Siren Call Throughout Time: The Mermaid’s Allure

May 11, 2023

A Mermaid, John William Waterhouse RA (1900)

Siren Call Throughout Time: The Mermaid’s Allure

Part 1

[T]he secret of the power in their song: it is the sound of the subversive, luring us from the orderly conscious world down to the depth of the world of dreams, and the harder we try to ignore that singing, the more we desperately want to hear it.

—Meri Lao, Seduction and the Secret Power of Women: The Lure of Sirens and Mermaids

Ah, the mermaid. The mermaid is a timeless figure who still persists within our cultural imagination today: from Disney’s Little Mermaid (1989)—which grossed more than $6 million during its first week in theaters and is currently being remade into a live-action version—to Starbucks split-tail logo, she is an instantly recognizable creature from her long, flowing hair to her sparkling fishy tail.¹ Our obsession with the mermaid has transplanted her firmly within lore globally; where there is a body of water—from rivers, to lakes, to lochs, to oceans—you can bet yourself that the locals within the region have one story or another about a beautiful and alluring fish-woman swimming in its depths.

As we continue forward during this glorious month of MerMay, we’ll examine the role of the mermaid and her siren call throughout both time and across the globe. Perhaps one of the oldest and most recognizable erotic monsters, the mermaid is a fascinating figure of paradox: she is both sexually tempestuous and unattainable; a symbol and provider of luck, as well as a harbinger of destruction. It’s for this reason that the Monstrous Desire Study rejoices as we continue to take a look at the mermaid and the eroticism that is inherent to her identity.

Who is the Mermaid Today?

The history of the mermaid is a long, and complicated, one. Depending on where you are in the world, her physical appearance and the historical point of her birth varies. As so eloquently stated by Gwen Benwell and Arthur Waugh, authors of Sea Enchantress, “Nearly every country has its mermaid lore; if the sea does not wash its shores, then its rivers, lakes or wells are likely to have their mermaid traditions”.² From Africa, to Asia, to the Caribbean, to Europe, and the Americas, the mermaid splashes about in various bodies of water, granting wishes for or enacting harm against travelers who stumble across her. Yet, these mermaids were very different from the creature we know today. These mermaids of a not-so-ancient past were sculpted from raw nature: their intense beauty and intoxicating voices a mere mirage that hid the very danger and power that caused men to welcome a watery death. Today, the modern mermaid has been co-opted by capitalism as a merchandising tool. Their beguiling but dangerous power and beauty, possessed in both physical form and voice, has been relinquished in favor for a more palatable perception that can safely situate the mermaid on the front of children’s lunch boxes, beach towels, coffee corporation logos, and as toys. As Skye Alexander summarizes, “Hollywood and Madison Avenue have tamed the mermaid”, however, the taming of the mermaid had begun to take place prior to Disney.³ Instead, it was Disney’s beloved musical animated film that was the final nail in the mermaid’s watery coffin as a merchandise symbol. Finn Hauberg Mortensen outlines the historical transformation of the Western mermaid and her gradual commodification as a

long chain of references that have defined the mermaid as a locus of cultural meaning, [that] can be divided into three layers: 1) the feudal-popular-pagan traditional culture with its superstitious sailors and folk ballads with sea creatures, 2) the bourgeois-Christian culture to which to which both [Hans Christian] Anderson’s fairy tale and Erikson’s statue at Copenhagen’s harbor belong and 3) finally, mass culture with its multi-media exploitation of Anderson’s fairy tale, the most characteristic example of which is Disney’s postmodern musical animated film. ⁴

Layer three is no less true today: at the time of this blog post’s publication, Disney is set to release the live-action version of The Little Mermaid, just one of a variety of live-action remakes from Disney’s musical animation library. The ramifications for the “Disneyfication” of the mermaid has diminished her mystique, “partly because she’s omnipresent now instead of rare…Unlike her sultry, siren ancestors, the modern mermaid is safe—and it seems we prefer her that way”.⁵ But, what was the mermaid like before Hans Christian Anderson’s fairy tale, Walt Disney, or before she became a politely-smiling logo for Starbucks?

