Monsters Lurking in the Deep
The marine world continues to be a source of folklore
given that a whopping 95 percent of the planet’s oceans remain unexplored,
according to the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Unsurprisingly then, many creatures living beneath the waves have inspired
monstrous fantasies, from the kraken mentioned in Herman Melville’s 1851
novel Moby-Dick, to the Leviathan of biblical scripture.
The most famous of these aquatic myths is
the mermaid, thanks to stories such as Hans Christian Andersen’s The
Little Mermaid made famous by the animated film of the same name, as
well as other pop cultural gems such as the 1984 movie Splash.
These half-fish, half-human hybrids, unfortunately, weren’t always the demure
creatures often depicted in today’s fiction.
In British folklore, mermaids were
associated with doomed ships and stormy seas, which was why seafarers in the
past avoided sailing in areas where they thought they saw these creatures. The
English pirate Blackbeard once recorded an encounter in his logbook, which
described how he and his crew had sighted these demi-humans in so-called
“enchanted” waters.
While not fearsome-looking, mermaids might
have conjured fear from sailors because of their association with another
mythical beast, the siren. In Homer’s The Odyssey, sirens were
winged women that sang hypnotic songs to lure sailors to their deaths. Over
time, these attributes were passed down to mermaids, becoming part of their
threat as much as their charm.
Speaking of charm, not all sailors
believed mermaids were pretty. One of them was Christopher Columbus. The
Italian explorer claimed to have witnessed these creatures while exploring the
Caribbean and described them to be half as beautiful as the ones in paintings.
That might have sounded mean, but only because what he and sailors at the time
had been seeing were the gentle manatee or its cousin, the dugong. Both possess
broad, mermaid-like tails as well as upper-body features that make these marine
mammals easily mistaken for lumbering humanoids from afar—not quite the slender
merfolk of fantasy.
The enchanting mermaid remains in our
imagination reflecting our innate fear and desire for the unknown. In the
American drama series Siren, this fear and desire come to life when
mermaids suddenly surface to cause chaos in the fictional coastal town of
Bristol Cove. Ever wondered how the world would react today if folklore turned
out to be real? Catch the popular American drama series Siren every
Monday at 9:45PM first and exclusive on Blue Ant Entertainment.
Other than mermaids, many popular nautical
beasts also have their origins in real animals. One is the mighty kraken, which
may have been based on sightings of the giant squid or the much larger colossal
squid—both of which have been caught in video when they suddenly appeared off
the coast of Japan and Antarctica, respectively. Another is the slithering sea
serpent. Whether it’s the World Serpent of Norse mythology or the Ancient Greek
monster Cetus, these creatures may have been inspired by sightings of the
largest bony fish alive today, the oarfish.
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