There were no mermaids, they don’t live. Evidence of the existence of mermaids. Evidence of the existence of monsters in the 18th–19th centuries

Mermaid - character Slavic mythology, although creatures similar to her were found in European mythology (they were called Sea Maidens), and in ancient Greek (sirens and naiads), and even among the Baltic peoples (undines). And they are called Mavkas. Ideas about the appearance, origin and behavior of mermaids vary. In a word, they are described in the legends of many countries. Who are mermaids and do they exist?

Origin

They were first mentioned in the 12th century in Icelandic chronicles. The story told of a half-woman named Margigr.

Later, in the 15th century, in the work of the Sigodel Foundation “Wonders of Nature, or a Collection of Extraordinary and Noteworthy Phenomena and Adventures in the Whole World of Bodies, Arranged in Alphabetical Order,” it was told about a female creature discovered on the coast of Holland.

And then such references became more and more common. In Slavic mythology, and in many others, mermaids have been around for so long that their origin is difficult to determine. And different myths say completely different things about them, agreeing only on one thing: it’s better not to deal with them. They'll either tickle you or drown you.

What does a real mermaid look like?

In the pictures and photos, in the classical representation, these are girls with fish tails, and this came from European sea maidens. Russian mermaids looked like little girls with green hair. In Ukraine they were ugly and shaggy. And in Greece there are simply beautiful maidens. However, mermaids in real life, not mythological, most often look like people with scales and a tail. More about them later.

And if mermaids are a non-existent myth, then how can we explain real cases of their discovery?

In 1737, the Gentleman's magazine published an article stating that a creature with a human body, a flattened nose and a tail resembling a salmon was caught near the British city of Exter. It was filled with sticks.

Later, in 1739, Scot'smagazine told how several live mermaids were caught near the island of Mauritius, fried and eaten. They say it tastes like veal.

In 1881 Boston newspapers said that female remains similar to human ones were found on the shore. The description matches European ideas about mermaids: a human upper half and a fish tail.

Real mermaids were also found in the Soviet Union. This happened on Lake Baikal in 1982. After diving, the scuba divers discovered very tall creatures. When they tried to catch them, a force impulse threw the scuba divers to the surface, and then they fell ill with decompression sickness. Three died, the rest were disabled.

In August 1992 mermaids have been discovered in the USA. It was in Florida, and the creatures were described by the fishermen as large-headed, half-human, half-seal creatures with webbed hands. Seeing the ship, the mermaids circled around it and disappeared under the water. And the fishing net standing there was cut.

In a museum in the city of Tombstone in the southern United States there is a creature resembling a sea cow with a human-like upper part. Fishermen from those places said that similar creatures sometimes get caught in their nets.

And these cases are not isolated. Mermaids have been spotted in many places around the world. And in Antarctica, and in Israel, and in Suffolk, and in Dyved, and in other places. I wonder if all these mermaids appeared to people on purpose or if they simply lost their vigilance.

Based on all this evidence, it can be assumed that mermaids still exist in our time. There are many varieties of them, they live in the depths of the sea and develop parallel to humans.

The ocean has not been fully studied, and that is why the existence of mermaids has not yet been proven. And due to ignorance, people have attached many myths, legends and superstitions to the real fact of their existence. But now few people believe that when meeting a mermaid you need, for example, to throw a scarf. Because people began to think more logically and believe in myths less. Therefore, one day the existence of mermaids will be officially proven.

In most cases, mermaid species are disparate groups mythical creatures tied to a specific territory. At its core, a mermaid is an inanimate creature that lives in reservoirs, rivers, lakes and even fields. Most often, these aquatic inhabitants do not like people, so you should not catch their eye again.

Let's put everything on the shelves!

Of course, in Slavic mythology, some types of mermaids are practically harmless creatures who love to frolic in the water on a moonlit night or swing on tree branches. Some of them come out onto land to wander through the fields and improve the crops. It’s not for nothing that in ancient times people believed that water spirits in female form helped raise crops. At times, they were even equated to fertility deities!

However, in order to understand each type of water maiden, it is necessary to devote to each of them separate article, and, perhaps, more than one, which is what we will certainly do. Now it is much more important to highlight general classification this is a species to find out what a mermaid looks like. This will help us separate these mythical creatures without using their territorial characteristics.

We will take the habitat as a basis. Under each group we list several types of mermaids.

