Mermaid
A mermaid , also a mermaid or fish woman, is a female mythical creature , a hybrid of the body of a woman and a fish, who, according to legends and superstitions, lives in the sea or other waters. Aquarius is considered the male counterpart to the mermaid .
Essence
A characteristic feature of the mermaid is her need for redemption . Mostly it is a matter of a soulless or damned being who can only be freed from his fate through the love of a human husband.
Like all female aquatic beings, the mermaid is a form of the mother archetype in the depth psychological interpretation , a form of the so-called anima (cf. Carl Gustav Jung ). In contrast to the protective water women and the threatening mermaids, the mermaid tends to express the aspect of the female in need of protection and redemption .
In heraldry, the mermaid (neutral without reference to virginity) is a recognized heraldic figure.
Mermaids have often been associated with lust in art history .
Differentiation from comparable mythical creatures
It is difficult to differentiate the mermaid from similar beings
- Water women (aspect of motherliness or love )
- Mermaids (aspect of threat or seduction )
A clear assignment to one of the categories is not possible for numerous aquatic creatures (e.g. "The beautiful Lau " by Eduard Mörike ). In addition, especially recently, the terms mentioned have often been confused - if there was ever a clear separation - and used like synonyms .
In Greek mythology, the sirens are female mythical creatures (hybrid creatures originally consisting of women and birds), who use beguiling singing to lure the passing boatmen to kill them. They do this by quickly pulling their victims down. Those affected often do not die as a result of drowning, but rather die as a result of the effects of water pressure. Sirens are often mistakenly confused or equated with mermaids and mermaids, as they were also depicted with fish tails in the Middle Ages. However, they originally belonged to the realm of the death demons and were related to the harpies and lamias .
In Slavic mythology, the Rusalka is a drowned virgin or a woman who was forcibly kidnapped into his underwater kingdom by the vodyanoi, the male counterpart of the Rusalka.
Differentiation from mythical creatures with an independent history
The figure of the ningyo in Japanese popular belief is often translated as mermaid, but has nothing to do with the fabulous figure of western style. Despite the external similarity, it developed independently of this. The Scottish figure of Selkies has developed similarly independently, based on a seal as a legendary figure .
The South Tyrolean figure of Anguana is not a mythical creature, but a female demon.
shape
The mermaids share their outer shape with the other female aquatic beings already mentioned. Their beautiful young bodies are only human in the upper half, the lower half (mostly from the hip) is described as a fishtail covered with scales. In most of the illustrations, the caudal fin is not a vertical fish fin, but a horizontal fluke like that of marine mammals . Your hair can shimmer green or be completely green, but depending on the representation, it can also have other colors.
The description goes back to the impressions of seafarers who wanted to see beautiful young women sunbathing on cliffs in good weather. Many of these sightings may be explained by the fact that sea cows or other animals were mistaken for mermaids by seafarers.
Well-known mermaids
The oldest representative of the type is Undine , a female-virginal water spirit who only gets a soul after marrying a man. It first appeared in writings from the early 14th century.
The motif is modified in Melusine , a folk tale from the Swabian region. The mermaid walks around as a human woman six days a week and only attains her original shape on Saturdays. Her human husband's curiosity prevents her salvation.
In addition, mermaids appear in the fairy tales / sagas Die Wasserjungfer and Die Grüne Jungfer (both Harz) as well as The beautiful fountain woman (Lorraine). In this respect, the legend of the Stauffenberger (Black Forest) is of particular importance , which is taken up by Paracelsus in his liber de nymphis from the 16th century and Achim von Arnim in Des Knaben Wunderhorn from 1808.
The most famous mermaid comes from the pen of the Danish fairy tale poet Hans Christian Andersen (1837): The Little Mermaid . Her salvation also fails because despite heavy sacrifices she cannot win the love of the prince and turns into meerschaum. The figure was immortalized in the symbol of Copenhagen . A similar statue ( Havis Amanda ) is in Helsinki . The Czech fairy tale adaptations and Walt Disney's adaptation in the film Ariel, the Mermaid are also very well known .
One of the older art fairy tales of modern times is the virgin in the Disney cartoon Ariel, the mermaid .
