Many centuries ago, in Ancient Babylon, the myth of the amazing deity Oannes was popular - the creature from whom, according to the records of the Chaldean priest and astrologer Berossus (III century BC), the beginning of Babylonian culture was conducted. The monster, half-fish, half-human, came out of the sea every morning and talked to people, teaching them sciences, arts and crafts. This Babylonian forefather taught compatriots the principles of geometry and agriculture, gave them laws and sacred scripture, which narrated about the beginning of the world.
Chaldeus Berossus described the appearance and essence of Oannes as follows: “The body of a divine animal is like a fish. He has a different head under the fish head. He also has human legs fused with a fish's tail. He is gifted with reason, and his speech is coherent and understandable. He gifted people with all good customs and works …"
Early depictions of Oannes are quite consistent with the description of Berossus. However, in a fancy costume (a pike-perch's head instead of a helmet and a fish-skin cloak), he so far little resembled the sea maidens - his “descendants”. But centuries passed, and the sea god gradually changed his appearance in human representations. On the sculptures found in Khorsabad, we already see him in the guise quite befitting the progenitor of mermaids: with a fish tail instead of legs, but with a torso and a human head. However, with a new appearance, Oannes still retained his masculine nature.
After some time, the situation changed again, and the first female fish-tailed deity was Atargate, the Syrian goddess of the moon and fishing, whose cult flourished in the city of Hierapolis (modern Membij). According to the Roman historian Lucian, "she is half woman, but from her hips down she has a fish tail." So Oannes became the god of the sun, and Atargate became the goddess of the moon. On some of the Phoenician coins that have come down to us, the image of Atargate is engraved: in appearance, it is a typical mermaid.
It was natural to assume that the Sun and the Moon (or their mythological symbols - Oannes and Atargate) live in the sea, and from here it is not far to the fish's tail, with which the legend adorned them. With the development of Phoenician culture, the glory of the mermaid goddess grew. Poets generously endowed her with enthusiastic epithets: seductive, irresistible, proud and incredibly beautiful. Atargate influenced the development of the cult of other deities. Some mythological scholars believe that the Greek goddess of love, Aphrodite, "born of the foam of the sea," and therefore the Roman Venus, are descended from Atargate. Aphrodite herself on her sea voyages was usually accompanied by water deities of the lowest rank - tritons. How the ancient Greeks imagined these fish-tailed pages can be judged by the images on the ancient Corinthian coins: the chariot with Aphrodite is led by two tritons, both,like the Atargate, from head to tail, they are real mermaids.
Since then, in the mythologies of many peoples, creatures with fish tails have settled for a long time, however, under different names. For example, the etymology of the word "mermaid" in English had a very definite meaning - "the sea and the girl." But in other languages the same creature began to be called a siren. At first, such maidens, say, in Hellas were called female birds, but then they turned into female fish, trapping sailors behind the reefs. The main attraction of the sirens was their bewitching voice. Men, mesmerized by its magical sound, floated to him, never to return home. As a result, the siren became associated in human memory with such mystical horror that several species of marine mammals (dugongs, manatees, steller's cows), also called sirens, were almost completely exterminated by the end of the 18th century.
From the same family and the heiress of the goddess Atargate are the naiads. Every river, every source and stream in Greek mythology had its own guardian - the naiad. This cheerful tribe of patrons of waters, prophetesses and healers excited and delighted: every Greek with poetic imagination heard the careless talk and chirping of these beauties in the murmur of the waters. They belonged to the descendants of Ocean and Tefida, and their number reached three thousand. As Hesiod says in Theogony, “none of the people can name all their names. Only those who live nearby know the name of the stream.
The ancient creatures of the Naiads were on a par with the chthonic deities and were mentioned along with the satyrs, Kurets, Koribants, Telkhins, etc. One of the Naiads bore the name Kokehida and was associated with the water of the kingdom of the dead. According to some legends, she was the beloved of Aida. The waters of the springs where the naiads lived, according to tradition, had purifying properties and even had the ability to give immature and youth. In ancient Greek mythology, the naiads were related to the Nereids. In addition to Zeus, the naiads accompanied Poseidon, Dionysus, Apollo, Aphrodite, Demeter, Persephone, gave abundance, fertility, health and patronized marriages.
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Naiads lived in fountains, wells, underground springs, streams and were universally considered spirits of fresh water - in contrast to the oceanids (salt water spirits) and Nereids, who live exclusively in the Mediterranean Sea. All magical abilities of the naiads stemmed (literally and figuratively) from their unity with water. For example, the nymph Arethusa could easily make her way through underground sources from the Peloponnese to Sicily.
If the pond dried up, the naiad living in it died. Locals worshiped these creatures and even threw children's curls into the water, devoting their children to water spirits. In some regions (for example, in Lerna), healing properties were attributed to the streams of streams with naiads. Animals were drowned there as sacrifices, and oracles were often located on the banks of these springs. Although they were quite peaceful creatures, the naiads could still fend for themselves. It was they who kidnapped Hilas (the lover of Hercules) from the Argo ship, and the naiad Nomiya, in love with the shepherd Daphnia, once tired of enduring his infidelity, turned the guy to stone (according to another version, she blinded him).
From the Babylonians and Greeks, the Naiads continued their journey through the endless expanses of water of countries and continents, changing names, names along the way, but by no means their essence. The South American Indians called their mermaids Iaras. And not only were they themselves afraid of them to death, but even the Europeans who sailed to them were able to convince them of their existence. Serious people who believed in the Christian Trinity, and not in any evil spirits, sent letters to their historical homeland with frightening stories about how another beauty with long hair and a fish tail bewitched and destroyed the ship with all the fishermen.
Knew mermaids and Serbs, who called them pitchforks. Here, the scaly beauties also preferred to play love. At the same time, feeling like the full-fledged mistress of all reservoirs - from forest lakes to village wells - the pitchforks were very angry when one of the mortals dared to drink water from them. To go ashore in the form of a lovely girl, go down the aisle and even give birth to a child - Serbian mermaids could well agree to this. But give a glass of water to the traveler - no way! They could have sent blindness to the unfortunate, and punished with rain and hail.
The water women in Ireland - the merrow - were described as incomparable beauties. Unless, of course, you close your eyes to the fishtail instead of legs and the membranes between the fingers. But at the same time it is better to stay away from them: after all, the appearance of a merrow on the surface of the water portends a terrible storm. And if an Irish mermaid falls in love with an earthly man, then she begins to freak out not at all like a mermaid: she will go ashore in the guise of a small horse in a red cap with feathers and will wait for reciprocity from her chosen one.
The Baltic peoples (except for the Lithuanians), as well as the Germans, have always admired their aquatic maidens called Undins: the local ladies had blue eyes, golden curls, and an angelic voice. How not to fall in love with such a water bride! As a result, many amorous Latvian guys went missing after the very first meeting with the undine. As for Lithuania, the local inhabitants called their tailed maidens Nare. But this did not change the essence: just like the naiads or undins, the nare on clear warm nights came out of the water, sang, arranged round dances in order to lure at least some guy - even one for all.
Pernatiev Yuri Sergeevich. Brownies, mermaids and other mysterious creatures