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Merman

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For other uses, see Merman (disambiguation).

Merman
File:A Crowned Merman - Arthur Rackham.jpg
A Crowned Merman, by Arthur Rackham
GroupingMythological
Sub groupingWater spirit
CountryWorldwide

Mermen, the male counterparts of the mythical female mermaids, are legendary creatures, which are male human from the waist up and fish-like from the waist down, but may assume normal human shape. Sometimes they are described as hideous and other times as handsome.

Antiquity[]

Perhaps the first recorded merman was the early Babylonian sea-god Ea, whose Sumerian name was Enki, and was known to the Greeks as Oannes. Oannes had a fish head and man's head beneath, and both a fish tail and man like legs, according to Berossus.[n 1][1]

Greco-Roman mythology[]

Further information: Triton (mythology)
File:Galéria mesta Bratislavy11.jpg

Triton with a nymph

Triton of Greek mythology was depicted as a half-man, half-fish merman in ancient Greek art. Triton was the son of the sea-god Poseidon and sea-goddess Amphitrite. Neither Poseidon nor Amphitrite were merfolk, although both were able to live under water as easily as on land.

Tritons later became generic mermen, so that multiple numbers of them were depicted in art.[2][3]

Tritons were also associated with using a conch shell in the later Hellenistic period.[4] In the 16th century, Triton was referred to as the "trumpeter of Neptune (Neptuni tubicen)" in Marius Nizolius's Thesaurus (1551),[5][n 2] and this phrase has been used in modern commentary.[6] The Elizabethan period poet Edmund Spenser referred to Triton's "trompet" as well.[7]

Another notable merman from Greek mythology was Glaucus. He was born a human and lived his early life as a fisherman. One day, while fishing, he saw that the fish he caught would jump from the grass and into the sea. He ate some of the grass, believing it to have magical properties, and felt an overwhelming desire to be in the sea. He jumped in the ocean and refused to go back on land. The sea gods nearby heard his prayers and transformed him into a sea god. Ovid describes the transformation of Glaucus in the Metamorphoses, describing him as a blue-green man with a fishy member where his legs had been.

Medieval period[]

A twin-tailed merman is depicted on the Bianco world map (1436).[8][9][n 3] A merman and a mermaid are shown on the Behaim globe (c. 1490–1493).[10]

Renaissance period[]

Gesner's sea-satyr[]

File:Gesner-Hist-Anim-IIII-p1197-pan-marinus.png

Sea-Pan or sea-satyr

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Sea-monster (monstum marinum), from Gesner's (1558) Historiae animalium
Sea-monster (monstum marinum)
―Gesner (1558) Historiae animalium.
Triton, in Schott's Physica-Curiosa (1697 ed.)
Triton
―Schott's Physica-Curiosa (1697).

Konrad Gesner in his chapter on Triton (mythology) in Historia animalium IV (1558) gave the name of "sea-Pan" or "sea-satyr" (Latin: Pan- vel satyrus marinus) to an artist's image he obtained, which he said was that of an "ichthyocentaur" or "sea-devil".[11][n 4][12][13]

Gesner's sea-devil (German: [Meerteufel] error: {{lang}}: text has italic markup (help)) has been described by a modern commentator as having "the lower body of a fish and the upper body of a man, the head an horns of a buck-goat or the devil, and the breasts of a woman",[14] and lacks the horse-legs of a typical centaur. Gesner made reference to a passage where Aelian writes of satyrs that inhabit Taprobana's seas,[11] counted among the fishes and cete (Ancient Greek: κήτη kḗtē, "sea monsters").[15][16]

This illustration was apparently ultimately based on a skeletal specimen and mummies.[13][n 5] Gesner explained that such a creature was placed on exhibit in Rome on 3 November 1523.[16][11] Elsewhere in Gesner's book it is stated the "sea monster (monstrum marinum)" viewed on this same date was the size of a 5-year-old child.[17][n 6] It has been remarked in connection to this that mermen created by joining the monkey's upper body with a fish's lower extremity have been manufactured in China for centuries,[16] and such merchandise may have been imported into Europe by the likes of the Dutch East India Company by this time.[20] (Cf. §Hoaxes and sideshows).

