1894-1595 BC) onwards depicts creatures with fishtails and human upper bodies. ![]() Mentions of half-human, half-fish creatures date back 2,000 years The English word for mermaid derives from ‘mere’ (Old English for sea) and ‘maid’ (a girl or young woman), and though mermen are the male contemporaries of mermaids, the creature has been most commonly represented as a young and often troubled woman in endless myths, books, poems and films.įrom Homer’s Odyssey to Hans Christian Andersen’s The Little Mermaid, mermaids have long been a source of beguiling fascination. Mermaids are characterised as living between two worlds: sea and earth, because of their half-human half-fish form, as well as life and death, because of their simultaneous youth and potential for destruction. Mentioned in numerous coastal and landlocked cultures over thousands of years, the mysterious sea creature has represented everything from life and fertility to death and disaster. ![]() ![]() The story of the mermaid is as ancient and changeable as the sea itself.
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