persist at the moment.”
—Beatrice Phillpotts, Mermaids
Do mermaids intend to sing mariners into “the big sleep”? Or do their victims simply overreact when they hear the otherworldly charisma of the music? It’s a subject for debate. It’s been speculated that sailors, upon observing mermaids floating inside pangs, think they see drowning women plus jump overboard to rescue them—but in the process the well-meaning seamen drown instead.
Some stories say that mermaids manoeuvre men they fancy down into the depths in addition to accidentally drown them, not realizing that humans can’t breathe underwater. Other tales say humans who’ve been drawn into the mermaids’ underwater realms persevere there, changed into merfolk themselves.
Hans Christian Andersen’s prominent fairy tale “The Little Mermaid” offers yet another perspective. In it the author explains that the mermaid’s song is often a compassionate attempt to calm the fears of sailors who are about to drown in a storm at sea. “They had more beautiful voices than any human being could have; and sometimes past the viewpoint of a storm, plus at the same thing that time they expected a ship as you perhaps be lost, they swam back the vessel, in addition to sang sweetly of the delights to be noticed while in the depths of the sea, plus begging the sailors not to unease if they sank on the bottom.”
“A mermaid set up a swimming lad,
Picked him for her own,
Pressed her body to his body,
Laughed; plus plunging down
Forgot in severe happiness
That even lovers drown.”
—William Butler Yeats, “A Man Young plus Old”
MILITARY MERFOLK
Mermaids may be dangerous, but they don’t normally attack inhabitants—they use their feminine wiles to lure men to their deaths. Mermen, surely, can be more warlike. They’re said to fashion weapons from the body parts of other sea creatures—coral, shells, bones, plus the teeth of large aquatic predators.
The Tempest
Many legends link mermaids with storms and sometimes even blame them for whipping up tempests at sea in sequence to sink ships. Some old English stories portrayed mermaids as evil omens plus portents of bad luck. It’s said that if a sailor spotted a mermaid, it meant bad weather was coming and sometimes he’d never return home another time.
Another belief, explained while in the twelfth-century text known as the Speculum Regale or The King’s Mirror, states that what time seafarers saw a mermaid at the onset of a storm, she served as an oracle and her conclusions let them know if they’d survive or perish. According to this theory, the mermaid dives underwater and brings up a fish. If the woman plays with the fish or throws it at the boat, death is imminent. If your lover eats the fish or tosses it past into the water, away from the ship, the sailors will manufacture it through the tempest alive.
Ominous depictions of mermaids were positivehi by the Catholic Church all through the Middle Ages. Medieval church fathers linked mermaids with the deadly sins of vanity and lust, in addition to the alluring powers of women in general. Some churches displayed images of mermaids swimming with fish or starfish (specifically what symbolized Christians) as warnings against sexual temptations. If a mermaid held a fish in her hands, it signified that a Christian had succumbed to the sin of lust.
“Thou rememberest
Before once I sat upon a promontory,
And more than that heard a mermaid on a Dolphin’s before
Uttering such dulcet in addition to harmonious breath,
That the rude sea grew civil at her song;
And more than that certain stars shot madly from their spheres,
To hear the sea-maid’s music.”
—William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Dark’s Dream
“Slow sail’d the weary mariners and more than that saw,
Betwixt the green brink as well as the running foam,
Sweet faces, rounded arms, and bosoms prest
To little harps of gold; and sometimes while they mused
Whispering to each other half in unease,
Shrill music reach’d them over the middle sea.”
—Lord Alfred Tennyson, “The Sea-Fairies”
Bearers of Good Fortune
Not all legends portray mermaids as dangerous. The African water deities branded Mami Wata, who often appear as mermaids, are said to heal the sick and bring good fortune. In Caribbean tradition, the water spirit/mermaid Lasirèn guides inhabitants (usually women) underwater where your lover confers special powers on them. Some European folklore acknowledges their potential dangers, but reminds us that mermaids, like the sea itself, can bring good things to humanity and sometimes bad.
Mermaids, it seems, are as changeable since the sea—serene one moment and more than that tumultuous the next. The Physiologus or Bestiary (originally written in Greek, probably while in the third or fourth century C.E.), was one of the maximum distinguished books for the duration of the Middle Ages. It characterized a mermaid as “a beast of the sea wonderfully shapen as a maid from the navel upward and sometimes a fish from the navel downward, as well as this beast is joyful in addition to merry in tempest, plus sad plus heavy in fair weather.”
Psychologically, mermaids have been said to represent the complexity of women’s emotions, ranging from playful to stormy, and more than that the light as well as nighttime sides of the human psyche. Like the fairy, whom cinema hall plus children’s stories have also trivialized, mermaids can be both alluring and more than that dangerous—obviously not something to trifle with!
