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58-568: In English, female merfolk are called mermaids , although in a strict sense, mermaids are confined to beings who are half-woman and half-fish in appearance; male merfolk are called mermen . Depending on the story, they can be described as either ugly or beautiful. Chinese rényú ( 人魚 ) stands for "merfolk", but in ancient geographical or natural historical tracts, the term referred to "human-fish" or "man-fish" purported to inhabit rivers or lakes in certain parts of China. The Japanese analogue ningyo ( 人魚 ) likewise translates to "merfolk" while, at

116-522: A sjó kona ( siókona [sic.]; "sea-woman"). Old Norse marmennill , -dill , masculine noun , is also listed as cognate to "†mermin", as well as ON margmelli , modern Icelandic marbendill , and modern Norwegian marmæle . Old English męrewif is another related term, and appears once in reference not so much to a mermaid but a certain sea hag , and not well-attested later. Its MHG cognate merwîp , also defined as " meerweib " in modern German with perhaps " merwoman "

174-491: A mermaid is an aquatic creature with the head and upper body of a female human and the tail of a fish. 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. In other folk traditions (or sometimes within the same traditions), they can be benevolent or beneficent, bestowing boons or falling in love with humans. The male equivalent of

232-420: A cliff of an island. A man sailed to the island, married a woman there, and she taught him how to recognize plants and avoid dangers, protecting him from wild beasts. They had two sons together. However, when a fellow townsman arrived on the island and took the man back by boat, the woman cursed him, throwing their sons into the water in a fit of rage and yelling at him to leave. The man stayed silent after boarding

290-519: A famed clan of merfolk with a place in Denmark, i.e., Sjælland. Sjælland was the divided portion of Villcina-land inherited by the bastard prince Vaði/Wade according to the saga. The Swedish epilogue transposed the locations concerning the battle (from Italy to Germany), and claimed the rescued Viðga/Witige was brought to Sjælland. That is to say, the crucial battle had been in Ravenna, Northern Italy in

348-585: A human face, and issuing sounds like the mandarin duck . Eating it purportedly prevented scabies or itchy skin. The illustration of the chiru from China may have influenced the legless, human-faced fish visualization of some of the ningyo in Japan, according to the hypothesis of Morihiko Fujisawa  [ ja ] . The jiaoren ( 蛟 人 " flood dragon people" or 鮫 人 "shark people") that appear in medieval writings are considered to be references to merfolk . This mythical southern mermaid or merman

406-404: A medieval Þiðreks saga only in a late, reworked Swedish version, i.e., one of the closing chapters of Ðiðriks saga (fifteenth century, also known as the "Swedish epilogue" ). The mermaid/undine is here translated as Old Swedish haffru . The Old Norse Þiðreks saga proper calls the same mermaid a sjó kona ( siókona [sic.]) or "sea-woman". The genealogy is given in

464-511: A part of the siren may be bird or fish. In a ninth-century Physiologus manufactured in France (Fig., top left), the siren was illustrated as a "woman-fish", i.e., mermaid-like, despite being described as bird-like in the text. The Bodleian bestiary dated 1220–12 also pictures a group of fish-tailed mermaid-like sirens (Fig. bottom), contradicting its text which likens it to a winged fowl ( volatilis habet figuram ) down to their feet. In

522-499: A valid English definition. The word is attested, among other medieval epics, in the Nibelungenlied , and rendered "merwoman", "mermaid", "water sprite", or other terms; the two in the story are translated as ON sjó konur ("sea-women"). The siren of Ancient Greek mythology became conflated with mermaids during the medieval period. Some European Romance languages still use cognate terms for siren to denote

580-502: A voice like baby crying. Eating the fish purportedly cured idiocy or dementia. This fish as a cure was also quoted in the Compendium of Materia Medica or Bencao Gangmu (1596) under its entry for Tiyu ( Chinese : 䱱魚 ) The Bencao Gangmu categorized the tiyu ( 䱱 魚 ) as one of two types of "human-fish" ( renyu ). The human-fish were also known as "child-fish" or haieryu ( 孩 兒 魚 ; 孩儿鱼 ). The other type, called

