Project Research on Mermaid (Myth in Contemporary Design, Fashion and Media)

Before I could start typing down my research on mermaid, I would like to share two legendary stories which are true from my grandma and my mum. My grandma told me that when she was a little child, her mum told her that she saw a lot of big master with bold head at the sea. They were very much like a 'Buddhist God'. They were all surrounding a ship and was believed that they were the 'God of the Sea'. That's the only thing that my gred-grandma told her. Another legendary which is from my mum, telling me about her uncle who used to be a sailor during the 1930's. He told her about this legendary when a mum who was scolding her little son not to cry anymore or she will throw him down to the sea. Immediately, the ship went wrong. It has stopped sailing. Everyone in the ship was frightened and curious. The workers checked all the engines and everything in the ship was fine. So, one of the sailor got up and asked every passenger in the ship that who has did or said something wrong just now? They were many witnesses when the woman scolded her son and everyone wants their life. Therefore, one of them told the sailor about the woman scolding her son. In that, the sailor has no choice but to ask her do what she had said. Sadly, the child has to be thrown to the se a and finally the ship starts to sail. This was because there are lots of 'God of the Sea' surrounding tightly at the ship and wouldn't let it go until they throw down the child. The mother of the child felt so regretful and sad for her son.

This story was strange to me but it was true and my mum's uncle is still alive in Hong Kong now.

Mermaid

A mermaid by John William Waterhouse

Mermaid is a creature with half body of a human and a fish. In other words, a mermaid is a legendary aquatic creature with the head and torso of human female and the tail of a fish.Mermaids would sometimes distract the sailors by singing and enchant them causing them to walk off the deck or cause shipwrecks. In stories, they were to squeeze the life out of drowning men while trying to rescue them and were also taken them down to their underwater kingdoms. 'The Little Mermaid' in Hans Christian Anderson's, it is said that they forget that humans cannot breathe underwater, while others say they drown men out of spite.

Legend and Myth :

- Ancient Near East

The first mermaid stories was appeared in Assyria, ca. 1000 BC. Atargatis, who is the mother of the Assyrian queen Semiramis, was a goddess who loved a mortal shepherd and in the process killed him. When she jumped into a lake to take a form of a fish, the water wouldn't conceal her divine beauty. After that, she's the first representation of Atagartis who took the form of a mermaid, showed her as being a fish with human head and legs, similar to the Babylonian Ea.

- Arabian Nights

They have several tales include 'Sea People', such as Djullanar the Sea-Girl that anatomically identical to land-bound humans, differing only in their ability to breathe and live underwater. They can interbreed with land humans, the children of such unions inheriting the ability to live underwater.

- British

In British, mermaids were thought as a threatening, foretelling disaster and causing someone to become angry. In the ballad Sir Patrick Spens's, several variants depict a mermaid speaking to the doomed ships, some were told they will never see land again and they are near shore. They can also be a sign of rough weather. Some mermaids were known as monstrous in size up to 160 feet. Mermaids could also swim up rivers to freshwater lakes.

- Others

It is said in Japan that eating the flesh of a mermaid can grant unaging immortality. Whereas in some European legends mermaids are said to grant wishes. Strangely, some people claim they have seen dead or living mermaids in places like Scotland, Malaysia, British Columbia and Haiti. Mermaids and mermen are also characters of Philippine folklore, where they are locally known as sirena and siyokoy respectively.

Mermaid and Mermen

The fishermen and the divers that have explored underneath who have a profound connection with the ocean, had sought a glimpse of the sea creature. It was told that the mermaids had saved the fishermen from boat wreck in storms. But up to now, the myth lives on and they are still hunting for the proof.

Mermaids are said to be known for their vanity as well as their innocence. They often fall in love with human men and are are willing to go to great extents to prove their love with humans.