MERMAID FIGUREHEADS
For the period of the centuries, sailors affixed figureheads of mermaids about the bows of their ships to ensure safe as well as prosperous voyages. Between about 1790 and more than that 1825, the golden era of the clipper ships, beautifully crafted figureheads adorned British and more than that American merchant vessels and warships alike.
Luxurious Locks
You’ll never see a profile of a mermaid with a pixie or brush cut. One of her defining attributes is her long, flowing hair. Seafarers often depiction seeing a mermaid’s sinuous tresses floating about the swells or twining around her body like seaweed. In some examples, artists (such as those who “cleaned up” the Starbucks logo) depict her modestly covering her breasts with her luxurious locks—something unabashed mermaids wouldn’t even think of doing.
As far since the color of merfolk hair is concerned, green seems to be outstanding. The original Greek Tritons supposedly sported green hair, and legends of merfolk from Ireland and the British Isles also mention their green hair. And tales from Down Under say that the local water spirits titled yawkyawks have long hair that looks like seaweed or green algae.
In Scandinavia, needless to say, where human blondes predominate, so do stories of golden-haired mermaids. Other folktales and sometimes sightings description that mermaids’ hair can vary from palest blonde to black—as well as everything in between, or incredibly the colors that remind us of the sea: green, blue, turquoise, purple, white, and sometimes silver.
Siren Sightings
In 1614, American explorer John Smith (best known for his association with Pocahontas) stated he’d establish a mermaid off the coast of Massachusetts. He described her as having long green hair plus said your lady was “by no means unattractive.”
Combs as well as Mirrors
If you believe specifically what you read in mermaid myths, these lovely ladies devote a lot of time to personal grooming—specifically, combing their hair. Although they may appear devoid of other possessions—even clothing—mermaids for the period of the world carry their combs and more than that mirrors with them what time they set out to entice human seafarers into their watery worlds. Countless stories speak of mermaids sitting on rocks throughout the swells with their glistening tails curled about them, while they comb their long, flowing tresses plus examine themselves in hand-held mirrors.
Mythology in addition to art upload numerous links between mermaids as well as Venus/Aphrodite, the Roman/Greek (respectively) goddess of love plus elegance. Botticelli’s well-known painting The Birth of Venus depicts the goddess with abundant auburn hair, long enough to discreetly conceal her “lady parts.” So perhaps it’s no surprise that we see mermaids gazing into their mirrors and combing their lustrous, flowing locks—presently as human women are known to do.
If you’re familiar with astrology or astronomy you may notice the similarity between the mermaid’s hand-held mirror and the glyph within the planet Venus (given the name over the Roman goddess). It’s probably no accident. Take a look at that symbol—it’s a circle above a plus landmark—what suggests that mermaids descended from this native goddess of appeal and sometimes love.
THE SIN OF INDULGENCE
For the duration of the Middle Many years, the comb and mirror—two of the mermaid’s utmost prized possessions—represented pride and sometimes vanity. British medieval churches invoked these symbols to caution parishioners against indulging in these sins.
Seductive Attributes
“Hair, because the of its ability to re-grow, relates to re-birth . . . Hair that was put up or covered with a hat could, metaphorically, be available as lost—along with any power it was believed to possess. Hair, then, is associated with mandatory female forces.”
—Patricia Radford, “Lusty Ladies: Mermaids while in the Medieval Irish Church”
A woman’s hair has long been counted among her most important seductive attributes. Her hair was considered so enticing, actually, that pending the latter part of the twentieth century Catholic women covered their hair at which time they attended Mass, lest they distract men with their feminine charms. In anticipation of recently, Catholic nuns shaved their hair and sometimes veiled their heads. Buddhist nuns, too, shave their heads. Traditionally, Orthodox Jewish women wore wigs or otherwise concealed their indigenous hair in public. In Islamic culture at present, women shroud their heads to signify modesty. So do women in Amish, Mennonite, as well as other conservative communities.
Certainly, there’s more to a mermaid’s hair than meets the eye. Barbara Walker, author of The Woman’s Dictionary of Symbols and more than that Sacred Objects, proposes that what time a mermaid combs her hair this woman’s performing a type of magic. Because hair traditionally represents upstandingness, the mermaid’s act of attending to her long, lustrous hair signifies her efforts to nurture as well as enhance her personal power.
The image of the mermaid combing her hair can also be linked to a purification ritual practiced inside Irish church, explains Patricia Radford in “Lusty Ladies: Mermaids in the Medieval Irish Church.” Priests groomed their own hair with special liturgical combs in a rite intended to cleanse both body plus soul. Thus, the mermaid’s behavior could symbolize not only physical indulgence but transcendence as well.