638-655: Is " Chinese giant salamander ". The chiru  [ zh ] ( 赤鱬 ; "red ru fish". Wade-Giles: ch'ih-ju ; "red ju") is described in the Nan Shan Jing ("Classic of the Southern Mountains") as a human-headed fish. It is said to be found in the Qingqushan ( 青丘山 "Green-Hills Mountains") in the Pool-of-Yi (Yì zhī zé 翼之澤 ; "Carp-Wings Lake"). It is described as basically fish-form but having

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696-738: Is British author William Bond , who has written several books about it. Two prophetic merwomen (MHG pl.: merwîp ), Sigelinde (MHG: Sigelint) and her maternal aunt Hadeburg (MHG: Hadeburc) are bathing in the Danube River when Hagen von Tronje encounters them ( Nibelungenlied , Âventiure 25). They are called sjókonar ("sea women") in the Old Norse Þiđreks saga . There is a swan maiden tale motif involved here (Hagen robs their clothing), but Grimm argued they must have actually been swan maidens, since they are described as hovering above water. In any case, this brief segment became

754-617: Is a mysterious ethnic group residing in Hong Kong's Myths. They are legendary merfolk half human and half fish, also known as Lo Yu, Lu Heng, or Lo Ting Fish Man. They have lived on Tai O' Lantau Island in Hong Kong since the local civil uprising in the Eastern Jin Dynasty of China. It is said that Loting has fish scales on his fish-like human body, a face that resembles humans, and he enjoys sucking chicken blood. They could use their catch to fish from Tai O and trade chickens with

812-488: Is explicit in the aforementioned Old German Physiologus (eleventh century ). The Middle English bestiary (mid-13th century) clearly means "mermaid" when it explains the siren to be a mereman , stating that she has a body and breast like that of a maiden but joined, at the navel, by a body part which is definitely fish, with fins growing out of her. Old French verse bestiaries (e.g. Philipp de Thaun 's version, written c. 1121–1139) also accommodated by stating that

870-566: Is formed from " mere " (sea), and " maid ". Another English word "†mermin" ( headword in the OED ) for 'siren or mermaid' is older, though now obsolete. It derives from Old English męremęnen , ad. męre 'sea' + męnen 'female slave', earliest attestation mereminne , as a gloss for "siren", in Corpus Glossary (c. 725). A Middle English example mereman in a bestiary (c. 1220?; manuscript now dated to 1275–1300 )

928-476: Is indeed a 'mermaid', part maiden, part fish-like. Its Old High German cognate merimenni is known from biblical glosses and Physiologus . The Middle High German cognate merminne , (mod. German " meerweib "), "mermaid", is attested in epics, and the one in Rabenschlacht is a great-grandmother; this same figure is in an Old Swedish text a haffru , and in Old Norse

986-515: Is pearls. Similar passages appear in other texts such as the Bowuzhi ( 博物志 , "Treatise of Manifold " c.  290 CE ) as "weep[ing] tears that became pearls". These aquatic people supposedly spun a type of raw silk called jiaoxiao 蛟 綃 "mermaid silk" or jiaonujuan 蛟 女 絹 "mermaid woman's silk". Schafer equates this with sea silk , the rare fabric woven from byssus filaments produced by Pinna "pen shell" mollusks. Loting (盧亭)

1044-527: Is recorded in Ren Fang  [ zh ] 's Shuyi ji  [ zh ] "Records of Strange Things" (early 6th century CE). In the midst of the South Sea are the houses of the kău ( Chinese : 鮫 ; pinyin : jiao ; Wade–Giles : chiao ) people who dwell in the water like fish, but have not given up weaving at the loom. Their eyes have the power to weep, but what they bring forth