The "sea-satyr[e]" appears in Edmund Spenser's poem The Faerie Queene (1590), and glossed by Francis J. Child as a type of "ichthyocentaur", on the authority of Gesner.[21]

Germanic folklore[]

Icelandic folklore speaks of mermen known as marbendlar (sing. marbendill).[22]

"Agnete og Havmanden" is a Scandinavian ballad of late composition (late 18th century) that tells of a merman who was mated to a human woman named Agnete, and unsuccessfully pleaded her to come back to him and their children in the sea.[23]

Outward appearance[]

English folklorist Jacqueline Simpson surmises that as in Nordic (Scandinavian) countries, the original man-like water-dwellers of England probably lacked fish-like tails.[24] A "wildman" caught in a fishnet, described by Ralph of Coggeshall (c. 1210) was entirely man-like though he liked to eat raw fish and eventually returned to the sea.[24] Katharine Mary Briggs opined that the mermen are "often uglier and rougher in the British Isles".[25][n 7]

Mermen which seldom frequent American folklore are supposedly depicted as less beautiful than mermaids.[27]

Celtic folklore[]

The Irish narrative about a male merrow named Coomar, described as extremely ugly creatures with green hair, teeth and skin, narrow eyes and a red nose, turned out to be fakelore, the entire "Soul Cages" story being invented by Thomas Keightley by adapting one of Grimm's folklore pieces (Deutsche Sagen No. 25, "Der Wassermann und der Bauer" or "The Waterman and the Peasant").[26]

In Cornish folklore into early modern times, the Bucca, described as a lonely, mournful character with the skin of a conger eel and hair of seaweed, was still placated with votive offerings of fish left on the beach by fishermen.[28] Similarly vengeful water spirits occur in Breton and Gaelic lore which may relate to pre Christian gods such as Nechtan.

Folklore elsewhere[]

In Finnish mythology, a vetehinen [fi], a type of neck, is sometimes portrayed as a magical, powerful, bearded man with the tail of a fish. He can cure illnesses, lift curses and brew potions, but he can also cause unintended harm by becoming too curious about human life.

In the Inuit folklore of Greenland and northern Canada, the Auvekoejak is a furry merman.[29]

The boto (river dolphins) of the Amazon River regions of northern Brazil, is described according to local lore as taking the form of a human or merman, also known as encantado ("enchanted one" in Portuguese) and with the habit of seducing human women and impregnating them.[30]

In the folklore of the Dogon of Mali, ancestral spirits called Nommo had humanoid upper torsos, legs and feet, and a fish-like lower torso and tail.[31]

In heraldry[]

File:Vöyri-Maksamaa.vaakuna.svg

Merman pictured in the coat of arms of Vörå, Finland

Mermen or "tritons" see uncommon use in British heraldry, where they appear with the torso, head and arms of a man upon the tail of a fish. They are typically used as supporters, and are rarely used as charges.[32]

Hoaxes and sideshows[]

File:Banff Merman.jpg

The Banff "merman" on display at the Indian Trading Post, Banff, Alberta

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Upright dried ray or skate
Close-up of dried ray or skate
A dried ray or skate, or Jenny Haniver, on display at Mashhad Museum, Iran

The Fiji mermaid was first put on display in 1842 by P.T. Barnum in the Barnum's American Museum, New York.[citation needed] A similar "merman" was supposedly found in Banff, Alberta, and is displayed at the Indian Trading Post.[33] Other such "mermen", which may be composites of wood carvings, parts of monkeys and fish, are found in museums around the world, for example, at the Booth Museum in Brighton.[34]

Such fake mermaids handcrafted from half-monkey and half-fish were being made in China and the Malay archipelago and being imported by the Dutch since the mid-16th century.[20] Several natural history books published around this time (Template:Ca.) carried entries on the mermaid-like monk-fish (sea monk) and the bishopfish (sea bishop), and E. W. Gudger suspected these were misinformation based on the aforementioned hoax mermaids from the East.[n 8][35]

Gudger also noted that the mermaid-like bishopfish could well be simulated by a dried specimen of a ray. A dried ray bears a vaguely anthropomorphic shape, and can be further manipulated to enhance its desired monstrous look. Such figures made of sharks and rays eventually came to be known as Jenny Hanivers in Great Britain.[36]

Literature and popular culture[]

Matthew Arnold wrote a poem called "The Forsaken Merman" about a merman whose human wife abandoned him and their children.[37][38] Mermen may feature in science fiction and fantasy literature, for example, science fiction writer Joe Haldeman wrote two books on Attar the Merman in which genetically enhanced mermen can communicate telepathically with dolphins. Samuel R. Delany wrote the short story Driftglass in which mermen are deliberately created surgically as amphibious human beings with gills,[39] while in J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter, a race of merpeople live in a lake outside Hogwarts.[40]

Mermen sometimes appear in modern comics, games, television shows and films. Although they were once depicted largely as being unattractive in some traditions as described in previous sections, in some modern works, mermen are portrayed as handsome, strong and brave. In the 1977–1978 television series Man from Atlantis, the merman as played by Patrick Duffy is described as a survivor from Atlantis.[39] In the DC Comics mythology, mermen are a common fixture of the Aquaman mythos, often showing a parochialistic rivalry with humanoid water-breathers. The mermen or merfolk also appear in the Dungeons & Dragons game.[41]

The Australian TV series Mako: Island of Secrets (2013–2016), a spin-off of H2O: Just Add Water, includes a teenage boy named Zac (played by Chai Hansen) who turns into a merman. The 2006 CG-animated film Barbie: Mermaidia features a merman character named Prince Nalu.