Mermaids also appear as secondary characters in Peter Pan .
In the series Spongebob SquarePants there is also the modified figure of the "mermaid man", who represents an aged superhero duo in the series with his partner Blaubarschbube and is strongly based on Aquaman from DC Comics. In this cartoon series there is also a character inspired by the Greek god "Neptune", called "King Neptune", who is depicted in the shape of an Aquarius. King Neptune has a daughter there named "Princess Mindy" who appears in the form of a mermaid.
The motif of the mermaid in the walking bathtub comes from the modern fairy tale "The Mermaid in the Dry" by Christian Peitz .
In the youth series H 2 O - Suddenly Mermaid , three Australian girls turn into mermaids when they come into contact with water.
The youth series Mako - Simply Mermaid is a continuation of the series "H20 Suddenly Mermaid" listed above and this time it is about three mermaids who experience and have to endure many adventures on land. All because a “country man” fell into the Mondsee and is now a “merman”. "Mermen" are a threat to mermaids because the trident gives them tremendous powers and does not use this power well.
Mermaids were depicted as figureheads on the bow of ships. They are often found as a motif in Art Nouveau art .
Mermaiding
In this swimming sport , an attempt is made to move in a suitable costume with a monofin (with or without fabric cover) in undulating movements like a mermaid in the water. The swimming style is similar to the fin swim and the dolphin style .
There are now women and men around the world who work as “professional mermaids and mermen” as entertainers or underwater models. The most famous professional mermaids include Mermaid Melissa, Hannah Mermaid and the German Mermaid Kat .
Trivia
In the 1995 film Waterworld by US directors Kevin Reynolds and Kevin Costner , Kevin Costner, with webbed toes and gill openings behind the ears, plays with the Mariner, a male equivalent of a fish-human hybrid (" Ichthyo sapiens ").
In the Swiss film “ Blue My Mind ” (2017) by Lisa Brühlmann with leading actress Luna Wedler , the director shows a very realistic transformation of a teenager into a mermaid.
See also
- Mermaid (coat of arms)
- List of films starring mermaids
- Mermaid syndrome, a congenital malformation of the legs
- Warsaw mermaid , the coat of arms of the city of Warsaw
literature
- Hans Christian Andersen, Quentin Gréban (illustrations), Christina Lemke (editors): The little mermaid . (Original title: Den lille havfrue ), NordSüd, Zürich 2008, ISBN 978-3-314-01643-1 .
- Ilse Bintig, Christa Unzner (illustrations): The little mermaid. Arena, Würzburg 2004, ISBN 978-3-401-05704-0 .
- Andreas Kraß: Mermaids. Stories of an impossible love. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 2010, ISBN 978-3-10-038195-8 .
- Theresia Klugsberger: Procedure in the text. Mermaids in literary versions and mythical constructions by HC Andersen , HC Artmann , Konrad Bayer , Christoph Martin Wieland , Oscar Wilde . Akademischer Verlag, Stuttgart 1989, ISBN 3-88099-226-6 .
- Christian Peitz: The mermaid in the dry on Rumpelstiltskin strikes back . Hörsketch, Münster 2009, ISBN 978-3-9811255-9-7 .
- Barbara Stamer (Ed.): Fairy tales of mermaids and water women. Fischer Taschenbuch , Frankfurt am Main 1987, ISBN 3-596-22873-5
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Yves Morvan , La Sirène et la luxure , Communication du Colloque "La luxure et le corps dans l'art roman", Mozac, 2008
- ↑ Teodolinda Barolini, La Commedia senza Dio: Dante e la creazione di una realtà , 2003, p.150
- ↑ Mermaiding: Swimming like a mermaid - trend reaches Austria. news.at , March 21, 2014, accessed on November 12, 2014 .
- ↑ Hannah Parry: Mermaid Melissa wears her 'tail' everyday can hold her breath underwater for five minutes. In: Daily Mail Online. June 2, 2015, accessed December 26, 2015 .
- ↑ Simon Keegan: See real-life mermaid Hannah Fraser swim with whales in stunning pictures. In: Mirror. October 27, 2013, accessed December 27, 2015 .
- ↑ Mermaid Kat Official Website: mermaid-kat.de