The beautiful nymphs of the sea, sex-symbols of the ages, their stories have been told as far back as the most ancient legends. In Greek and Roman mythology, water gods Poseidon and Neptune are often said to be half-fish half-man creatures, their long staff-like Tritons turning into a common name for mermen. Triton is actually the son of the sea-god.
In ancient Japan and China, "there were not only mermaids but also sea-dragons and the dragon-wives. The Japanese mermaid known as Ningyo was depicted as a fish with only a human head; where as the POLYNESIAN mythology includes a creator named Vatea who was depicted as half-human form and half-porpoise," according to 'The History of Mermaids'. He goes on to say;
"The Babylonians were known to worship a sea-god called Oannes, or Ea.
The Syrians and the Philistines were also known to have worshipped a Semitic mermaid moon-goddess. The Syrians called her Atargatis while the Philistines knew her as Derceto. It is not unusual or surprising that this moon-goddess was depicted as a mermaid as the tides ebbed and flowed with the moon then as it does now and this was incorporated into the god-like personifications that we find in their art and the ancient literature. Atargatis is one of the first recorded mermaids and the legend says that her child Semiramis was a normal human and because of this Atargatis was ashamed and killed her lover. Abandoning the infant she became wholly a fish.
Water-nymphs for example can be mistaken for mermaids, they are beautiful in their appearance and are also musically talented, which mermaids are well known for, be it their singing or playing of a musical instrument. Sirens too are forever being mistaken for mermaids.
The Siren and the Mermaid are two seperate entities, one having the upperbody of a young woman and the lowerbody of a bird, the other the upperbody of a young woman and the lower body of a fish.
The Indians, amongst their many gods, worshipped one group of water-gods known as the Asparas,who were celestial flute-playing water-nymphs."
Mermaids, or their counterparts Sirens, are heard of in all parts of the world. Even though mermaids are the more popular in folklore, "the first representation of the half-human, half-fish hybrid was a male; the sea-god Oannes, the 'great fish of the ocean', who was also the sun-god, rising out of the sea each day and disappearing back under the waves each night... Oannes was worshipped by the Babylonians around 5000 BCE... Oannes' goddess counterpoint was Atargatis (or, Atergatis, or, in Greece, Derketo) a Semetic moon goddess who became the first official mermaid, being depicted with a fish's tail; fish were sacred to her. She and Oannes were said to be the parents of the legendary Semiramis, an historical queen of Babylon."
Mermen are generally considered uglier and by far less kindly than mermaids. They have no interest in mankind, unlike mermaids who often try to seduce human males, and are known for starting huge storms and drowning ships in ire and revenge if a mermaid is hurt. However, "Benwell... describes the Scandinavian Merman or Havmand as a handsome creature with a green or black beard, living on cliffs and shore hills as well as in the sea, and says that he was regarded as a beneficent creature." (An Encyclopedia of Fairies by Katharine Briggs)
Mermaids are the symbols of feminism, beauty, sexuality and fertility. However, the male-dominated Christian Church used the symbol of the mermaid to turn people from sin and the temptations of the flesh. "Mermaids are represented in Irish early Christian medieval and post-medieval art, frequently as a warning to Christians against the sins of vanity, pride and lust," according to T.K. They promoted the idea that mermaids were "dangerous temptresses and had no souls of their own," which only was another push against women in general, such as in the witch-burning crazes when "harmless old wise women were put to death by burning or hanging for practicing traditional herb-lore." In Elizabethan times, it was even the sign of prostitution.
"Whilst the Sirens tempted Odysseus with supreme knowledge, a god-like attribute, later the emphasis shifted to worldly temptation. Thus the mermaid/siren symbol was used by the Mediaeval Church as embodying the lure of fleshly pleasures to be shunned by the God-fearing. The mermaid became a victim of the repressive sexual attitudes of the Christian Church. Mermaid carvings figured prominently in church decorations in the Middle Ages, to symbolically serve as a vivid reminder of the fatal temptations of the flesh. These rapacious soul-eaters (the legacy of the bird-sirens) were of course not considered to have souls of their own. Thus the legends of the more highly-principled mermaids, anxious to acquire souls, arose."
The ideas that mermaids were without souls led to another wing of folklore; Mermaids wishing to gain souls, as in Hans Christian Anderson's The Little Mermaid.
Now, the norm in literature stated that merfolk were the causes of storms and shipwrecks, and indeed, it was often said that their singing would bring about great destruction for sailors. Some, though, would warn of danger and be helpful, or even bring young sailor men down beneath the sea with them, where the men would either drown or live in blissful happiness, "depending on their captor's attitude"
This singing relates them to Sirens. Sirens are "beautiful sea-nymph, often depicted with the head of a bird and the body of a woman. Sirens had sweet voices that lured men to them, which they would drown. In some accounts, there were only three sirens, namely Parthenope, Ligea, and Leucosia."