“Pitfalls” in the classification of mermaids

Unfortunately, this simple diagram cannot include all the variety of types of mermaids. Even if we start developing a full classification of these sea creatures, we still cannot avoid “blank” spots.

Firstly, many mermaids are able to live both on land and in water (sirens can live in rocks and fly in the sky). Despite the generally accepted opinion about a fish tail, aquatic inhabitants may not have one. These include waterworts.

Secondly, it is impossible to identify a single reason for the appearance of mermaids, as such. If you start from the name of the mythical creatures, then it is of purely Slavic origin. There is an assumption that the water maidens are associated with Rusalia - a pagan holiday, during which green-headed inhabitants of rivers and lakes come out onto land to lead merry round dances.

In numerous legends and traditions, mermaids are represented as drowned, inanimate creatures. Some of them (for example, Albasta among the ancient Slavs) may look like half-decomposed old women appearing in the darkness of the night on the river bank. The sight, let's say, is not a pleasant one... But, like other mermaids, they really love to sit on boulders and comb their hair matted with mud.

The Old Testament and the Sea People

Mermaids may be considered a mere fiction, but, oddly enough, even in the Bible you can find interesting mentions of them. We all remember the episode Old Testament, in which Moses and his people were pursued by Pharaoh's troops. Approaching the shores of the Caspian Sea, the prophet asked the Lord for help, and the sea waters parted right before the eyes of the astonished fugitives. The Jews safely crossed to the other side along the dry bottom, but the soldiers chasing them had a hard time. Multi-meter columns of water descended directly on them, drowning entire platoons of Egyptians.

In the chronicles of the northern Slavs there is still a mention of the so-called “pharaohs” - Egyptian drowned people, who later became known as the sea people. These creatures had human faces, and their lower body was replaced by a fish tail...

Mermaids and sea maidens

These two names should not be combined together. However, in fiction(G.H. Andersen “The Little Mermaid”) all the lines between these two concepts were erased. In our classification, the word “mermaid” is of a general nature. For the Russian mentality, this concept is familiar to absolutely everyone. Sea maidens are only part of the classification. Mermaids in Slavic mythology were water spirits rather than creatures with fish tails. Sea maidens have Nereids, Ancient Greece this scaly attribute is also not observed.

And besides, let's not forget about the mermaid men. According to one Babylonian legend, the progenitor of all sea maidens was none other than the god Oannes. At first, the male deity was depicted as an ordinary person, dressed in a helmet and a cloak made of fish skin. Later, the creator of mermaids also “acquired” a tail, thanks to the Khorsabad sculptures...

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has confirmed that mermaids do in fact exist and live in bodies of water around the world.
According to experts, magical women, the first mentions of which are found in rock paintings made at the end of the Paleolithic (Stone Age) about 30,000 years ago, when modern people began to sail the sea, really exist and live in all the oceans of the world.
The Animal Planet TV channel released a special film called "Mermaids: Body Found", which also proves the existence of mermaids.

NOAA spokesman Sandy Nixon told Weekly World News that at least 65 experts studying mermaids gathered in Tahiti to study all known data about these inhabitants of the deep sea. As a result, they came to the conclusion that a hybrid of a man with a fish tail lives among us.

Experts say most mermaids live in the warm waters of the Caribbean and Mediterranean, but they have also been spotted in the Pacific and South Atlantic.

According to WWN, the US government in lately 7 mermaids were captured and they are all kept in an aquarium where they are studied. The location of the aquarium is hidden by the government. President Obama personally met with mermaids and was quite surprised by what he saw.

Mermaids have been seen in Britain for hundreds of years. One particularly intriguing story written and published in the British press occurred in 1810. It concerns a pair of mermaid children found on the Isle of Man. Several fishermen, having heard a strange noise, thought that it was some dying bird or some kind of animal screaming, and they headed towards the scream. There they found the body of one dead mermaid child and the body of a second that had been badly injured in a recent storm. They took the injured mermaid child to their home and nursed him back to health. The mermaid child was approximately 60cm long, had the torso of a normal child and the tail of a fish, and the hair looked like seaweed...

