Rachel Federman - Mermania

If mermaids have a legacy that lasts for ages to come, one hopes it will be to help humans preserve the water-filled planet that we’re so lucky to have.

Mermaid Names Around the Seven Seas

Throughout history,

mermaids

have been known by many names:

AQUATIC HUMANOID

KELPIE

LIMNIAD

NAIAD

NERIAD

NIX

OCEAN NYMPH

OCEANID

SIREN

SPIRIT

SPRITE

SYLPHE

UNDINE

WATER NYMPH

Mermaids have been known to live for up to

three hundred

years

in their aquatic form.

TRADING FINS FOR LIFE ON LAND TENDS TO SHORTEN THEIR LIFESPAN DRAMATICALLY, PLUS IT OFTEN MEANS

giving up their voices along with their tails.

IN RETURN, THEY’RE GRANTED A TERRESTRIAL ROMANCE, OR

perhaps even a soul.

SADLY, IT’S SAID THAT

mermaids

don’t have souls;

ONCE THEY DIE THEY SIMPLY

turn into

sea foam.

IN BIBLICAL TERMS (TO MISQUOTE GENESIS),

‘For sea foam

thou art, and unto sea foam

SHALT THOU RETURN.’

In the waters off

THE PORT OF HISTORIC NYHAVN, IN

Copenhagen,

LIES A WELL-LOVED BRONZE STATUE OF

The Little Mermaid,

MADE BY EDVARD ERIKSEN, WHOSE WIFE POSED FOR THE SCULPTURE.

IN 1909 A BREWER NAMED CARL JACOBSEN (THE FOUNDER OF CARLSBERG BEER) COMMISSIONED THE WORK AFTER FALLING UNDER THE SPELL OF A BALLET VERSION OF THE FAMOUS FAIRYTALE. ALTHOUGH MOST GAZE ON

the statue with love

FOR THE QUIET SUNBATHER NEAR THE LANGELINIE PROMENADE, SHE HAS SUFFERED VARIOUS ATTACKS. IN 1964 THE BELOVED STATUE LOST ITS ORIGINAL HEAD. AN AMPUTATION, ATTEMPTED BEHEADING, AND EXPLOSION FOLLOWED. SHE HAS BEEN RESTORED EACH TIME, THOUGH, AND

continues her watch.

Mermaids

CAN SYMBOLIZE ETERNITY, FERTILITY,

beauty, desire, freedom,

mystery, and doom.

Tales about mermaids

began to appear

three thousand years ago,

IN THE MESOPOTAMIAN KINGDOM OF ASSYRIA.

MERMAIDS HAVE BEEN ENCHANTING HUMANS FOR THOUSANDS OF YEARS.

Stories of merfolk

STRETCH BACK THROUGHOUT HISTORY AND ACROSS CULTURES. IN THE

Babylonian period

(1800–600 BCE), EA, THE GOD OF THE SEA (IN GREEK, OANNES), HAD THE

lower body of a fish and the upper body of a human.

THE CREATOR OF THE

live mermaid show

AT WEEKI WACHEE SPRINGS, FLORIDA, WAS

‘Fish Man’ Newton Perry,

A US NAVY VETERAN WHO HAD ONCE TRAINED NAVY SEALS TO SWIM UNDERWATER IN WORLD WAR 2. ALTHOUGH THE

city of Weeki Wachee

WAS NOT INCORPORATED UNTIL 1966, PERRY OPENED THE THEATRE IN OCTOBER 1947. AS OF 2008, THE LEGENDARY FLORIDA ATTRACTION IS NOW

a state park.

The name

Weeki Wachee

COMES FROM THE SEMINOLE TRIBE OF NATIVE AMERICANS WHO CALLED THE SPRING WEEKIWACHEE

(winding river).