Tip 1: What distinguishes mermaids from sea maidens
Tip 1: What distinguishes mermaids from sea maidens
The idea of mermaids is formed by manythanks to the beautiful and tragic fairy tale of Andersen "The Little Mermaid." Her heroine has a fish tail instead of legs, and in order to accept the human form, she has to give her marvelous voice to the sea witch. Meanwhile, in the Slavic mythology there are quite different mermaids.
Real mermaids live in fresh water, the sea -This is the habitat of sea virgins. They are endowed with fish tail, mermaids - ordinary human feet, because once they were all earth girls and walked on the ground. A beautiful pannochka from Gogol's story "The May Night, or the Drowned Woman", having died through the fault of the evil witch-stepmother, becomes the mermaid leader. Gogol describes them as pale-faced and beautiful girls in long white shirts, whose transparent bodies seem to glow from the inside. At night they dance and dance on the beach.
It should be noted that mermaids are becoming far awaynot all drowned people, but only some of them. First of all, those who, like Gogol's pantochka, voluntarily rushed into the water. Then - the girls who drowned, bathing without a cross on the body, as well as dead unbaptized newborn girls. Sometimes mermaids find themselves new friends: they will see a girl who had to go to the forest alone, go round her in a dance and drag her along.
Unlike sea virgins, which, if you believeAndersen, live 300 years, the age of freshwater mermaids is short. They have only been released for 7 years, and every year they become paler and more transparent until they completely dissolve in the water. However, they should not be pitied: mermaids are cunning and very dangerous. Any traveler who met them during the forest walks under the Moon, they will tickle or zakrugat in a dance to death.
One of the favorite activities of mermaids is to swing onBranches of trees, especially on the flexible branches of a weeping willow. On the branches there is a mermaid from the famous preface to Pushkin's poem "Ruslan and Lyudmila." Therefore, those numerous artists who are accustomed to portray it in the guise of a sea maid with a fish tail are wrong.
Tip 2: Who are mermaids and sirens
In the world for a long time there are many myths andlegends about mermaids and sirens, which the sailors met in their long voyages. These creatures were endowed with magical powers of negative properties, they were considered the abduction of sailors and luring ships to reefs, where they expected imminent death. So who do people call mermaids and sirens, are these mythical creatures really existing?
Secrets of the sea depths
Almost all people know the stories abouthalf-women-half-fishes, which live in the seas and oceans. These cunning creatures lured the sailors with their beauty and magic singing to the seabed, depriving them of reason and life. Even ancient historians and naturalists thought about the probability of the existence of mermaids and sirens - were they a myth or a small but reasonable branch of evolution? According to eyewitnesses, the network of sailors sometimes got strange creatures with bare skin, flat tail and short, short, fin-like fins resembling hands.For the first time, charming mermaids and sirens were mentioned in the annals of ancient Babylon, which also described the newts - the male version of the mermaid.The ancient Babylonians worshiped the mightyThe sun god Oannes, who was half a fish. In the thirties, French researchers of West Africa discovered on its territory the oldest tribe - Dogon. The Dogons have managed to live for several thousand years in complete isolation from civilization, while possessing terrific exact knowledge of astronomy. The Dogon priests claimed that they had been given this knowledge by space amphibians, one of which was Oannes.
Legends of mermaids and sirens
The rocky Scottish shores have a smallIsland. It is completely covered with small pebbles of gray-green color, which locals call "mermaid tears." According to legend, one mermaid fell in love with a young monk from the monastery of St. John. The monk taught her prayers, and the lovers began begging for the soul of the god for the mermaid, so that she could leave the sea and become a man. However, God did not answer their prayers, and the mermaid had to return to the sea, from where she periodically returned, mourning her love on that island.Against the background of myths about mermaids, this 16th-century legend is unique - indeed, unlike the stories of bloodthirsty sea beauties, it tells of love.Virtually all legends and parables of the sirens andMermaids are represented by insidious seductive creatures, who are drawn only by the desire to entice more sailors into their nets and ruin their souls. The sailors considered even a mermaid to be a bad sign, just flashed on the horizon - they believed that after that their ship would certainly be doomed to crash. In Slavic folklore, mermaids were called the souls of girls who drowned themselves from unhappy love and after death began to take revenge on all men, luring them into the river.