Drawings of mermaids were made by the sailors of Christopher COLUMBUS and other travelers of antiquity

On Canada's Queen Charlotte Islands, residents discovered the remains of a strange creature. It looks like a seal, 150 cm tall, a dolphin tail - and a skull... humanoid. WITHfemale genital organs and anus.
The eye sockets are larger than those of animals that live in water, where visibility is limited. There is a bone ridge on the skull. U modern people This is not the case, but our ancestors and primates have it. Surrounding the find were the carcasses of a dozen whales that had washed ashore. Within two hours the body was recovered by the police.
This find has become another absolutely reliable one in recent years. For the first time, the half-decomposed remains of a sea humanoid fell into the hands of South African scientists in 2005.
Specialists rushed to study the find and found out that its DNA was similar to human DNA, but then the South African police seized all the materials. It turned out that they were immediately handed over to US intelligence services. In South Africa, only a copy of the recordings of a strange deep-sea howl remains.
America itself has examples of mermaids. On April 4, 2004, on the Pacific coast of Washington state, residents found a living (!) creature with a human head and a fish tail. The military immediately took him to a secret Navy laboratory. It is alleged that the “ichthyander” managed to live for almost two more years. In total, seven individuals are secretly kept in the US military aquarium, where they are carefully studied. This, in particular, was reported at a recent conference in Tahiti with the participation of 65 scientists different countries studying mermaids.
- Mermaids live secretly, which is why they have survived to this day. We have studied less the depths of the world's oceans than the Moon. “I am confident that the most incredible discoveries await us here,” says John Selznick, a biology professor at the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
All discoveries of mermaids were made precisely along the migration routes of whales. Mammals washed ashore, and marine humanoids were with them. Now the main reason for the death of the giants is considered to be the secret tests of the US Navy of sonar (sound) weapons designed to combat submarines, combat swimmers and divers.

In this photo you can see the mummy of a mermaid kept inKarukayadoTemple located outside the cityHashimotoWakayama Prefecture. The fifty-centimeter mummy has fang-shaped teeth protruding from a wide open mouth, and both hands are also raised to the head. Its lower part is covered with scales, and on its back there are signs of fins.

What do mermaids look like? Mystical creatures have been familiar to everyone since childhood, but which ones in reality and do they really exist?

In the article:

What do mermaids look like?

The image of mermaids is known from myths, legends, films and books. She is a beautiful young maiden, very attractive, with a fish tail. Does the image correspond to reality?

The mermaid is considered as a mystical creature from different points of view.

Having used it, they encounter an entity - a clot of energy. This is one of the water spirits that can come to a person’s aid, appear when called, or cause damage.

It is assumed that mermaids exist as creatures from the other world, mermaids, kikimoras and other energetic magical entities.

It's hard to see the spirit of water. Only psychics can see the outline of a mermaid, and not just feel her presence. Water spirit is a substance, an energy flow that is invisible to the human eye. Energy entities from the other world are addressed in most rituals.

What real mermaids look like in reality

What are these amazing creatures in different parts of the world? These are real creatures that resemble humans and fish. The origin of the creatures is unknown to science, but they are described in ancient legends. Sailors call them sirens, luring people into the depths of the sea with their beautiful voices.

The image glorified in cartoons, films and legends is incorrect. A mermaid is not the most beautiful girl with a fish tail. The specimens found in 1679, 1737, 1982 and 1992 are similar to real women, but they were not distinguished by their beauty. These are creatures that vaguely resemble a human with an upper body with round eyes, a regular neck, shoulders, ears, arms, and well-developed ribs.

The fishermen managed to find and catch not only females in the net. In 1837, fishermen caught a male specimen. The upper part of the creature's body is very similar to that of a human, but the nose is more flattened.

A creature with white skin, silky hair, delicate facial features - the result of imagination. The captured individuals had green hair, their faces and torsos were completely covered with a strange substance vaguely reminiscent of coral. The creatures have gills starting from the lower lip and further to the throat. Strange nasty growths were found on the tail.

In our time, not a single living mermaid has been caught or studied. Each specimen was found dead or was not caught. It is impossible to find out whether sirens actually have a beautiful voice and are able to lure people.

There is a mention that previously it was possible to catch them alive. The creatures made incomprehensible sounds, similar to the growling of an animal, but did not speak. It was not possible to achieve any manifestation of intelligence.

Living specimens were captured during the era of exorcism, subjected to torture and torture, but did not come into normal contact with humans.

What does a mermaid tail look like?

A mermaid's tail is similar to a fish's. The tail has not been proven to come in different colors. This is an ordinary fish tail, gray or dark green in color, covered with scales, powerful. The scales from the tail extend to the back and belly.

The photos of the caught creatures show that the tails come in different sizes. Length may vary.