1102-673: The Di people  [ zh ] . It is recorded that the Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor was illuminated with lamps fueled by the oil of the human-fish ( renyu ), whose flames were meant to last a very long time. In the Chinese Song Dynasty's supernatural tale collection Yijian Zhi (夷堅志), there are stories of sea sirens similar to those in other folklore. One tale describes a beautiful female demon living on

1160-519: The niyu ( 鯢 魚 ) is elaborated in a separate section. It has been noted by Li Shizhen that the character for the Niyu ( Ni 鯢 fish) consists of the "fish" indexing component ( 魚 ) and "child" ( 兒 ) radical. Translators of the Bencao Gangmu attempt to match entries with actual taxa of animals, forbs, etc., where possible, and the tiyu type is glossed as "newts" while the niyu type

1218-544: The sirens of Greek mythology , which were originally half-birdlike, but came to be pictured as half-fishlike in the Christian era. Historical accounts of mermaids, such as those reported by Christopher Columbus during his exploration of the Caribbean , may have been sightings of manatees or similar aquatic mammals. While there is no evidence that mermaids exist outside folklore, reports of mermaid sightings continue to

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1276-582: The "foundational" groundwork of subsequent water-nix lore and literature that developed in the Germanic sphere. They are a probable source of the three Rhine maidens in Richard Wagner 's opera Das Rheingold . Though conceived of as swan-maidens in Wagner's 1848 scenario, the number being a threesome was suggested by the woodcut by Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld and Eugen Napoleon Neureuther in

1334-830: The German epic Rabenschlacht ), but the battle spot was changed to Gronsport, somewhere on the Moselle , in Northern Germany in the Swedish version. The Norman chapel in Durham Castle , built around 1078, has what is probably the earliest surviving artistic depiction of a mermaid in England. It can be seen on a south-facing capital above one of the original Norman stone pillars. Li Shizhen Li Shizhen (July 3, 1518  – 1593), courtesy name Dongbi ,

1392-688: The Macedonian king's material via some unnamed source. There is a mermaid legend attached to Alexander the Great's sister, but this is of post-medieval vintage (see below ). Sometime before 546 BC, Milesian philosopher Anaximander postulated that mankind had sprung from an aquatic animal species, a theory that is sometimes called the Aquatic Ape Theory . He thought that humans, who begin life with prolonged infancy , could not have survived otherwise. There are also naturalist theories on

1450-513: The Middle Ages. The traits of the classical sirens, such as using their beautiful song as a lure as told by Homer, have often been transferred to mermaids. These change of the medieval siren from bird to fish were thought by some to be the influence of Teutonic myth, later expounded in literary legends of Lorelei and Undine ; though a dissenting comment is that parallels are not limited to Teutonic culture. The earliest text describing

1508-561: The Northern mountains"), Zhong Shan Jing (Central Mountains), and Xi Shan Jing (Western Mountains) sections of this work. This work and others also mention several additional types of "anthropomorphic fish" with limbs in other regions such as the chiru  [ zh ] ( 赤 鱬 ; "red ru fish") and lingyu  [ zh ] ( 陵 魚 ; "hill-fish"), considered to be in the same category of creatures. Certain tribes or races of humans were also described being part-fish, namely

1566-525: The Pfizer edition of 1843 (fig. on the left). Middle High German mereminne 'mermaid' is mentioned, among other epics, in the Rabenschlacht ("Battle of Ravenna", 13th cent.) of the Dietrich cycle. The mermaid (or undine ) is named Wâchilt and is the ancestress of the traitorous Wittich who carries him off at the time of peril to her "submarine home". This material has been found translated as

1624-674: The Pulse") and Qijing Bamai Kao ( Chi-ching Pa-mai Kao ; 奇經八脈考 ; "An Examination of the Eight Extra Meridians"). He lived during the Ming dynasty and was influenced by the Neo-Confucian beliefs of the time. He was born in what is today Qizhou, Qichun County, Hubei on July 3, 1518 AD. As a child, Li suffered from an eye disease that was supposedly caused by an overconsumption of peppercorn seeds. Li Shizhen's grandfather

