mermaid
Sign in to saveIn folklore, a mermaid is an aquatic creature with the head and upper body of a female human and the tail of a fish. Mermaids appear in the folklore of many cultures worldwide, including Europe, Latin America, Asia, and Africa.
AI overview
A mermaid is a mythical creature depicted in stories from cultures around the world as having a woman's head and upper body combined with a fish's tail. These folklore figures have captivated human imagination across Europe, Latin America, Asia, and Africa for centuries.
AI-generated from the Wikipedia summary — may contain errors.
Key facts
- Mythical creature.name
- Mermaid
- Mythical creature.image
- John William Waterhouse A Mermaid.jpg
- Mythical creature.caption
- John William Waterhouse, A Mermaid (1900).
- Mythical creature.Grouping
- Mythological
- Mythical creature.Sub_Grouping
- Water spirit
- Mythical creature.Country
- Worldwide
via Wikipedia infobox
Article
78 sectionsContents
- Etymologies
- Mermin
- Merewif
- Origins
- Sirens
- Medieval sirens as mermaids
- Textual attestations
- Iconographic attestations
- Mirror and comb
- Other Greek mythical figures
- Ancient Middle Eastern mythology
- Kulullû
- Syrian mermaid goddess
- Rational attempts at explanation
- Medieval literature
- Merwomen in Germanic literature
- Nibelungenlied
- Rabenschlacht
- Folkore worldwide
- Folklore of Britain and Ireland
- Scandinavian folklore
- Haffrue
- Other aliases
- General characteristics
- Omen, prophecy and wisdom
- Merfolk as abductors
- Marmaele
- Margýgr
- Western European folklore
- Byzantine and Ottoman Greek folklore
- Eastern Europe
- Chinese folklore
- Korean folklore
- Tale of Nangan
- Japanese folklore
- Indian, Southeast Asian, and Polynesian folklore
- Indonesia
- Philippines
- New Zealand
- African folklore
- The Man Who Caught a Mermaid
- Arabian folklore
- ''One Thousand and One Nights''
- Americas folklore
- Iara and Ipupiara
- Alamoa
- Reported sightings
- Roman Lusitania and Gaul
- Age of Exploration Americas and polar frontiers
- Colonial Brazil
- Dutch Formosa
- Colonial Southeast Asia
- Seventeenth-century Visayas
- Eighteenth-century Moluccas
- Qing dynasty China
- U.S. and Canada
- Twenty-first century
- Hoaxes and show exhibitions
- Manufactured merfolk specimens
- Mermaid shows
- Scientific inquiry
- Arts, entertainment, and media
- Literature
- Art and music
- Motion pictures
- Heraldry
- Fandom
- Gallery
- Illustrations and paintings
- Sculptures
- Carvings
- Other uses
- See also
- Explanatory notes
- References
- Citations
- General and cited references
- External links
In folklore, a mermaid is an aquatic creature with the head and upper body of a female human and the tail of a fish. Mermaids appear in the folklore of many cultures worldwide, including Europe, Latin America, Asia, and Africa.
Mermaids are sometimes associated with perilous events such as storms, shipwrecks, and drownings (cf. ). In other folk traditions (or sometimes within the same traditions), they can be benevolent or beneficent, bestowing boons or falling in love with humans.