Merman

Mermen, the counterparts of the

mythical female mermaids, are
legendary creatures, which are
male human from the waist up
and fish-like from the waist down,
but may assume normal human
shape. Sometimes they are
described as hideous and other
times as handsome.
 Merman

A Crowned Merman, by Arthur

Rackham

Grouping Mythological

Sub grouping Water spirit

Country Worldwide

Overview …

The actions and behavior of

mermen can vary wildly
depending on the source and time
period of the stories. They have
been said to sink ships by
summoning great storms, but also
said to be wise teachers,
according to earlier mythology.
Mermen, just like mermaids, can
lure and attract humans with their
enchantingly beautiful, soft
melodic and seductive siren-like
singing voices and tones.

Antiquity …
Perhaps the first recorded
merman was the early Babylonian
sea-god Ea, whose Sumerian
Enki, and was known to the
Greeks as Oannes. Oannes had a
fish head and man's head
beneath, and both a fish tail and
man like legs, according to
Berossus.[a][1] The fish god
Dagon of the Philistines, with a
fish-tailed body, may derive its
origins from these earlier
Mesopotamian gods.[2]

Greco-Roman mythology …
Triton with a Nymph

Triton of Greek mythology was

depicted as a half-man, half-fish
merman in ancient Greek art.
Triton was son of the sea-god
Poseidon and sea-goddess
Amphitrite. Neither Poseidon nor
Amphitrite were merfolk, although
both were able to live under water
as easily as on land.

Tritons later became generic

mermen, so that multiple numbers
of them were depicted in art.[3][4]

Triton were also associated with

using a conch shell in the later
Hellenistic period.[5] In the 16th
century, the Triton was referred to
as "trumpeter of Neptune
(Neptuni tubicen)" in Marius
Nizolius's Thesaurus (1551),[6][b]
and this phrase has been use in
modern commentary.[7] The
Elizabethan period poet Edmund
Spenser referred to Triton's
"trompet" as well.[8]

Another notable merman from

Greek mythology was Glaucus.
He was born a human and lived
his early life as a fisherman. One
day, while fishing, he saw that the
fish he caught would jump from
the grass and into the sea. He ate
some of the grass, believing it to
have magical properties, and felt
an overwhelming desire to be in
the sea. He jumped in the ocean
and refused to go back on land.
The sea gods nearby heard his
prayers and transformed him into
a sea god. Ovid describes the
transformation of Glaucus in the
Metamorphoses, describing him
as a blue-green man with a fishy
member where his legs had been.

Medieval Period …

In Medieval Europe, mermen were

sometimes held responsible for
causing violent storms and
sinking ships.[9]
A twin-tailed merman is depicted
on the Bianco world map
(1436).[10][11][c] A merman and a
mermaid are shown on the
Behaim globe (c. 1490–1493).[12]

Rennaissance Period …

Gesner's sea-satyr …

Sea-Pan or Sea-Satyr
 Sea-monster Triton.
(monstum Schott's
marinum). Physica-Curiosa
Gesner (1558) (1697).
Historiae
animalium.

Konrad Gesner in his chapter on

Triton (mythology) in Historia
animalium IV (1558) gave the
name of "sea-Pan" or "sea-satyr"
(Latin: Pan- vel satyrus marinus)
to an artist's image he obtained,
which he said was that of an
"ichthyocentaur" or "sea-
devil".[13][d][14][15]

Gesner's sea-devil (German:

Meerteufel) has been described
by a modern commentator as
having "the lower body of a fish
and the upper body of a man, the
head an horns of a buck-goat or
the devil, and the breasts of a
woman",[16] and lacks the horse-
legs of a typical centaur. Gesner
made reference to a passage
where Aelian writes of satyrs that
inhabit Taprobana's seas,[13]
counted among the fishes and
cete (Ancient Greek: κήτη kētē,
"sea monsters").[17][18]

This illustration was apparently

ultimately based on a skeletal
specimen and mummies.[15][e]
Gesner explained that such a
creature was placed on exhibit in
Rome on 3 November
1523.[18][13] Elsewhere in
Gesner's book it is stated the "sea
monster (monstrum marinum)"
viewed on this same date was the
size of a five-year-old child.[19][f]
It has been remarked in
connection to this that mermen
created by joining the monkey's
upper body with a fish's lower
extremity have been
manufactured in China for
centuries,[18] and such
merchandise may have been
imported into Europe by the likes
of the Dutch East India Company
by this time.[22] (Cf. §Hoaxes and
sideshows).