A (Not So) Brief History of the Mermaid

Though the Western mermaid takes forefront within our cultural understanding of the mermaid, much of the mermaid’s lore can be traced back to ancient mermaid myths from Africa, India, and the Middle East.⁶ Before the modern mermaid and its ancestor the siren, there was the Babylonian god Ea, Lord of the Waters. The first merman in recorded history, the fish-tailed God was adopted by the Babylonians from the Akkadians. Ea is so old that worship of him can be traced back in Akkad to as early as 5000-4000 B.C. Ea not only controlled the sea, but the spirits and demons who dwelt under the surface. His portrayal is varied: in some instances, Ea (or, as he was also commonly referred to as, Oannes) is sometimes represented as human until the waist and possessing a fish-tail; in other portrayals, he’s shown to be wholly human and wearing a fish head and fish skin cloak that hangs down his back.⁷

The Babylonians, in fact, were the first to create the earliest-known depiction of a mermaid via sealstones which they used to “sign” documents by pressing carved stone images into hot wax. One such 18th-century sealstone portrayed a half-human, half-fish creature, perhaps to represent Ea in his merman form.⁸

In Syria, the moon-goddess Atargatis’ entire body was that of a fish, except for her human head. Atargatis—also referred to as Derketo by the Greeks—dealt with all things fish: Syrians abstained from eating fish in her honor, and could not eat them without a license issued by the goddess herself (which helped priests within her temples produce a revenue).⁹ The glory of Atargatis would spread throughout Greece and Rome, and eventually, Europe and Britain via Roman conquest.

India possessed their own versions and interpretations of mermaids as well, from water-nymphs to nagas/naginis to gods who took the shape of hybrid fish-deities. Take, for example, one such incarnated form of Vishnu during one of his first ten incarnations. Vishnu took the form of Matsya (a fish) to save primeval man from the deluge that consumed the world. Vishnu’s fish avatar is portrayed as either a giant golden fish or an anthropomorphic fish hybrid with the deity retaining his form from the waist up, while his lower half is a magnificent fish tail. When Matsya is depicted as an anthropomorphic fish, the deity is resplendent in a crown and Vishnu’s associated four arms.¹⁰ Though not a merman explicitly, Vishnu’s hybrid fish form possesses similarities to that of merfolk around the world.

Matsya would not be the only mermaid interpretation within India, either. The Apsaras, or Apsarases, were celestial water-nymphs attached to the court of Indra, while the nagas/naginis—half-human, half-serpent nature spirits—lived at the bottom of lakes, rivers, and streams guarding treasures, sacred knowledge, and had the power to produce rain and floods.¹¹

Like India, ancient Greece possessed their own slew of aquatic mythical creatures, from the innumerable water nymphs to water gods and goddesses to sirens. Ancient Greeks categorized their nymphs according to their environment:

Oceanids lived in the oceans.

Nereids resided in the seas and the foam along rocky coastlines.
Naiads could be found in freshwater—lakes, rivers, and streams, marshes, and sometimes fountains.¹²

The nymphs were seductive, sleek, and beautiful young women and girls who—though they themselves lacked fish scales/tails—rode upon the backs of aquatic animals like dolphins.¹³ Though the minor deities possessed the power to calm or disturb waves, the nymphs were friendly, so much so that sailors sought them out to appeal to them for their protection before a voyage, especially Panope whose name meant “seeing everything”.¹⁴ Yet this doesn’t mean that nymphs, like all Greek deities, weren’t partial to being temperamental. Nereids could be vengeful, so it was in everyone’s best interest to stay on their side.

The Greeks would adopt religious icons from various religions and repurpose them within their pantheon, including many water gods and goddesses such as the Babylonian sea god Ea and renaming him as Oannes, or the co-opting of Syria’s fertile Atargatis and reconfiguring her as Aphrodite, the goddess of love.¹⁵ And, of course, who could forget Triton, the son of Poseidon and the nereid Amphitrite, who was half-man and half-fish with flowing hair and a sparkling tail? Like many water gods, Triton had command over “the most mutinous seas”, but he also possessed wisdom and prophetic power, both similar attributes to our beloved mermaid.¹⁶ Because of his hybrid appearance, “tritons” would also come to refer to creatures who were half-man and half-fish¹⁷, and “tritonids” would categorize the female counterparts to “tritons”, however, the tritonids were rarely addressed and only made occasional appearances.¹⁸

It would be Achelous the river god, however, who would be most pertinent to the evolution of the mermaid. Achelous was the father to the infamous Sirens, beautiful women who were not half-women, half-fish, but a combination of woman and bird, similar in form to that of the harpy.¹⁹ Though nymphs lacked the physical form of the “true” mermaid (maidens with fish tails), they—in conjunction with the siren—would serve as inspiration for the more familiar Western mermaid that emerged during the Christian Era.