The monster known as the Gill-man from the film Creature from the Black Lagoon could be seen as a modern adaptation of the merman myth.[42]

See also[]

  • List of piscine and amphibian humanoids
  • List of hybrid creatures in mythology
  • Vodyanoy
  • Fish-man of Cantabria, Spain
  • "1983... (A Merman I Should Turn to Be)"

Explanatory notes[]

References[]

Citations
  1. ↑ Waugh (1960), pp. 73–74.
  2. ↑ Hansen, William F. (2004). Deities, Themes and Concepts: Waters. ABC-CLIO. ISBN 9-781-5760-7226-4. https://books.google.com/books?id=1Z-LIKN0Ap0C&pg=PA316. 
  3. ↑ Lattimore, Steven (1976). The Marine Thiasos in Greek Sculpture. Institute of Archaeology, University of California, Los Angeles. p. 30. ISBN 9780917956027. https://books.google.com/books?id=WPo2AQAAIAAJ. 
  4. ↑ Arafat, Karim (KWA) (2012). "Triton". Triton. p. 236. ISBN 978-0-199-54556-8. https://books.google.com/books?id=9TwhfvU08UcC&pg=PA236. 
  5. ↑ Nizolius, Marius (1551), "Triton", Dictionarium Seu Thesaurus Latinae Linguae (Ex Sirenis Officina): p. 507, https://books.google.com/books?id=QehRAAAAcAAJ&pg=RA39-PA10 
  6. ↑ For example, Brooks, Nathan Covington, ed. (1860). The Metamorphoses of Publius Ovidius Naso. p. 79, n94. https://books.google.com/books?id=4TFKAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA78. 
  7. ↑ "Triton his trompet shirll", Faerie Queene, 3.11.12
  8. ↑ Watts, Linda (2006). The World Map, 1300-1492: The Persistence of Tradition and Transformation. JHU Press. p. 266. ISBN 0-801-88589-2. https://books.google.com/books?id=2dce6_CA76MC&pg=PA266. 
  9. ↑ Siebold, Jim (2015). "#241 Andrea Bianco World Map". myoldmaps.com. {{cite web}}: ; pdf text gives close-up of siren.
  10. ↑ Terkla, David P. (2013), Behaim, Martin (c. 1459–1507), Routledge, pp. 55–56, ISBN 978-1-135-59094-9, https://books.google.com/books?id=-OmCfNI_SxAC&pg=PA56 
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 11.3 Gesner (1558), p. 1197; (1604 ed.) p. 1001.
  12. ↑ Hendrikx, Sophia. "Monstrosities from the Sea. Taxonomy and tradition in Conrad Gessner's (1516-1565) discussion of cetaceans and sea-monsters". Anthropozoologica 53 (11): 132–135. http://sciencepress.mnhn.fr/en/periodiques/anthropozoologica/53/11. 
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 Ursula Wehner, Peggy; Zierau, Wolfgang; Arditti, Joseph (2013). Germanicus and Plinius Indicus: Sixteenth and Seventeenth Century Descriptions and Illustrations of Orchid "Trash Baskets", Resupination, Seeds, Floral Segments and Flower Senescence in the European Botanical Literature in Orchid Biology: Reviews and Perspectives. Springer Science & Business Media. pp. 42–44. ISBN 978-9-401-72500-2. https://books.google.com/books?id=kyLtCAAAQBAJ&pg=PA43. 
  14. ↑ Suutala, Maria (1990) (in de), Tier und Mensch im Denken der deutschen Renaissance, Studia Historica 36, Helsinki: Societas Historica Finlandiae, p. 262, ISBN 9789518915341, https://books.google.com/books?id=xxcQAQAAIAAJ&q=Meerteuful 
  15. ↑ Aelian, De Natura Animalium 16.18
  16. ↑ 16.0 16.1 16.2 Holder, Charles Frederick. Fish Stories Alleged and Experienced: With a Little History Natural and Unnatural. American nature series. Group V. Diversions from nature. David Starr Jordan. 1909. p. 7. https://books.google.com/books?id=cdUqAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA7. 
  17. ↑ Gesner (1558), p. 522; (1604 ed.) p. 441.
  18. ↑ Grace Constantino (31 October 2014). "The Beautiful Monster: Mermaids". Biodiversity Heritage Library. {{cite web}}:
  19. ↑ Jewitt, Llewellyn (1880), "The Mermaid, and the Symbolism of the Fish, in Art, Literature, and Legendary Lore", The Reliquary and Illustrated Archaeologist 20: 9–16, https://books.google.com/books?id=qJs1AAAAMAAJ&pg=PA8-IA4 