The "sea-satyr[e]" appears in

Edmund Spenser's poem The
Faerie Queene (1590), and
glossed by Francis J. Child as a
type of "ichthyocentaur", on the
authority of Gesner.[23]

Germanic folklore …

Icelandic folklore speaks of

mermen known as marbendlar
(sing. marbendill).[24]

"Agnete og Havmanden" is a
Scandinavian ballad of late
composition (late 18th century)
that tells of a merman who was
mated to a human woman named
Agnete, and unsuccessfully
pleaded her to come back to him
and their children in the sea.[25]

Outward appearance …

English folklorist Jacqueline

Simpson surmises that as in
Nordic (Scandinavian) countries,
the original man-like water-
dwellers of England probably
lacked fish-like tails.[26] A
"wildman" caught in a fishnet,
described by Ralph of Coggeshall
(c. 1210) was entirely man-like
though he liked to eat raw fish
and eventually returned to the
sea.[26] Katharine Mary Briggs
opined that the mermen are
"often uglier and rougher in the
British Isles".[27][g]

Mermen which seldom frequent

American folklore are supposedly
depicted as less beautiful than
mermaids.[29]

Celtic folklore …

The Irish narrative about a male

merrow named Coomar,
described as extremely ugly
creatures with green hair, teeth
and skin, narrow eyes and a red
nose, turned out to be fakelore,
the entire "Soul Cages" story
being invented by Thomas
Keightley by adapting one of
Grimm's folklore pieces
(Deutsche Sagen No. 25, "Der
Wassermann und der Bauer" or
"The Waterman and the
Peasant").[28]

In Cornish folklore into early

modern times, the Bucca,
described as a lonely, mournful
character with the skin of a
conger eel and hair of seaweed,
was still placated with votive
offerings of fish left on the beach
by fishermen.[30] Similarly
vengeful water spirits occur in
Breton and Gaelic lore which may
relate to pre Christian gods such
as Nechtan.

Folklore elsewhere …
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In Finnish mythology, a vetehinen,

a type of Neck, is sometimes
portrayed as a magical, powerful,
bearded man with the tail of a fish.
He can cure illnesses, lift curses
and brew potions, but he can also
cause unintended harm by
becoming too curious about
human life.

The boto (river dolphins) of the

Amazon River regions of northern
Brazil, is described according to
local lore as taking the form of a
human or merman, also known as
encantado ("enchanted one" in
Portuguese) and with the habit of
seducing human women and
impregnating them.[31]
In the folklore of the Dogon of
Mali, ancestral spirits called
Nommo had humanoid upper
torsos, legs and feet, and a fish-
like lower torso and tail.[32]

In heraldry …

Mermen or tritons see

uncommon use in British heraldry,
where they appear with the torso,
head and arms of a man upon the
tail of a fish. They are typically
used as supporters, and are rarely
used as charges.[33]
Hoaxes and sideshows …

Banff "Merman" on display at the Indian

Trading Post

A dried ray or skate, or Jenny Haniver,

on display at Mashhad Museum, Iran
The Fiji mermaid was first put on
display in 1842 by P.T. Barnum in
the Barnum's American Museum,
New York.[34] A similar "merman"
was supposedly found in Banff,
Alberta, and is displayed at the
Indian Trading Post.[35] Other
such "mermen", which may be
composites of wood carvings,
parts of monkeys and fish, are
found in museums around the
world, for example, at the Booth
Museum in Brighton.[36]

Such fake mermaids handcrafted

from half monkey and half fish
were being made in China and the
Malay archipelago and being
imported by the Dutch since the
mid-16th century. [22] Several
natural history books published
around this time (ca. 1550s)
carried entries on the mermaid-
like monk-fish (sea monk) and the
bishopfish (sea bishop), and E. W.
Gudger suspected these were
misinformation based on the
aforementioned hoax mermaids
from the East.[h][37]
Gudger also noted that the
mermaid-like bishopfish could
well be simulated by a dried
specimen of a ray. A dried ray
bears a vaguely anthropomorphic
shape, and can be further
manipulated to enhance its
desired monstrous look. Such
figures made of sharks and rays
eventually came to be known as
Jenny Hanivers in Britain.[38]

Literature and popular

culture
…
Matthew Arnold wrote a poem
called "The Forsaken Merman"
about a merman whose human
wife abandoned him and their
children.[39][40] Mermen may
feature in science fiction and
fantasy literature, for example,
science fiction writer Joe
Haldeman wrote two books on
Attar the Merman in which
genetically enhanced mermen
can communicate telepathically
with dolphins. Samuel R. Delany
wrote the short story Driftglass in
which mermen are deliberately
created surgically as amphibious
human beings with gills,[41] while
in J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter, a
race of merpeople live in a lake
outside Hogwarts.[42]

Mermen sometimes appear in

modern comics, games, television
shows and films. Although they
were once depicted largely as
being unattractive in some
traditions as described in
previous sections, in some
modern works, mermen are
portrayed as handsome, strong
and brave. In the 1977–1978
television series Man from
Atlantis, the merman as played by
Patrick Duffy is described as a
survivor from Atlantis.[41] In the
DC Comics mythology, mermen
are a common fixture of the
Aquaman mythos, often showing
a parochialistic rivalry with
humanoid water-breathers. The
mermen or merfolk also appear in
the Dungeons & Dragons
game.[43]

The Australian TV series Mako:

Island of Secrets (2013–2016), a
spin-off of H2O: Just Add Water,
includes a teenage boy named
Zac (played by Chai Hansen) who
turns into a merman. The 2006
CG-animated film Barbie:
Mermaidia features a merman
character named Prince Nalu.

