Fact or Fantasy - MERMAIDS11:41 Apr 23 2012
Times Read: 808
Fantasy!
The place where I saw mermaid mummies(and they were a very interesting sight, believe me) it was at the museum of Witchcraft in Florence.
There were at least two of them and both vintage fakes but they were still fascinating for me. When (if ever) I will develop the photos I took I will post them here.
Their "grandmothers" are the sirens, who were first imagined as birdlike creatures with breasts and female head. Later the Greeks depicted them as creatures of the sea too.
Ulysses and the Sirens
Herbert James Draper
(1909)
Oil on canvas
Ferens Art Gallery (Hull, United Kingdom)
more info about the painting and legend here:
http://www.theearthlyparadise.com/2008/06/herbert-james-draper-ulysses-and-sirens.html
The Romanians know these deities of the waters who temp men into waters to take their lives by drowning, as Stima Apelor(the "shtima" of the waters).
If you want I can tell you a few stories about them.
The modern variant of the myth was reinterpreted by Blavatsky and the other theosophists as being (along with their counterparts, the mermen) the metamorphosed inhabitants of the sunken Atlantis, the fabulous land described by Plato in one of his works.
Atlanteans learned how to survive underwater and they still suppose to leave in the Atlantic Ocean.
This story inspired H.P.Lovecraft to write very interesting short stories based on this:
The Temple(1917)
http://hplovecraft.com/writings/texts/fiction/te.asp
Dagon(1917)
http://www.hplovecraft.com/writings/texts/fiction/d.asp
The Little Mermaid by Gennady Spirin
They also inspired the Italian band of neo-classical music Ataraxia to compose the mesmerizing "Lost Atlantis" album in 1995.On that album is one of my favorite songs ever: Fountains. The lyrics of the album are magic!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQ9qu9Yz_gw
In film I know at least two memorable movies that are to be watched by passionate, if he change his mind and do not follow the half-fish ladies into the water abyss:
The french silent movie
The Lost Atlantis (1932)
http://youtu.be/lAld4y-Mz_o
The Lovecraft inspired cult movie directed by Stuart Gordon:
Dagon (2001)
http://youtu.be/z7QREJdUyf4
A mermaid by John William Waterhouse
(1901)
Oil on canvas
Royal Academy of Arts - London, England
One more thing: Dagon is a real deity(as real as a deity can be) worshiped in Babilon and Assur a few thousands years ago and he was half man-half fish depicted with a pope-like tiara on his head. Interesting fact: some historians today claim that the Philistines who had Dagon as the chief of their pantheon were Thracian in origin and this links them(even if it`s a "far away" link) to our Transilvanian theme.
How could I forget notorious mermaids in art and literature?
Goethe`s Melusine, Andersen`s Little Mermaid, Heine`s Lorelei, Hoffmann`s Undine?
There were tomes written about these enchanting creatures.
Melusine`s secret discovered
miniature by de Mets (1410)
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