Mermaids Aren't Real (Sorry to Ruin Your Day)

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has released on it’s website:

“Mermaids — those half-human, half-fish sirens of the sea — are legendary sea creatures chronicled in maritime cultures since time immemorial. The ancient Greek epic poet Homer wrote of them in The Odyssey. In the ancient Far East, mermaids were the wives of powerful sea-dragons, and served as trusted messengers between their spouses and the emperors on land. The aboriginal people of Australia call mermaids yawkyawks – a name that may refer to their mesmerizing songs.

The belief in mermaids may have arisen at the very dawn of our species. Magical female figures first appear in cave paintings in the late Paleolithic (Stone Age) period some 30,000 years ago, when modern humans  gained dominion over the land and, presumably, began to sail the seas. Half-human creatures, called chimeras, also abound in mythology — in addition to mermaids, there were wise centaurs, wild satyrs, and frightful minotaurs, to name but a few.

But are mermaids real? No evidence of aquatic humanoids has ever been found. Why, then, do they occupy the collective unconscious of nearly all seafaring peoples? That’s a question best left to historians, philosophers, and anthropologists.”

Odysseus and the Sirents

To deal with such devastating news the day before a holiday (one that makes me want to brazen Captain America’s shield across my bosoms), here are some links to various other mermaid related reading and activities.

lesson anyone?

http://northstargallery.com/mermaids/mermaidhistory2.htm

Music maybe?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=80s7evMjReI   (Black Mermaid by Esthero)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oqVnm16pK_8&feature=related  (Mermaid Song from On Stranger Tides)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7rhDChKi0EE   (Mermaid Song from Harry Potter)

An entire episode from the anime series Vampire Princess Miyu:

Dream of the Mermaid – Vampire Princess Miyu

Or Philip J Fry falling in love with a mermaid, Umbriel:

http://www.comedycentral.com/episodes/xmpy7g/futurama-the-deep-south-season-2-ep-212

Mermaid Camp if you’re on Florida’s West Coast?

http://weekiwachee.com/home.html

The Discovery Channel with Animal Planet is adding mermaids to their monsters week:

http://press.discovery.com/ekits/monster-week-mermaids/press-release.html

short mermaid tales here :

http://storyqdayx5d.tumblr.com/tagged/mermaid

http://archiveofourown.org/users/storyqdayx5d/pseuds/storyqdayx5d

“Peter was not with them for the moment, and they felt rather lonely up there by themselves. He could go so much faster than they that he would suddenly shoot out of sight, to have some adventure in which they had no share. He would come down laughing over something fearfully funny he had been saying to a star, but he had already forgotten what it was, or he would come up with mermaid scales still sticking to him, and yet not be able to to say for certain what had been happening. It was really rather irritating to children who had never seen a mermaid.”  ―    J.M. Barrie,    Peter Pan

Rodel Gonzalez – Peter Pan and the Mermaids

EVERYONE HAVE A GREAT HOLIDAY!

         

and together, we can get through this upsetting announcement!!

Disney’s The Little Mermaid Broadway Show