Have you ever had a mermaid sighting? Do you believe in mermaids? What’s your evidence? This essay will explore about the urban legend of mermaids. A mermaid is a legendary creature with the head and upper body of a female human and the tail of a fish. “Mermaid mythology is quite varied, with mermaids talking on different appearances, origins, and personalities” (Fairclough 1).
To begin with, mermaids are just characters in a story, but sometimes people think they see them in real life. So what's the mix up? Where did the legend even come from in the first place? The legend of mermaids has been around for thousands of years. But what exactly is a mermaid? A mermaid is a creature that's half-human, half-fish. Specifically, people usually “envision a beautiful woman whose legs have been replaced by a long tail of …show more content…
Mermaids may be ancient, but they are still with us in many forms; their images can be found all around us in films, books, Disney movies, at Starbucks and maybe even in the ocean waves if we look close enough (Simon 1).
More importantly, “researchers believe that sightings of human-size ocean animals are manatees, which inspired mermaid legends” (Simon 2). These animals have a flat, mermaid-like tail and two flippers that resemble stubby arms. As for not looking like mermaids, most sightings were from a distance, and mostly underwater. The history of mermaid legends and myths is interesting, because it is filled with many different versions of similar creatures from all sorts of cultures around the world. There are two types of variations, mermaids and mermen. Greek mythology contains stories of the god Triton, the merman messenger of the sea. Likewise, the Greek god Triton was a merman figure that has existed for centuries. Benjamin Radford says that there's conflicting personalities with mermaids, sometimes they were portrayed as beautiful, seductive maidens
To begin with, mermaids are just characters in a story, but sometimes people think they see them in real life. So what's the mix up? Where did the legend even come from in the first place? The legend of mermaids has been around for thousands of years. But what exactly is a mermaid? A mermaid is a creature that's half-human, half-fish. Specifically, people usually “envision a beautiful woman whose legs have been replaced by a long tail of …show more content…
Mermaids may be ancient, but they are still with us in many forms; their images can be found all around us in films, books, Disney movies, at Starbucks and maybe even in the ocean waves if we look close enough (Simon 1).
More importantly, “researchers believe that sightings of human-size ocean animals are manatees, which inspired mermaid legends” (Simon 2). These animals have a flat, mermaid-like tail and two flippers that resemble stubby arms. As for not looking like mermaids, most sightings were from a distance, and mostly underwater. The history of mermaid legends and myths is interesting, because it is filled with many different versions of similar creatures from all sorts of cultures around the world. There are two types of variations, mermaids and mermen. Greek mythology contains stories of the god Triton, the merman messenger of the sea. Likewise, the Greek god Triton was a merman figure that has existed for centuries. Benjamin Radford says that there's conflicting personalities with mermaids, sometimes they were portrayed as beautiful, seductive maidens