Happy Mondo Missy Monday!
Thanks to those of you who checked out Saturday's episode, "Animals and Astrology: The Chinese Zodiac. Apologies for the technical difficulties we had on the first airing, (the one that's about 15 minutes long). I don't know what happened, but I could no longer hear D, though it appears you guys could. You can still listen to that one until the 8:45 mark. That's where things go south; but please be sure to listen to the 37 minute video. That's the full episode, where we go into the animals of the Chinese Zodiac.
Keeping in line with last Monday's post, I think for the rest of May, I'm going to let Mondays be Mythical. Can you tell I love alliteration? Yeah, I think you can. Anyhoo, today's Mythical Beast is The Mermaid.
For some reason, I could see this mythical creature having the most chance of actually being real. I know with The Unicorn and Loch Ness Monster, some people have sworn that they really did see them, just as people do with the Mermaid; but I can potentially believe that if you go far enough out to sea, there could be creatures that you wouldn't see on a regular sea voyage, that might not take you as far away from civilization. Also, before there was as much pollution in the oceans and all the modern technology, it might have been more possible for such creatures to have existed. My mom would tell me about the man who lived in their neighborhood who shared with my grandfather that he'd seen a mermaid, (I can't remember if he was some kind of seaman or what his deal was supposed to be); but he swore to my granddad, that he saw one. Go figure.
So, just what is a Mermaid? First off a Mermaid is traditionally described as having human woman's head and torso, while having the lower body of a fish. They can be dudes too.
1. Mermaids have been described as leading unwitting sailors to their deaths, (in a similar fashion to that of the mythical Sirens), causing violent storms at sea, and dashing sailors boats onto rocks, smashing them to smithereens, thereby drowning the poor saps. At the least, it was considered a bad omen to spot one. In some accounts, they were depicted as friendly and helpful.
2. One of the origins of the mermaid legend come from Assyria. A beautiful goddess named Atargatis flings herself into a lake, after accidentally killing her human lover, becoming a mermaid; some versions say she transformed herself into a mermaid out of shame over killing her love. Prior to the legend of Atargatis, the Babylonians spoke of a male Fish God by the name of Oannes. He was half man, half fish, with the top half being human and the bottom half being a fish tail, like a traditional mermaid.
3. Alleged sightings: Christopher Columbus claims to have seen a mermaid, reporting that what he saw wasn't nearly as beautiful as legends had spoken of, (it's believed that what Columbus saw was actually a manatee). Note to "Chris": Manatees look nothing like women. The pirate Black Beard also recorded in his log, that he and some of his crew had allegedly seen mermaids and he took care to instruct his crew to avoid certain waters for fear of it being "enchanted".
4. A "real" sighting supposedly took place in Holland in the 1600's. A mermaid became injured upon coming through a dike. A person or a group of people, took her to a nearby lake and nursed her back to health. The mermaid later went on to pull her own weight as a regular citizen of Holland, learning to speak Dutch, and even became a practicing Catholic. For other alleged "real" mermaid sightings, read:
http://www.livescience.com/39882-mermaid.html
5. Some possibilities for what people may have mistaken for mermaids include, manatees and dugongs. Don't know what the heck a dugong is? I didn't either. Check this out for more info on these guys:
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/mammals/d/dugong/)
6. People were tricked in 2012 when Animal Planet released a fake documentary called, "Mermaids: The Body Found". The show had many people shook up. Due to The National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration's representation in the documentary, they started getting bombarded with questions as to whether a real mermaid had actually been found or not; but despite our best hopes, The NOAA denies any proof of the existence of mermaids. Check out this link of the NOAA giving their official stance on the existence of Aquatic Humanoids:
http://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/mermaids.html
7. Many countries have their own names, legends, and versions of what we know as mermaids or merfolk. Here are a few:
In Hinduism, Suvannamaccha is a mermaid princess.
In Africa, parts of the Caribbean, and parts of South America, there is Mami Wata, a water spirit sometimes known to lure men to their deaths, among other things.
Mermaid tales are also included in the Chinese, Shanhaijing, a compilation of geography and myths.
Aycayia is a mermaid identified by the Neo-Taino nations of the Caribbean.
The Iara, known as the lady of the lake, or water queen, are mermaid type creatures of Brazil.
There are many other examples such as The Jengu of Camaroon, and the Sirena and Siyokoy of The Philippines who are also mermaids and mermen respectively.
I hope you guys have learned something new about Mermaids. There's a lot of fascinating information out there, so definitely be sure to research more. Here are some additional links to check out.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mermaid
http://thefw.com/mermaid-facts/
http://www.realmermaids.net/mermaid-facts/interesting-facts-about-mermaids/
Stay tuned for more Missy Show posts later in the week!
Until next time, this is your host, J,
signing off....