The siren’s identity (beautiful and dangerous women who lured sailors to their death through their haunting singing) converged with that of the mermaid during the Christian Era, but prior to this, sirens and mermaids were discussed as distinct creatures. Sirens were cemented within ancient Greek lore through Homer who turned the creature once originally believed to be a keres, or ghost/sprite/demon, and “gave her a glorious voice and turned her into the femme fatale of the ocean: the emblem of feminine seduction which the world has accepted ever since”.²⁰

At the time of their introduction in Homer’s Odyssey, the sirens weren’t described as bird-like, but rather disembodied voices.

Their bird-like form materialized through Greek artists who portrayed the sirens as woman-faced birds. They were creatures with compelling and hypnotic voices that lured sailors to their deaths either by drowning or crashing their ships into rocks.

To Homer, the siren’s voice meant death, which was fitting later on for the Christian Church, who would use the femme fatale archetype of the sirens as an allegory for moral death in yielding to feminine seduction.²¹ As polytheism gave way to monotheism within the West, the mermaid and the siren began to converge both in characteristics/physicality and the definitive categorical boundaries began to blur.

These transitory sirens featured in Latin bestiaries and church iconography, as seen in the terracotta Hellenistic “Mourning Siren” (right), which represents a siren with completely feminine features except for the feathered wings upon her back and her webbed feet.²²

Mermaids (i.e. maidens with fish tails) appeared in early bestiaries, but were referred to as “Syrens” and described with the ancient siren’s characteristics of a magical voice and powers of seduction. Additionally, however, was an emphatic warning that stressed Christian puritanicalism urging against the Syren’s allure.²³ As the early Christian Era gave way to the Medieval period, the amalgamation of the siren’s and the mermaid’s identities converged into one, especially as the mermaid became an erotic symbol that the church wielded as a warning allegory against the temptation of flesh (sinful…).

Eroticism and sensuality had been an intrinsic part of the mermaid’s history and identity, characteristics that continued to persist well within the Medieval period and reflected within their lore. If a Medieval craftsman, for example, wished to symbolize the “Lures of the Flesh” (oh, heavens!) the craftsman would carve a fish-tailed mermaid and not the bird-like sirens of ancient Greece.²⁴

Even tall tales of Alexander the Great’s conquers often included encounters with dangerous but erotic mermaids. Though Alexander the Great died in 323 B.C., the early Christian Era “crystallized and circulated” stories about Alexander, especially those featuring mermaids.²⁵ In one story, Alexander and his band of men stumbled across mermaids who set upon them. The story was illustrated in a Bodleian MS. (No. 264), The Romance of Alexander, portraying a mermaid drowning:

her soldier victim, upon whom she looks down with satisfaction. Another is dragging a soldier to her; unresisting, he kisses her. The third water-woman clutches a soldier’s cloak as he flees. The remaining two soldiers appear to have a chance of escape; one is on his knees. Alexander surveys the disturbing scene with uplifted hand and an expression of surprise.²⁶

In another fable, Alexander’s own sister, Thessalonike, after her death would transform into a mermaid and question seamen if her brother was still alive. If answered incorrectly, Thessalonike would produce an angry storm as punishment, yet, if answered correctly (“He lives and reigns and conquers the world”), they would continue their journey unharmed.²⁷

As the West pushed forth into the Middle Ages, the imagery surrounding the mermaid would evolve, her lore bolstered by a “revival of interest in the pagan siren in mediaeval [sic] Chistendom”.²⁸ The mermaid during this period would be co-opted by the Church as a political symbol to push their agenda—not unlike demons and devils re: demon copulation, which was occurring simultaneously.

Rather, instead of the Church punishing those who spoke about their experiences with mermaids—as was the case for accused witches who had had carnal relations with demons and devils—Christendom exploited mermaid lore to propagandize the sin of seduction. They were written about extensively within bestiaries, which were compiled by none other than monks or other clerks in the Holy Orders.²⁹ The moralization of the mermaid, of course, was spread further by the Church as seafaring exploration experienced a resurgence amongst nations of Western Europe, who would then return back home with wild and exotic stories of beautiful mermaids.³⁰ This allowed for the Church to Christianize pagan lore, and repurpose it for their own aggrandizing agenda.