The monster Gill-man from

Creature from the Black Lagoon
could be seen as a modern
adaptation of the Merman
myth.[44]
See also …

List of piscine and amphibian

humanoids
List of hybrid creatures in
mythology
Vodyanoy
Fish-man of Cantabria, Spain
1983... (A Merman I Should
Turn to Be)

Explanatory notes …

1. Berrosus, as preserved by
Alexander Polyhistor.
2. It also occurs in Gesner
 (1558).
3. This is replicated in the
Vincenzio Formaleoni map
of 1783 "Planisferio antico
di Andrea Bianco Che si
conserva in Venezia nella
Biblioteca di S. Marc ",
LUNA, JCB Map Collection.
The figure occurs at the far
right.
4. Translation of Gesner's
Latin passage given in:
Benito Cereno. "Burgeoning
Lads of Science" .
5. Gesner's artist told him "he
had received a drawing of a
skeleton of such an animal
in Antwerp. Also, another
man brought back this
monster dried from Norway
to lower Germany, male and
female".[13][d]
6. An illustration similar to
Gesner's monstrum
marinum was later printed
by Kaspar Schott in
Physica-Curiosa and
labeled as "Triton".[20]
Llewellyn Jewitt has also
 reproduced an illustration
quite similar to Schott's,
claiming it came from
Rondelet.[21]
7. However, it should be
remembered that a polling
of the folklore of the "British
Isles" would include Irish
folklore, and the story of the
male merrow Coomara was
Thomas Keightley's
invention.[28]
8. Gudger notes as
corroborating circumstantial
evidence the fact that
 Guillaume Rondelet's
source received description
of the bishopfish from some
informant in Amsterdam
(and the Dutch were the
importers of the mermaid
mummies).