  20. ↑ 20.0 20.1 Gudger (1934), p. 512.
  21. ↑ Spenser (1866), Francis J. Child, "Faerie Queene, 2.12.27", British Poets 2 (Boston: Little, Brown & Company): p. 134, https://books.google.com/books?id=iPQTAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA134 
  22. ↑ Ármann Jakobsson (2002) "Hættulegur hlátur". In Baldur Hafstað; Haraldur Bessason edd. Úr manna minnum: Greinar um íslenskar þjóðsögur, pp. 67–83.
  23. ↑ Kramer, Nathaniel (2014). Nun, Katalin. ed. Agnes and the Merman: Abraham as Monster. Ashgate. pp. 16–17. ISBN 978-1-472-44136-2. https://books.google.com/books?id=YuRIBQAAQBAJ&pg=PA18. 
  24. ↑ 24.0 24.1 Simpson, Jacqueline; Roud, Stephen (2000), "mermaid, merman", A Dictionary of English Folklore (Oxford University Press): pp. 639–640, ISBN 0-192-10019-X, https://books.google.com/books?id=iTcdvd1iRXsC&pg=PT639 
  25. ↑ Briggs, Katharine Mary (1978). The vanishing people: a study of traditional fairy beliefs. Batsford. p. 266. ISBN 0-801-88589-2. https://archive.org/details/vanishingpeople00brig. 
  26. ↑ 26.0 26.1 Markey, Anne (2006). "The Discovery of Irish Folklore". New Hibernia Review / Iris Éireannach Nua 10 (4): 27–28.  JSTOR 20558106
  27. ↑ Watts, Linda (2006). Encyclopedia of American Folklore. Infobase Publishing. p. 266. ISBN 1438129793. https://books.google.com/books?id=2dce6_CA76MC&pg=PA266. Retrieved 25 July 2015. "Mermen do appear within folklore, but are relatively uncommon in American lore. They are also said to be much less visually appealing than mermaids." 
  28. ↑ Traditional Cornish Stories and Rhymes, Lodenek Press, 1972
  29. ↑ Covey, Jacob, ed. (2007). "Pictorial Schedule of Traditional Hidden Creatures from the Interest of 90 Modern Artistans". Beasts! Book 1. Fantagraphics Books. p. 36. ISBN 978-1-5609-7768-1. https://books.google.com/books?id=U9eeDgAAQBAJ. 
  30. ↑ Wood, Juliette (2018). Fantastic Creatures in Mythology and Folklore: From Medieval Times to the Present Day. Bloomsbury. p. 62. ISBN 978-1-4411-3060-0. https://books.google.com/books?id=48tjDwAAQBAJ. 
  31. ↑ Crowley, Vivianne; Crowley, Christopher (2001). Ancient Wisdom. Carlton Books. p. 195. ISBN 9781858689876. 
  32. ↑ Fox-Davies, Arthur (1909). A Complete Guide to Heraldry. London: T.C. and E.C. Jack. pp. 227–228. https://archive.org/details/completeguidetoh00foxduoft. 
  33. ↑ Babin, Tom (2007-01-22). "Banff's oldest celebrity resident". Calgary Herald. Archived from the original on 2007-10-13. Retrieved 2007-08-08. {{cite web}}:
  34. ↑ Imms, Adrian (24 Mar 2016). "Could this be the most gruesome creature in Brighton?". The Argus. http://www.theargus.co.uk/news/14380809.Could_this_be_the_most_gruesome_creature_in_Brighton_/. 
  35. ↑ Gudger (1934), pp. 512–515.
  36. ↑ Gudger (1934), pp. 514–515.
  37. ↑ "The Forsaken Merman". The Poetry Foundation. {{cite web}}:
  38. ↑ "The Forsaken Merman: Poem by Arnold". Encyclopaedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/topic/The-Forsaken-Merman. 
  39. ↑ 39.0 39.1 S. T. Joshi, ed. (2007). Icons of Horror and the Supernatural: An Encyclopedia of Our Worst Nightmares, Volume 2. Greenwood Press. pp. 452–455. ISBN 978-0313337826. https://books.google.com/books?id=QrT1SlwhfsIC&pg=PA452. 
  40. ↑ Jeffrey Andrew Weinstock, ed. (April 2016). The Ashgate Encyclopedia of Literary and Cinematic Monsters. p. 413. ISBN 9781317044260. https://books.google.com/books?id=PHbeCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA413. 
  41. ↑ Gygax, Gary, and Dave Arneson. Dungeons & Dragons (3-Volume Set) (TSR, 1974)
  42. ↑ A.W. (May 1, 1954). "Movie Review – The Creature From the Black Lagoon". The New York Times. Retrieved 2009-05-19. {{cite web}}:
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