Week I
A Question of Origin
Before one can talk in depth about an iconic creature such as a mermaid, it is imperative to know about its origin. The first week of our class was spent discussing just this. What are the earliest literary sources of the mermaid? Where did these works come from and how did they approach this character?
Research Project Responses
Lucy Scholz: "According to this journal, mermaids did not appear first as creatures that people saw (or thought they saw) in the oceans, but rather as creatures that were worshipped as gods. For example, in Babylon, they worshipped a hero named Adapa who was part carp (like the fish) and was banished at one point to a watery, oceanic underworld. In mythology of ancient Greece, there was the sea-god Poseidon. Through the belief in this god, the people came to believe in his sea people- the mer-men! The author, Daniel Loxton, describes the ways in which images and beliefs of mer-people continued on strongly throughout the middle ages and the renaissance. He gives the example of Christopher Columbus spotting “three sirens” whilst traveling to a Caribbean island. The author also gives note of reasons why as well as suggestions and hypotheses as to what these ancient people really could have been seeing in the water, and he suggests either manatees or dugongs: large mammals gracefully and fully adapted to the marine life that if only seen at a quick glance could easily be mistaken for a mermaid or merman."
Daniel Loxton, “Mermaids”
Dustin Leber: "Lara Knight explained that first sea-person was male. His name was “Ea” or “Oannes.” He was praised in Accad between 5000-4000 B.C. The Babylonians eventually accepted Oannes as a god. The first mermaid that was adored was named Derceto. Derceto was prasied by the Philistines, the Syrians and the Israelites. Oannes is described as having a fish tail and sometimes portrayed as human. Derceto was originally human and became a mermaid. Derceto was converted into a mermaid because of poor life choices. Derceto had a sexual relationship with a priest. This was taboo that lead to Derceto becoming pregnant and having a child. Derceto tried to commit suicide by jumping into Lake Ascalon. After jumping into the lake, Derceto survived and acquired the characteristics of a fish tail."
Mermaids and Their Cultural Significance In Literature and Folklore by Lara Knight (Mermaids)
Discussion Overview:
During week 1, we established the mythological wellspring from which the mermaid figure emerged to develop a basic understanding of how these feminine depictions of the “other” originated in times of antiquity. This allowed us to better understand the figures upon which later depictions were built. The first texts that we studied were Homer’s Odyssey and The Metamorphoses of Ovid. We derived the genealogy (and the symbolism thereof) of the sirens from these myths, and found that they are the children of the god Ascalaphus, who betrayed Proserpina by telling Pluto about how she had eaten the pomegranate seeds. The enraged goddess then cursed the once-beautiful water nymphs with birdlike attributes, such as feathered wings and taloned feet; much like the children of Adam and Eve, they were unjustly punished by an angered God about a matter of a sacred fruit (which is interesting, as Paracelsus does describe these aquatic beings as the elementals most closely related to humans). Having established the origins of this aquatic “other,” we dove into the depictions of the mermaid in romantic German poems (namely those of Heine and Goethe) and how their nature was fiercely disputed at the time. On one hand, Heine portrays these aquatic figures, such as the Loreley, in a more traditional manner, as he expresses a fear of the uncertainty that lurks within the underwater world (“I believe the waves swallowed/ in the end both mariner and boat/ And with her singing/ The Loreley did this” -lines 4-8 of the third stanza of Die Loreley), whereas Goethe postulates that undersea life may even be better than life on land in Der Fischer (“You descend like you are/ And you would be healthy for the first time” lines 6-8). Furthermore, this dispute as to the nature of the aquatic “other” is also discussed in Paracelsus’ text on the nature of elemental beings, as he ascribes a duality to all elemental beings, in which some are violent and unpredictable (sirens), and others are more socially inclined and capable of co-existence with humankind (nymphs).