1682-399: The contamination of the siren myth with Scylla and Charybdis. The female oceanids , nereids and naiads are mythical water nymphs or deities, although not depicted with fish tails. "Nereid" and "nymph" have also been applied to actual mermaid-like marine creatures purported to exist, from Pliny (cf. §Roman Lusitania and Gaul ) and onwards. Jane Ellen Harrison (1882) has speculated that

1740-568: The creature to be a ningyo when one was presented to him by representatives of Ōmi. The appearance of the human-fish was strongly associated with ill omen in later treatments of the Prince's encounter with the human-fish. During the Kamakura Period, ningyo of the marine sort were frequently reported as washing ashore, and these were taken to be ominous signs usually prefiguring bloody battles. The ningyo , or rather renyu ( 人魚 ) and

1798-409: The entries. In the writing of the Compendium of Materia Medica , he travelled, gaining first-hand experience with many herbs and local remedies and consulted over 800 books. Altogether, the writing of Compendium of Materia Medica took 27 years, which included three revisions. Writing the book allegedly took a toll on his health. It was rumored that he stayed indoors for ten consecutive years during

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1856-520: The habitat, such as aquatic or rock origins, or by special characteristics, e.g. all sweet-smelling plants were grouped together." With every entry, he included: Compendium of Materia Medica contained nearly 1,900 substances, which included 374 that had not appeared in other works. Not only did it list and describe the substances, but it also included prescriptions for use – about 11,000 - 8,000 of which were not well known. The Compendium of Materia Medica also had 1160 illustrated drawings to aid

1914-403: The interim, the siren as pure mermaid was becoming commonplace, particularly in the so-called "Second Family" Latin bestiaries, as represented in one of the early manuscripts classified into this group ( Additional manuscript 11283, c. 1170–1180s. Fig., top right). While the siren holding a fish was a commonplace theme, the siren in bestiaries were also sometimes depicted holding the comb, or

1972-570: The like found in Chinese sources ( chiru , tiyu etc., etc., discussed above) were also discussed in Japanese literature, for example, works of scholars of herbal and traditional medicine, such as Kaibara Ekiken (d. 1714) and Ono Ranzan (d. 1810). These Japanese scholars were also aware of European discussions on "sirens", "anthropomorphic fish", " peixe muller (fish-woman)", etc. Citations Bibliography Mermaid In folklore ,

2030-534: The local human inhabitants to survive. The ningyo ( 人魚 "human-fish") of Japan has its own history in the country's literary record. The earliest references (in the Nihon shoki , entry for year 619, reign of Empress Suiko ) do not specifically use the term ningyo , and the "thing" appeared in fresh water (a river in Ōmi Province , canal Settsu Province ), and may presumed to be a giant salamander. Later accounts claim that Empress Suiko's regent Prince Shōtoku knew

2088-445: The mermaid is the merman , also a familiar figure in folklore and heraldry . Although traditions about and reported sightings of mermen are less common than those of mermaids, they are in folklore generally assumed to co-exist with their female counterparts. The male and the female collectively are sometimes referred to as merfolk or merpeople. The Western concept of mermaids as beautiful, seductive singers may have been influenced by

2146-486: The mermaid, e.g., French sirène and Spanish and Italian sirena . Some commentators have sought to trace origins further back into § Ancient Middle Eastern mythology . In the early Greek period, the sirens were conceived of as human-headed birds, but by the classical period, the Greeks sporadically depicted the siren as part fish in art. The siren's part-fish appearance became increasingly popular during

2204-476: The mermaids or tritonesses of Greek and Roman mythology may have been brought from the Middle East , possibly transmitted by Phoenician mariners. The Greek god Triton had two fish tails instead of legs, and later became pluralized as a group. The prophetic sea deity Glaucus was also depicted with a fish tail and sometimes with fins for arms. Depictions of entities with the upper bodies of humans and