References …

Citations
1. Waugh (1960), pp. 73–74.
2. Waugh (1960), p. 74.
3. Hansen, William F. (2004).
Deities, Themes and
Concepts: Waters .
Handbook of Classical
 Handbook of Classical
Mythology. ABC-CLIO.
ISBN 9-781-5760-7226-4.
4. Lattimore, Steven (1976).
The Marine Thiasos in
Greek Sculpture . Institute
of Archaeology, University
of California, Los Angeles.
p. 30.
5. Arafat, Karim (KWA) (2012).
"Triton" . The Oxford
Classical Dictionary. p. 236.
ISBN 978-0-199-54556-8.
6. Nizolius, Marius (1551)
[1535], "Triton" ,
 Dictionarium Seu
Thesaurus Latinae Linguae,
Ex Sirenis Officina, p. 507
7. For example, Brooks,
Nathan Covington, ed.
(1860). The
Metamorphoses of Publius
Ovidius Naso . p. 79, n94.
8. "Triton his trompet shirll",
Faerie Queene, 3.11.12
9. Rose, Carol (2001). Giants,
Monsters, and Dragons: An
Encyclopedia of Folklore,
Legend, and Myth . W. W.
Norton & Company. p. 224.
 ISBN 0393322114.
Retrieved 15 July 2015.
10. Watts, Linda (2006). The
World Map, 1300-1492:
The Persistence of Tradition
and Transformation . JHU
Press. p. 266. ISBN 0-801-
88589-2.
11. Siebold, Jim (2015). "#241
Andrea Bianco World
Map" . myoldmaps.com.;
pdf text gives close-up of
siren.
12. Terkla, David P. (2013),
Friedman, John Block
 Friedman, John Block
Friedman; Figg, Kristen
Mossler (eds.), "Behaim,
Martin (c. 1459–1507)" ,
Trade, Travel, and
Exploration in the Middle
Ages: An Encyclopedia,
Routledge, pp. 55–56,
ISBN 1-135-59094-X
13. Gesner (1558), p. 1197 ;
(1604 ed.) p. 1001 .
14. Hendrikx, Sophia.
"Monstrosities from the
Sea. Taxonomy and tradition
in Conrad Gessner's (1516-
1565) discussion of
 cetaceans and sea-
monsters" .
Anthropozoologica. 53 (11):
132–135.
15. Ursula Wehner, Peggy;
Zierau, Wolfgang; Arditti,
Joseph (2013). Germanicus
and Plinius Indicus:
Sixteenth and Seventeenth
Century Descriptions and
Illustrations of Orchid
"Trash Baskets",
Resupination, Seeds, Floral
Segments and Flower
Senescence in the
 European Botanical
Literature in Orchid Biology:
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401-72500-2.
16. Suutala, Maria (1990), Tier
und Mensch im Denken der
deutschen Renaissance ,
Studia Historica 36 (in
German), Helsinki: Societas
Historica Finlandiae, p. 262,
"..der Meerteufel, Daemon
marinus, der den
 marinus, der den
Unterkörper eines Fisch und
den Oberkörper eines
Menschen hat, der Kopf
und Hörner hat wie ein
Bock oder wie der Teufel
und die Brust ist wie bei
einer Frau"
17. Aelian, De Natura
Animalium 16.18
18. Holder, Charles Frederick.
Fish Stories Alleged and
Experienced: With a Little
History Natural and
Unnatural . American
nature series. Group V.
 nature series. Group V.
Diversions from nature.
David Starr Jordan. 1909.
p. 7.
19. Gesner (1558), p. 522 ;
(1604 ed.) p. 441 .
20. Grace Constantino (31
October 2014). "The
Beautiful Monster:
Mermaids" . Biodiversity
Heritage Library.
21. Jewitt, Llewellyn (1880),
"The Mermaid, and the
Symbolism of the Fish, in
Art, Literature, and
Legendary Lore" , The
 Legendary Lore" , The
Reliquary and Illustrated
Archaeologist, 20: 9–16
22. Gudger (1934), p. 512.
23. Spenser (1866), Francis J.
Child, "Faerie Queene,
2.12.27" , British Poets 2,
Boston: Little, Brown &
Company, p. 134
24. Ármann Jakobsson (2002)
"Hættulegur hlátur". In
Baldur Hafstað; Haraldur
Bessason edd. Úr manna
minnum: Greinar um
íslenskar þjóðsögur, pp. 67–
 83.
25. Kramer, Nathaniel (2014).
Nun, Katalin; Stewart, Jon
(eds.). Agnes and the
Merman: Abraham as
Monster . Kierkegaard's
Literary Figures and Motifs
Tome I: Agamemnon to
Guadalquivir. Ashgate.
pp. 16–17. ISBN 1-472-
44136-2.
26. Simpson, Jacqueline; Roud,
Stephen (2000), "mermaid,
merman" , A Dictionary of
English Folklore, Oxford
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 University Press, pp. 639–
640, ISBN 0-192-10019-X
27. Briggs, Katharine Mary
(1978). The vanishing
people: a study of
traditional fairy beliefs .
Batsford. p. 266. ISBN 0-
801-88589-2.
28. Markey, Anne (2006). "The
Discovery of Irish Folklore".
New Hibernia Review / Iris
Éireannach Nua. 10 (4): 27–
28. JSTOR 20558106
29. Watts, Linda (2006).
Encyclopedia of American
 Folklore . Infobase
Publishing. p. 266.
ISBN 1438129793.
Retrieved 25 July 2015.
"Mermen do appear within
folklore, but are relatively
uncommon in American
lore. They are also said to
be much less visually
appealing than mermaids."
30. Traditional Cornish Stories
and Rhymes, Lodenek
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31. Juliette Wood Fantastic
Creatures in Mythology and
 Folklore: From Medieval
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(2018) , p. 62, at Google
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32. Crowley, Vivianne; Crowley,
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ISBN 9781858689876
33. Fox-Davies, Arthur (1909).
A Complete Guide to
Heraldry . London: T.C. and
E.C. Jack. pp. 227–228.
34. "The Fiji Mermaid: What
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Creature and Why Was It So
 Popular?" . Ancient Origin.
19 April 2016.
35. Babin, Tom (2007-01-22).
"Banff's oldest celebrity
resident" . Calgary Herald.
Archived from the original
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36. Imms, Adrian (24 Mar
2016). "Could this be the
most gruesome creature in
Brighton?" . The Argus.
37. Gudger (1934), pp. 512–
515.
38. Gudger (1934), pp. 514–
38. Gudger (1934), pp. 514–
515.
39. "The Forsaken Merman" .
The Poetry Foundation.
40. "The Forsaken Merman:
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41. S. T. Joshi (ed.). Icons of
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42. Jeffrey Andrew Weinstock
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43. Gygax, Gary, and Dave
Arneson. Dungeons &
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nytimes.com. The New York
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 Bibliography
Gesner, Konrad (1558). Historiae
animalium Liber IIII .
Gudger, E. W. (June 1934). "Jenny
Hanivers, Dragons and Basilisks in
the Old Natural History Books and
in Modern Times". The Scientific
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Waugh, Arthur (June 1960). "The
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71 (2): 73–84. JSTOR 1258382 .

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