Mermaids

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Mermaids
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What is a mermaid??

• Mythological Creature
• From waist up, Beautiful Woman
• From waist down, Fish scales and tail
• Seductive Siren of the Sea
• Song of a mermaid supposedly irresistible to men

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History

• Mermaids, Sirens, and Nymphs all share a common
  bond.
• All women who entice sailors to journey to their
  doom
• Usually through song
• Two stories Jason and the Argonauts Ulysses
  (Odysseus)

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First Story??

• 1000 BC
• Atargatis, a goddess falls in love with a
  shephard
• Shephard commits suicide
• Atargatis is shamed and jumps into a lake to
  transform into a fish
• Water wouldnt let her completely transform, she
  became a mermaid

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Pure Beauty

• Often times said to be sitting on rocks combing
  hair and looking into a mirror
• Have been thought to have powers of a seer
• Fall in love with humans and lure them to their
  deaths!!

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Symbolism

• Mermaids are symbols of transition of death and
  rebirth
• Water is a very spiritual and used for baptism,
  birth, life etc.. Also, can be used for death
  and destruction, floods, and droughts and
  drowning etc.
• Sirens, and Mermaids represent transition from
  life to death, calling men usually on voyages to
  war or long odysseys

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The little Mermaid

• Based on Hans Christian Andersons story
• Follows a young mermaid whos father is the king
• Becomes fascinated by her grandmothers tales of
  the world beyond the sea
• 15th birthday she is allowed to surface
• Above there is a birthday party for a prince on a
  boat, it sinks, the Little Mermaid saves and
  falls in love with the prince but has to go back
  to the bottom of the sea.
• Becomes a human but sacrifices her voice
• Ends up having a not so Disney ending!!b

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b
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Modern Mermaids

• Post Freudian mermaid theory is that they are a
  representation of the hidden desires, and urge
  to return to the amniotic fluids from whence we
  came
• Annual Mermaid Festival at Coney Island
  symbolizing beauty and femininity

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Possible Explanations

• It is often thought that mermaids could be the
  misconception of a large aquatic mammal known as
  a manatee
• Manatees carry their young cradled in their arms,
  very human like
• Possibly if a manatee surfaced with seaweed on
  its head it would look like flowing locks of hair
• Ancient sailors may not have been familiar with
  these creatures and seen them from a distance

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Sirenomelia

• Congenital birth defect
• Fused lower limbs, often deformed or missing
  internal organs
• Usually results in death after a few days with
  kidney trouble
• Bottom legs are joined together giving a mermaid
  tail look
• Only two known survivors today
• Had surgery to separate the legs
• If this occurred in 1000 BC there would be no
  surgery so they would remain mermaids