Thanks to those of you who checked out Saturday's episode, "Animals and Astrology: The Chinese Zodiac. Apologies for the technical difficulties we had on the first airing, (the one that's about 15 minutes long). I don't know what happened, but I could no longer hear D, though it appears you guys could. You can still listen to that one until the 8:45 mark. That's where things go south; but please be sure to listen to the 37 minute video. That's the full episode, where we go into the animals of the Chinese Zodiac.
Keeping in line with last Monday's post, I think for the rest of May, I'm going to let Mondays be Mythical. Can you tell I love alliteration? Yeah, I think you can. Anyhoo, today's Mythical Beast is The Mermaid.
For some reason, I could see this mythical creature having the most chance of actually being real. I know with The Unicorn and Loch Ness Monster, some people have sworn that they really did see them, just as people do with the Mermaid; but I can potentially believe that if you go far enough out to sea, there could be creatures that you wouldn't see on a regular sea voyage, that might not take you as far away from civilization. Also, before there was as much pollution in the oceans and all the modern technology, it might have been more possible for such creatures to have existed. My mom would tell me about the man who lived in their neighborhood who shared with my grandfather that he'd seen a mermaid, (I can't remember if he was some kind of seaman or what his deal was supposed to be); but he swore to my granddad, that he saw one. Go figure.
So, just what is a Mermaid? First off a Mermaid is traditionally described as having human woman's head and torso, while having the lower body of a fish. They can be dudes too.
1. Mermaids have been described as leading unwitting sailors to their deaths, (in a similar fashion to that of the mythical Sirens), causing violent storms at sea, and dashing sailors boats onto rocks, smashing them to smithereens, thereby drowning the poor saps. At the least, it was considered a bad omen to spot one. In some accounts, they were depicted as friendly and helpful.
2. One of the origins of the mermaid legend come from Assyria. A beautiful goddess named Atargatis flings herself into a lake, after accidentally killing her human lover, becoming a mermaid; some versions say she transformed herself into a mermaid out of shame over killing her love. Prior to the legend of Atargatis, the Babylonians spoke of a male Fish God by the name of Oannes. He was half man, half fish, with the top half being human and the bottom half being a fish tail, like a traditional mermaid.
3. Alleged sightings: Christopher Columbus claims to have seen a mermaid, reporting that what he saw wasn't nearly as beautiful as legends had spoken of, (it's believed that what Columbus saw was actually a manatee). Note to "Chris": Manatees look nothing like women. The pirate Black Beard also recorded in his log, that he and some of his crew had allegedly seen mermaids and he took care to instruct his crew to avoid certain waters for fear of it being "enchanted".
4. A "real" sighting supposedly took place in Holland in the 1600's. A mermaid became injured upon coming through a dike. A person or a group of people, took her to a nearby lake and nursed her back to health. The mermaid later went on to pull her own weight as a regular citizen of Holland, learning to speak Dutch, and even became a practicing Catholic. For other alleged "real" mermaid sightings, read:
http://www.livescience.com/39882-mermaid.html
5. Some possibilities for what people may have mistaken for mermaids include, manatees and dugongs. Don't know what the heck a dugong is? I didn't either. Check this out for more info on these guys:
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/mammals/d/dugong/)
6. People were tricked in 2012 when Animal Planet released a fake documentary called, "Mermaids: The Body Found". The show had many people shook up. Due to The National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration's representation in the documentary, they started getting bombarded with questions as to whether a real mermaid had actually been found or not; but despite our best hopes, The NOAA denies any proof of the existence of mermaids. Check out this link of the NOAA giving their official stance on the existence of Aquatic Humanoids:
http://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/mermaids.html
7. Many countries have their own names, legends, and versions of what we know as mermaids or merfolk. Here are a few:
In Hinduism, Suvannamaccha is a mermaid princess.
In Africa, parts of the Caribbean, and parts of South America, there is Mami Wata, a water spirit sometimes known to lure men to their deaths, among other things.
Mermaid tales are also included in the Chinese, Shanhaijing, a compilation of geography and myths.
Aycayia is a mermaid identified by the Neo-Taino nations of the Caribbean.
The Iara, known as the lady of the lake, or water queen, are mermaid type creatures of Brazil.
There are many other examples such as The Jengu of Camaroon, and the Sirena and Siyokoy of The Philippines who are also mermaids and mermen respectively.
I hope you guys have learned something new about Mermaids. There's a lot of fascinating information out there, so definitely be sure to research more. Here are some additional links to check out.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mermaid
http://thefw.com/mermaid-facts/
http://www.realmermaids.net/mermaid-facts/interesting-facts-about-mermaids/
Stay tuned for more Missy Show posts later in the week!
Until next time, this is your host, J,
signing off....
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