This book is for mermaid believers, and for people who want to believe in magic and the mysteries beneath the waters. With EVEN MORE articles, facts, and smiles. The sequel to Mermaid Believer Book.
The cover is not mine. It was made by @FantasyGir...
As winter break comes to an end (sadly), I think it's only right that we all take a dive into our mermaid history. If there was a class I could take on mermaids, you already know that I would sign up so fast! I wish there was. We should honestly make it happen someday.
ANYWAYS!
Our low-budgeted, extremely fun, most interesting class begins!
Mermaids started to appear in stories around 1000 BC in Assyria (now, present-day Syria and the northern area of Iraq). The story is that a goddess named atargatis became a mermaid after casting herself into a lake.
Now, I briefly pulled up a map of what Assyria is thought of to been like, because I was curious too.
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If we look closely, there are multiple lakes located in this marked land. If you happen to ever be close to one of these lakes, I'm going to guess that these are great grounds to casting spells, drinking potions, or whatever you would like to try to becoming a mermaid yourself.
More myths and legends obviously follow the first tale from 1000 BC, each a little more traumatizing than the last. There are multiple constants in each myth, however.
1. The woman who became the first mermaid had meant to kill herself
2. Becoming a mermaid was always an accident
3. Mermaids can be dangerous yet helpful at the same time
Moving on, the family tree of mermaids looks a little like this:
As we can see here, mermaids and mermen can also be referred to as Tritons, however, one specifically cannot be referred to as a Trition since that is the King of the Sea, of mermen and of mermaids.
The diet of mermaids and mermen are slightly complicated as well.
There are multiple known stories with mermaids where they strictly do not eat fish. On one hand, we have sirens, who would drown their prey and feast on this kind of meat, which leads some to believe that mermaids do, in fact, eat fish as a source of protein.
However, I can also see the other side of this debate considering that mermaids are, after all, half fish. Therefore, eating something so closely related to you could be unsettling and uncomfortable. However, does this mean that mermaids wouldn't mind eating beef or chicken, perhaps?
Whether or not mermaids have powers is a big debate as well. Since mermaids are mystical, it is commonly generalized that mermaids have some sort of magic as well. I know that I do, and some of us reading this does as well. However, is this true of ALL mermaids? If so, what are the limits of these powers? How far can a mermaid go with her extraordinary ability?
I'm afraid that we might never know the answers to these questions until wild mermaids are finally discovered, whether they chose to open themselves up to us, or we accidentally find them and someone successfully entraps one :(
That's all for our mermaid history today! Unfortunately, much of mermaid history are debates, questions, and question marks rather than facts. That's what I find so interesting in mermaids, though! They are so incredibly mysterious, yet beautiful and smart. Like all of us :D