WHAT’S SEXY ABOUT THE MERMAID’S COMB?
For anyone who knows Greek, a mermaid’s comb is more than an implement with the same thing to groom her long, luscious hair—it has underlying sexual implications as well. Inside the Greek language, the words for comb—kteis as well as pectin—also mean “vulva.”
A Mermaid’s Abode?
According within the accounts of sailors in addition to inhabitants who live by the sea, mermaids frolic for the ocean far out in the pangs, but also come close to shore where they sit on rocks and more than that preen themselves. Celtic legends say they can also be uncovered in marshes and fens, in addition to European tales claim merfolk reside in rivers, lakes, and more than that waterfalls. Like their water-spirit predecessors, mermaids seem at home in freshwater in addition to the salty seas.
In his 3,000-year-old epic Theogony, the poet Hesiod wrote that the Greek merman Triton in addition to his parents, Poseidon and more than that Amphitrite, lived in a golden palace at the bottom of the sea. Some legends say mermaids construct their homes in coral caves within the ocean’s depths. Other tales advocate that mermaids inhabit the long-lost continents of Atlantis and more than that Lemuria, specifically what supposedly sank on the swells floors eons ago.
Published in 1891, The Folk-Lore of the Isle of Man, by A. W. Moore, stated that the people of the Isle of Man believed “a splendid city, with many towers and gilded minarets, once stood near Langness, on a spot at the moment covered by the sea.” Here, merfolk dwelt, surrounded by treasure they’d accumulated from the ships they’d caused to sink.
Considering that population all to the world have proclaimed seeing mermaids in all sorts of environments plus locations, we can assume these mysterious and versatile creatures are capable of living virtually anywhere—even on land, at least for a while. Ultimately, though, they reject the land-based lives they’ve embarked on and sometimes return to their legitimate home: the sea.
Siren Sightings
While in the 1600s, Renaissance entrepreneurs decided to plumb the underwater realms off the Isle of Man by lowering a man encased in a glass bubble-like device into the depths. The explorers hoped to produce a fortune by recovering sunken treasure they believed lay hidden beneath the sea. Certainly, they ran out of rope since their man reached the bottom. What time his companions pulled him ago up, he proclaimed having witnessed an underwater paradise with streets built of coral, glistening pyramids of crystal, in addition to mother-of-pearl buildings decorated with colorful shells. He described one room he managed to observe closely as being created of precious stones of all kinds. Additionally, he claimed to have met “comely mermen and more than that an exquisite mermaids, the population of this blissful realm.”
FINFOLKAHEEM
Orkney Islanders speak of a status branded Finfolkaheem meaning “the finfolk’s home” as a wondrous palace developed over the pangs floor and sometimes surrounded by seaweed gardens. Its grand rooms and hallways are reportedly designed of crystal and sometimes illuminated by blue-green phosphorescence, what plankton as well as creatures that live inside the deep certainly give off.
Elusive Beauties
In reality, countless populace claim they’ve found mermaids in addition to mermen. Some even insist they’ve had close encounters with these fine-looking girls and sometimes guys. In addition to yet, despite the frequency with precisely what merfolk show up, we have no hard proof of their validity—no bones, no fins, only some whacky movie plus some monstrous phonies.
As you’ve learned, old legends as well as lore speak of mermaids as well as other hybrid creatures as having lived about the earth, now like humans and more than that animals. In many of those folktales, mermaids even married populace and produced children. These seafolk could change condition at will, turning in their fishtails for legs provisionally, so they could march on land. But some contemporary researchers believe that not only can mermaids magically shapeshift from human beings to fish or reptiles, they also can transform themselves from physical to nonphysical entities. Like the spirit animals of Originaire American mythology, merfolk can move between the material plus spirit worlds with a flip of their fishtails. The only time we can see them is as soon as we are for the same wavelength, so to speak—like fairies in addition to angels.
We have no way of knowing whether mermaids send in themselves to humans more often at this time than they did in ancient times, but one thing is certain. Their likenesses are omnipresent, enticing us from jewelry stores, catalogs, online sites, and more than that even Las Vegas movie versions. In addition to it’s a safe bet that mermaids will continue to live among us on the foreseeable future.
MERMAID FANTASY GAMES
Populace who love fantasy games can play with the merfolk by visiting the online game site mythara.wikia.com. The site explains merfolk’s culture, social connections, economy, politics, religion, and more than that more—at least from the perspective of Mythara’s creators plus players.
“O, train me not, sweet mermaid, with thy note,
To drown me in thy sister’s flood of tears.
Sing, siren, for thyself, as well as I will dote.”
—William Shakespeare, The Comedy of Errors