The tail serves as an ingredient for various witchcraft potions. Sometimes witches use the entire tail, sometimes only the scales.

A real mermaid does not look like a character from your favorite Disney animated series or like the heroine of a fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen. The existence of an energetic entity or physical object is not denied. Humanity will one day find a way to come into contact with ancient amazing creatures by learning much more about mermaids.

Who are mermaids? And do they exist?* Mermaids are characters from mythology who quite often became heroes of legends. These legends have come to us from ancient times. Such characters, either girls or spirits, were mentioned in various literary works. And, most likely, all these guesses and legends arose for a reason.

According to various sources and legends different nations mermaids had different looks. However, in most cases they were depicted as beautiful young maidens with a human body to the waist, and instead of legs a fish tail was depicted. Sometimes they were depicted completely identical in appearance to the people described. The habitat of mermaids was most often a lake or other natural sources of water; legends also described those who lived in trees, and sometimes in fields, which were dubbed field mermaids. There is still no single answer to the question: Do mermaids really exist?

The character of the mermaid itself was constantly characterized negatively, because they were representatives of the other world, and sought to take people, especially guys, into their kingdom. They lay in wait for a lonely wanderer, lured them in with their beautiful appearance and melodious voice, and then dragged them into the depths and drowned their victim.

Mermaids and mermen are characters in mythology who, according to legends, have always been represented as allies because they were believed to live in the same habitat. Mermaids were most often depicted in all legends as beautiful girls with long thick hair. However, among different peoples they called them differently, for example, among the peoples eastern countries they bore the name of the pitchfork, and Western countries they were called undines.

In some sources, mermaids were depicted as scary shaggy girls; they killed lost travelers, and also dragged people to the bottom who swam at odd hours and in a dangerous place. According to ancient Russian legends, mermaids were dead maidens who during their lifetime were unbaptized or were drowned. Sometimes the mermaid was depicted as a guy, but such a description is quite rare.

So, are there really mermaids?

There are several sources that have come down to us from ancient times, which contain stories of encounters with fish-like, unidentified subjects. It is chronicled and considered a non-fictional, true story. But there is no supporting data that proves that such incomprehensible subjects are not fiction.

There are also stories that describe encounters between sailors and mermaids during a sea voyage. The story describes how a couple of sailors tried to talk to the mermaids, but they did not say a word. There is another story that happened in Holland. It describes that in one of the village families there was a mermaid who lived with them for more than ten years, and after she died, she was buried as baptized.

There are many legends that tell about meetings of mermaids with people, but no one can answer for sure whether mermaids actually exist. Researchers have been busy since ancient times explaining the stories about the existence of these humanoid creatures, and there are a couple of assumptions about how all these events mentioned in the chronicles could have happened.

The psychodysleptic concept is considered the most common. This theory is mainly based on the distortion of reality among seafarers. This distortion is due to a long period of time in the waters and an unchanged picture overboard, so sailors could see half-women instead of sea inhabitants. Oceanologists also put forward a similar concept. In their opinion, the majority of marine inhabitants, at a certain refraction of light and at certain angle reviewers can take the form of humanoid creatures.

For example, sea sirens, manatees, some representatives of the pinniped family, and the like. It was as if people thought, when they saw such sea inhabitants, that they were seeing unusual creatures. There is reliable evidence when the imaginary corpses of mermaids were presented. For example, several decades ago there was a wanderer who sewed the upper female part of the body to a fish tail, and showed this corpse to people in the central square of the city, and charged a lot of money from the people. In this fraudulent way, the tourer ensured his accommodation.

However, much remains incomprehensible and mysterious in this matter, and there are many mysterious facts that cannot be explained by any of the existing concepts. So the question is: Are there mermaids? So it remains exciting the minds of scientists.

Mermaids. A couple of information about mermaids. Are there mermaids in reality?

In all folk legends of different nationalities who lived near natural bodies of water or on the seashore, there are quite often legends about mermaids. For the first time mermaids are mentioned in legends Ancient India, in which entire underwater villages were mentioned Danavas. The scientists of Ancient Greece, who were Plato, Herodotus and Aristotle, also mentioned humanoid creatures that possessed a human mind in their treatises. In their opinion, the existence of semi-humans with a fish tail was not surprising, and they expressed in their writings the idea that entire cities of semi-humans could be located in the depths of the sea.

