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Picture of A Mermaid by John William Waterhouse, 1905. A mermaid (from the Middle English mere in the obsolete sense 'sea' + maid(en) is a legendary aquatic creature with the head and torso of human female and the tail of a fish. The male version of a mermaid is called a merman; the gender-neutral collective noun is merfolk. Various cultures throughout the world have similar figures.

In some ancient cultures Mermaids were regarded as semi-divine aspects of the Goddess, connected to the sea from which life arises and honoured in seaside temples. The earliest Mermaid story comes from Assyria around 1000 BCE. Atargatis, an Assyrian priestess, jumpred into the sea to wash away the shame of an unwanted pregnancy and emerged as a fishtailed goddess. In the 2nd century BCE, the Greek historian Lucian reported that the statue of the Great Goddess at the temple of Hieropolis (which is now modern Turkey) had a fishtail instead of legs. In Greece, Aphrodite, the goddess of love, as born from the sea foam and rode to land on a half-scallop shell.

In the 1st century CE, Pliny wrote convincingly of the existence of Mermaids, but said that their bodies were 'rough and scaled all over'. But by the 5th century CE, the bestiary Physiologus described Mermaids in terms that accord fully with their contemporary image. Mermaids are 'wonderfully shaped as a maid from the navel up and fish from the navel down'.

Mermaids were often sighted by seamen during the middle ages, Christopher Columbus among them, who reported seeing three Mermaids on his first voyage to the Americas in 1493. Mermaids figured prominetly in sailors' lore, because of such travellers' tales. The most common story was that Mermaids were incredibly skilled at seducing lonely sailors and dragging them down to their underwater kingdom. It was also believed that they could cause storms and shipwrecks. These beliefs were reinforced by the medieval Church, to which Mermaids were an emblem of vanity, lust and the spiritual perils of women and of sexuality.

The Sirens of Greek mythology are sometimes portrayed in later folklore as mermaids; in fact in some languages the name sirena is used interchangeably for both creatures. Other related types of mythical or legendary creature are water fairies (e.g. various water nymphs) and selkies.










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mythicalgirl mermaid 2 Jan 17 2012, 12:13 PM EST by Anonymous
Thread started: Aug 10 2011, 7:30 PM EDT  Watch
to me mermaids are evil and scary their not as nice as every one think they are that's why i find them so amazing and true but you have to watch out for them just because people show you pretty drawings of them does not mean their pretty they are ugly and spiteful so watch out for them if you ever come across one
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Anonymous mermaids (page: 1 2 3 4 5 ... last page) 658 Dec 11 2011, 12:11 AM EST by freedragon10022
 
Thread started: Oct 24 2009, 5:18 PM EDT  Watch
shut dah *** up ***** am sho ur dah slut .. yuu have noo fukin riite to swer at dem lyk dat nd dey miite not even exsis yuu dum *** !!!! llook at ur fukin slutyy picture den say shiit !!
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MermaidMelissa Realistic mermaid information and links 0 Sep 29 2011, 4:40 PM EDT by MermaidMelissa
Thread started: Sep 29 2011, 4:40 PM EDT  Watch




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posted by MermaidMelissa   Sep 29 2011, 4:24 PM EDT
Real Mermaids Do Exist!

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