2262-469: The mirror. The comb and mirror became a persistent symbol of the siren-mermaid. In the Christian moralizing context (e.g the bestiaries), the mermaid's mirror and comb were held as the symbol of vanity. The sea-monsters Scylla and Charybdis , who lived near the sirens, were also female and had some fishlike attributes. Though Scylla's violence is contrasted with the sirens' seductive ways by certain classical writers, Scylla and Charybdis lived near

2320-407: The origins of the mermaid, postulating they derive from sightings of manatees , dugongs or even seals . Still another theory, tangentially related to the aforementioned Aquatic Ape Theory , is that the mermaids of folklore were actually human women who trained over time to be skilled divers for things like sponges , and spent a lot of time in the sea as a result. One proponent of this theory

2378-587: The present day. Mermaids have been a popular subject of art and literature in recent centuries, such as in Hans Christian Andersen 's literary fairy tale " The Little Mermaid " (1837). They have subsequently been depicted in operas, paintings, books, comics, animation, and live-action films. The English word "mermaid" has its earliest-known attestation in Middle English ( Chaucer , Nun's Priest's Tale , c. 1390). The compound word

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2436-452: The saga: the sea-woman and Villcinus (Vilkinus), king of Scandinavia together had a son, Vaði ( Wade ) of (Sjóland= Sjælland , Zealand) who was a giant ( risi ); whose son was Velent ( Wayland the Smith ), whose son after that was Viðga Velentsson (Wittich or Witige ), who became a companion/champion of King Þiðrekr (Dietrich von Bern). Thus the saga is an early source which associates

2494-591: The same time, having also applied to various human-like fish recorded in writings from medieval times into the Edo Period. Certain fantastical types of "fish", generically referred to as renyu ( 人 魚 , "human-fish") are alleged to occur in various parts of China according to the Shan Hai Jing ( Classic of Mountains and Seas , 4th century BC). It is mentioned in the Bei Shan Jing ("Classic of

2552-423: The ship. Another tale from Guangzhou tells of a merchant who, upon reaching an island, was captured by two women and taken into the mountains. They fed him daily, but he couldn't tell if he was still alive. After about a year, he overheard the women discussing magic, and he begged them to take him to the place where it was performed. When they did, he sought help, causing the women to flee by flying away. Though he

2610-508: The siren as fish-tailed occurs in the Liber Monstrorum de diversis generibus (seventh to mid-eighth century), which described sirens as "sea girls" ( marinae pullae ) whose beauty in form and sweet song allure seafarers, but beneath the human head and torso, have the scaly tail-end of a fish with which they can navigate the sea. "Sirens are mermaids" (Old High German/Early Middle High German : Sirêne sínt méremanniu )

2668-472: The sirens' domain. In Etruscan art before the sixth century BC, Scylla was portrayed as a mermaid-like creature with two tails. This may be tied to images of two-tailed mermaids ranging from ancient times to modern depictions, and is sometimes attached to the later character of Melusine . A sporadic example of sirens as mermaids (tritonesses) in Early Greek art (third century BC), can be explained as

2726-710: The tails of fish appear in Mesopotamian artwork from the Old Babylonian Period onwards, on cylinder seals . These figures are usually mermen ( kulullû ), but mermaids do occasionally appear. The name for the mermaid figure may have been *kuliltu , meaning "fish-woman". Such figures were used in Neo-Assyrian art as protective figures and were shown in both monumental sculpture and in small, protective figurines. A mermaid-like goddess, identified by Greek and Roman writers as Derceto or Atargatis,

2784-399: The text. In addition to writing Compendium of Materia Medica , Li wrote about gallstones, using ice to bring down a fever, and using steam and fumigants to prevent the spread of infection. Li also emphasized preventative medicine. He said that "To cure disease is like waiting until one is thirsty before digging a well..." and listed over 500 treatments to maintain good health and strengthen

