Throughout history there have been stories that we hear of strange fish-like, (half the body like that of a human and the other half of a fish) creatures in the seas and oceans, even lakes and rivers. They are a great part of mythology almost all over the world. The descriptions sometimes vary but the basic idea of the upper torso of a human, be it man or a woman, and the lower body like that of a fish with a tail covered with scales just like a fish.

The word ‘mermaid’ is the combination of two words ‘mer’ means sea in old English and ‘maid’ means woman, the same with a merman).

In mythology, they were magical creatures or more like spirits of the sea which lured sailors and fishermen. Some called them shape-shifters that magically transformed themselves into full human form to live on land.

There are so many stories regarding mermaids from almost all regions and cultures around the world, right from ancient times to modern times but most of which deny these creatures as the figment of imagination.

Let’s have a little background search into the origin and history of these creatures.

One of the first account of a mermaid story starts from 1,000BC and from Syria to Greece, they take a leading role in legends believed to be true by the people of that time. There is a mention of ‘sea people’, in One Thousand and One Arabian Nights, by characters like Julnar and her son King Badr of

Persia and Abdullah, the merman. According to legends, mermen are supposed to be uglier version of mermaid. Mermaids have different names in different parts of the world. Around the Caribbean they are called ‘Aycayia’, in Ireland, she is referred to as the ‘Merrow’, in central and West Africa, ‘Mami Wata’ and ‘Rusalka’ in Russia.

Unlike other creatures of mythology, mermaid sightings have been claimed by people from Java to British Columbia, which include two sightings around Vancouver and Victoria between 1870 and 1890, and one in 1967. The most recent sighting was reported in 2009 in Israel in the town of Kiryat Yam. Dozens of people claimed that they had seen a mermaid jumping in and out of the water like a dolphin. The authorities announced a prize of a million dollars to whoever could prove its existence, but the money remains unclaimed. Now if one wants to look at the whole aspect of this in a historic more than a mythological sort of way, then there have been accounts by people in history who have reported mermaid sightings with proper descriptions.

Pausanius, a Greek philosopher and writer stated in his work, Description of Greece, that he had seen two tritons, (mermen), “Their bodies are bristling with very fine scales. They have gills behind the ears and a human nose. But a very big mouth and the teeth of a wild beast. From the chest and belly down they have dolphin tail instead of feet.”

This is just one of the accounts of people who have recorded their sightings of seeing the evasive creature. And it is most interesting that a person of integrity like Christopher Columbus wrote in his journal that he had seen them while on his voyage to the Americas.

Moreover, there is another scientific aspect to the story. If we just think hypothetically for a moment. Some researchers theorise that after the great flood, when the world was filled with water, a certain species of evolutionary beings came into being which were able to survive in water. Then the ‘Dogon’, a sub-Saharan tribe in Africa claims that their culture and civilisation was formed 5,000 years ago, by an intelligent amphibious being that taught them many things of wisdom.

Then there is also the idea that some cultures say the sea people look like human but have the ability to live underwater also. Now this makes it really too fishy to believe!