With the Churches acceptance, as it were, of the mermaid, bestiaries spread in popularity across Europe and iconography of the mermaid not only flourished, but stories and sightings of merfolk boomed, uninhibited by scorn or disbelief. It is during this era that the siren mermaid not only lost her bird feathers, but acquired her quintessential comb and mirror as well!³¹ However, just like with demon copulation and witchcraft accusations, belief in the mermaid faltered and waned during the 16th and 17th century as rational explanation and scientific exploration replaced superstition. Abandoned by the Church, mermaid sightings and fables would not outright disappear, however, they were now only kept alive up through the 19th century by sailors, fishermen and others.³² Below, co-authors Gwen Benwell and Arthur Waugh summarize the mermaid’s cultural trajectory within the West:

As the Age of Reason unfolds; as Britain and France battle for the mastery of an overseas empire; as Newton deduces the law of gravity; as Napoleon menaces the liberty of Europe, the interest of the common man in the marvellous [sic] and the mythical might be expected to diminish. But, as we shall see, reports of the mermaid’s appearances round our shores—made, in many cases, by sincere, honest eye-witnesses—aroused considerable interest whenever they appeared in the Press. Belief in the mermaid undoubtedly diminished considerably, but interest in her was unflagging. More faked mermaids were produced and exhibited than at any other period, and the mermaid herself remained a highly controversial figure throughout the nineteenth century.³³

This is only a brief glimpse into the history of the mermaid and does not fully encapsulate her vibrant history, nor her various shared identities around the globe. The mermaid, sadly, cannot be done justice in a mere 5-6 pages (she is too larger than life for that!). Instead, the Monstrous Desire Study will attempt to explore the mermaid’s intrinsic sensuality now that I have contextualized the mermaid by skimming the surface of her history. In part 2, I will explore the mermaid further as an erotic symbol, especially in relation to her identity as a femme fatale archetype, and how eroticism is inherent to not only her identity, but largely shapes her physical configuration as well!

Works Cited

Skye Alexander, Mermaids: The Myths, Legends & Lore. Massachusetts: Adams Media, 2012. pg 7.
Gwen Benwell and Arthur Waugh. Sea Enchantress: The Tale of the Mermaid and her Kin. London: Hutchinson & Co., 1961. Pg. 13.
Alexander, Mermaids: The Myths, Legends & Lore, 24.
Finn Hauberg Mortensen. “The Little Mermaid: Icon and Disneyfication”. Scandinavian Studies, Winter 2008, Vol. 80, No. 4 (Winter 2008). pg. 442.
Alexander, Mermaids: The Myths, Legends & Lore, 24.
Alexander, Mermaids: The Myths, Legends & Lore, 137.
Benwell and Waugh, Sea Enchantress, 23.
Alexander, Mermaids: The Myths, Legends & Lore, 80.
Benwell and Waugh, Sea Enchantress, 28.
Carolyn Turgeon The Mermaid Handbook: An Alluring Treasury of Literature, Lore, Art, Recipes, and Projects. New York: Harper Design, 2018.
Alexander, Mermaids: The Myths, Legends & Lore, 148.
Alexander, Mermaids: The Myths, Legends & Lore, 17.
Ibid.
Benwell and Waugh, Sea Enchantress, 39.
Alexander, Mermaids: The Myths, Legends & Lore, 85.
Benwell and Waugh, Sea Enchantress, 36.
Ibid.
Benwell and Waugh, Sea Enchantress, 41.
Benwell and Waugh, Sea Enchantress, 43.
Benwell and Waugh, Sea Enchantress, 42.
Benwell and Waugh, Sea Enchantress, 44.
Benwell and Waugh, Sea Enchantress, 47.
Ibid.
Benwell and Waugh, Sea Enchantress, 48.
Benwell and Waugh, Sea Enchantress, 52.
Benwell and Waugh, Sea Enchantress, 54.
Alexander, Mermaids: The Myths, Legends & Lore, 86.
Benwell and Waugh, Sea Enchantress, 69.
Ibid.
Ibid.
Benwell and Waugh, Sea Enchantress, 72.
Benwell and Waugh, Sea Enchantress, 86.
Benwell and Waugh, Sea Enchantress, 101.

Siren Call Throughout Time: The Mermaid’s Allure

Part 1

Who is the Mermaid Today?

A (Not So) Brief History of the Mermaid

Works Cited

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