2842-437: The type, form, flavor, nature and application in disease treatments of 1,094 herbs. The book has been translated into several languages. The treatise included various related subjects such as botany , zoology , mineralogy , and metallurgy . Five original editions still exist. In addition to Compendium of Materia Medica , Li Shizhen wrote eleven other books, including Binhu Maixue ( Pin-hu Mai-hsueh ; 瀕湖脈學 ; "A Study of

2900-409: The upper body of a woman and the tail of a fish. He noted the contrast with the grand statue located at her Holy City ( Hierapolis Bambyce ), which appeared entirely human. In the myth, Semiramis's first husband is named Onnes. Some scholars have compared this to the earlier Mesopotamian myth of Oannes , one of the apkallu or seven sages described as fish-men in cuneiform texts. While Oannes

2958-539: The writing of the Compendium of Materia Medica . After he had completed it, a friend "reported that Li was emaciated ." Li died before the book was officially published, and the Ming emperor at the time paid it little regard. Li's bibliography included nearly 900 books. Because of its size, it was not easy to use, which had classified herbs only according to strength. He broke them down to animal, mineral, and plant and divided those categories by their source. Dr. S. Y. Tan says: "his plants were classified according to

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3016-542: Was 38, and a practicing physician, he cured the son of the Prince of Chu and was invited to be an official there. A few years after, he got a government position as assistant president at the Imperial Medical Institute in Beijing. However, even though he had climbed the social ladder, as his father had originally wanted, he left a year later to return to being a doctor. In his government position, Li

3074-645: Was a Chinese acupuncturist , herbalist , naturalist , pharmacologist , physician, and writer of the Ming dynasty . He is the author of a 27-year work, the Compendium of Materia Medica ( Bencao Gangmu ; Chinese: 本草綱目 ). He developed several methods for classifying herb components and medications for treating diseases. The Compendium is a pharmacology text with 1,892 entries, with details about more than 1,800 traditional Chinese medicines , including 1,100 illustrations and 11,000 prescriptions. It also described

3132-417: Was a doctor who traveled the countryside and was considered relatively low on the social scale of the time. His father was a traditional physician and scholar who had written several influential books. He encouraged his son to seek a government position. Li took the national civil service exam three times, but after failing each one, he turned to medicine. At 78, his father took him on as an apprentice. When he

3190-443: Was a servant of the water deity Ea , having gained wisdom from the god, English writer Arthur Waugh understood Oannes to be equivalent to Ea, and proposed that surely "Oannes had a fish-tailed wife" and descendants, with Atargatis being one deity thus descended, "through the mists of time". Diodorus's chronology of Queen Semiramis resembles the feats of Alexander the Great (campaigns to India, etc.), and Diodorus may have woven

3248-545: Was able to read rare medical books. He began correcting some of the mistakes and conflicting information in these medical publications. He soon began the book Compendium of Materia Medica to compile correct information with a logical system of organization. A part was based on another book which had been written several hundred years earlier, Jingshi Zhenglei Beiji Bencao ( Ching-hsih Cheng-lei Pei-chi Pen-tsao ; "Classified Materia Medica for Emergencies") – which, unlike many other books, had formulas and recipes for most of

3306-624: Was revived, his food gradually dwindled, and he died two months later. The renyu ( 人魚 ; human-fish) is described in the Bei Shan Jing ("Classic of the North Mountains") section as dwelling on Mt. Longhou ( 龍侯山 , "Dragon-Marquis Mountain") in the waters of the Jueshui ( 決水 , "Bursting River"), which flows eastward into the Yellow River . It is said to "resemble the tiyu " (translated as "resemble catfish") possess four legs, with

3364-433: Was worshipped at Ashkelon . In a myth recounted by Diodorus Siculus in the first century BC, Derceto gave birth to a child from an affair. Ashamed, she abandoned the child in the desert and drowned herself in a lake, only to be transformed into a human-headed fish. The child, Semiramis , was fed by doves and survived to become a queen. In the second century, Lucian described seeing a Phoenician statue of Derceto with

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