Mythological Creaures -1

1. Mermaids:

Mermaids often appear in folklore. They are assumed to be beautiful creatures with the head and the body of a woman and a tail, that of a fish.

First mermaid:

The first mermaid legend is thought to have been the story of Atargatis, a Syrian moon goddess of about 1000 BC . Atargatis had a child with a human. But she killed her lover and in embarrassment jumped into a lake where she took the form of a mermaid.

Mermaids in folklore:

Mermaids in folklore are often considered as bad omens and are blamed for many natural disasters like floods, storms, etc.

A book called “The thousands and one Night” tells about sea people. It’s depiction is different from mermaids. These sea people are shown as humans only and their ability to breathe underwater is different.

In Eastern Europe, there is a belief that kingdoms existed underwater and mermaids lived there.

In China also, the concept and tales of mermaids exist. There is an additional belief that when mermaids cry, their tears become pearls.

In the Thai version of Ramayana, Ravana’s daughter is a mermaid princess who falls in love with Hanuman.

Reported sightings:

In 1493, while travelling through coast of Hispaniola, Christopher Columbus reported seeing of “three female figures” which “rose from sea but were not as beautiful as depicted”.

Records are also found in Canada near Victoria in 1967. Even in modern era in August 2009, many people reported seeing mermaids near Hafia bay. A large amount of money was also offered for providing proof, but unfortunately they could not provide any proofs.

Scientific point of view:

Scientists do not believe in the existence of mermaids. Although many times people claim that they have seen them, but there are many factors which prove that mermaids cannot exist. First of all, how would they maintain their body temperature? Secondly, how would they reproduce? Then there are no physical evidences to prove that mermaids existed.

In ancient times, people had no knowledge and thus many superstitions, imaginary characters like mermaids, trolls unicorn, ghosts and many tales prevailed.