The most famous of the navigators, Christopher Columbus, also mentioned in his notes about the mermaids frolicking on the waves, which he saw with his own eyes. In his opinion, these fish-men specifically looked out for lonely sailors in the sea in order to captivate and drown them. The main “distinctive feature” of such creatures and the only way they differed from humans, according to Columbus, was the large greenish tail of this creature, which they had instead of human legs.

Very often, sailors told their tales about the extraordinary power of these creatures; they could, despite the subtlety and elegance of the image, capsize the boat of an inexperienced sailor; sailors also talked about the beautiful thick hair of mermaids and their enchanting voice, which could charm anyone.

The main role in the spread of this type was given to Hans Christian Andersen, as the creator of a sad and tender fairy tale about the love of a little mermaid for a kind prince, which immediately fell in love with many readers. The pedestal for the main character of this work was erected in the capital of Denmark and is a landmark of the city. How many generations of children grew up watching the cartoon Ariel?

What if mermaids are real?

It must be said right away that there is still no accurate data that mermaids actually exist. Those facts that “observers” constantly present have a simple explanation and are a well-placed trick or an optical illusion, or a consequence of a developed imagination.

In the summer of the twelfth year, the American Union, which is engaged in the research of seas and air (NOAA), was forced to announce to the media with an official statement that they did not have the facts that mermaids really exist. Of course, even before this time there were no irrefutable facts of the real existence of fish-men in the depths of the sea. But what happened? public administration take this step?

All this can be explained by the fact that a couple of weeks before this performance, the Animal Planet channel showed a movie about mermaids. This film so convincingly showed the appearance of these creatures, including the main distinctive feature from people - the tail, convincing facts were also given why they cannot be properly examined and talked about. And all this was described so colorfully and convincingly that quite a large number of people took on faith everything that was said in the film. And the American NOAA office began to be inundated with calls and letters containing requests to tell the truth about these creatures.

And the department had to respond. An official representative of this research society explained that the humanoid sea creatures are a fiction. And especially not any scientific research, which are carried out regarding the existence of mermaids there are no.

In addition, the creators of this film made an official statement on television, admitting that this film is a fantasy. During filming there were people involved latest technologies computer graphics, a couple of famous legends, some historical information, some footage of the concept of the conspiracy, mixing real and imaginary scenes. That is, all those elements thanks to which the film turns out to be spectacular, but in no way reflects reality.

What if it does?

It has been scientifically proven that it was in water that life appeared and over time the inhabitants of the seas developed and new species and forms of life appeared. So maybe on the very bottom of the sea there is a wonderful city of mermaids? Where in the depths of the sea live long-haired mermaids with velvety skin, possessing a high intelligence and language, and who have a powerful tail, which is a powerful weapon against sharks and other sea predators.

And unfortunately for everyone, this is actually unrealistic. Such a marine species as the mermaid simply could not survive in the depths of the sea.

Let's consider the comparative characteristics of a mermaid and a dolphin. What do they have in common? Powerful tail? Yes, thanks to their tail fin, dolphins can swim forward quite quickly. But in addition to this fin, the dolphin also has a couple more. For example, the front fins or, as they are also called, flippers. Why are they? The pectoral fins help the dolphin maintain balance in the water, slow down and make turns, that is, in its own way it is a high-altitude rudder. But the little mermaid girl has arms instead of pectoral fins. And with the help of them she will not be able to maneuver in the density of the sea. The mermaid will move in the water in jerks and zigzags. And besides this, in order to withstand high water pressure, you need a very dense skin or a scaly surface. And thin human skin is not suitable for living in the depths of the sea

Dolphins and other representatives of aquatic mammals also use ultrasound to communicate and navigate in the aquatic environment. Because ultrasonic waves travel very quickly in water and can be reflected from obstacles. And thanks to him, the animal determines the distance to this obstacle and its size. And our speech in the aquatic environment is useless. The same applies to the enchanting singing with which mermaids enchant sailors.

If such a creature lives under water, for example, like a whale, then the mermaid needs a large layer of fat, which provides thermoregulation. Otherwise, our beautiful slender mermaid will instantly become numb in the water. After all, the dolphin’s pectoral fin provides it with thermoregulation. However, the mermaid does not have this fin, but instead thin arms.

And most importantly, why do mermaids at great depths need long hair? Cling to reefs? Be that as it may, mermaids in the image of Disney's Ariel cannot actually exist. And if mermaids do exist, then they have a rather distant appearance from the popular Disney cartoon character.