# Mermaid
A **mermaid** is a legendary water creature described in folklore as having the head and upper body of a woman and the tail of a fish below the waist[1](https://www.rmg.co.uk/stories/art-culture/what-mermaid). Mermaids and mermen, their male counterparts, have been part of marine folklore for thousands of years, and similar half-human, half-aquatic beings appear in the traditions of cultures on every continent[2](https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-0424.12769). The English word itself is surprisingly young: it first appears in the mid-14th century as *meremayde*, literally "maid of the sea," combining [Middle English](https://www.edgepedia.org/middle-english) *mere* (sea, lake) with *maid*[3](https://www.etymonline.com/word/mermaid).
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Standard form | Head and torso of a woman, tail of a fish; often depicted with a comb and mirror, especially in heraldry[1](https://www.rmg.co.uk/stories/art-culture/what-mermaid) • [4](https://www.encyclopedia.com/literature-and-arts/classical-literature-mythology-and-folklore/folklore-and-mythology/mermaids) |
| Earliest half-fish figure | The Babylonian god Oannes, dated to around 5,000 BC, depicted as half fish and half human; the first recorded ancestor of the mermaid type[5](https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED354532.pdf) |
| Fusion with the siren | Classical sirens were bird-women; sirens and fish-tailed mermaids coexisted from the 12th through 14th centuries, and by the Renaissance the terms were interchangeable[6](https://www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/article/sirens-mythology) • [7](https://mythicalcreatures.edwardworthlibrary.ie/sea-creatures/mermaids/) |
| Defining literary text | Hans Christian Andersen's "The Little Mermaid" (1837), adapted as Disney's animated feature in 1989 and a live-action film in 2023[4](https://www.encyclopedia.com/literature-and-arts/classical-literature-mythology-and-folklore/folklore-and-mythology/mermaids) • [8](https://academic.oup.com/isle/article-abstract/32/3/766/7682043) |
| Scientific status | No evidence of aquatic humanoids has ever been found, according to the US National Ocean Service[9](https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/mermaids.html) |
| Modern phenomenon | A 21st-century "mermaid craze" spanning film, books, mermaiding as an amateur activity, mermaid conventions, and eco-activism[8](https://academic.oup.com/isle/article-abstract/32/3/766/7682043) |
## Classical and medieval development
Most scholars agree that the European mermaid as she is now known evolved as an amalgamation of several pagan traditions combined with elements of classical [Greek mythology](https://www.edgepedia.org/greek-mythology) and, later, Christianity; by the Middle Ages the image had more or less crystallized and belief in merfolk was widespread in medieval Europe[5](https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED354532.pdf). The Greek siren, her closest classical relative, was not originally a fish-woman at all. Sirens retained bird bodies into the Roman Empire and well beyond; [Pliny the Elder](https://www.edgepedia.org/pliny-the-elder) listed them in the "Fabulous Birds" section of his *Natural History*, written around AD 77[6](https://www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/article/sirens-mythology). The two figure types, bird-bodied and fish-bodied, coexisted from at least the 12th through the 14th centuries, after which the mermaid-like fish-tailed creature emerged as dominant, a shift attributed partly to sea gods such as Triton, the sirens' association with water, and the influence of Celtic folklore[6](https://www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/article/sirens-mythology).
The confusion between the two runs deep. An early reference appears in the mid-1360s in *[The Romaunt of the Rose](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-romaunt-of-the-rose)*, a Middle English translation of the *Roman de la Rose*, which noted that mermaids and sirens were often confused with each other; how the half-woman, half-bird siren became associated with the half-woman, half-fish mermaid is unknown, though both lured men to their death at sea[7](https://mythicalcreatures.edwardworthlibrary.ie/sea-creatures/mermaids/). Medieval iconography tried out wings, claws, and the fish tail in various combinations before the tail became the dominant segment[4](https://www.encyclopedia.com/literature-and-arts/classical-literature-mythology-and-folklore/folklore-and-mythology/mermaids).
**The church and the mermaid.** In the Middle Ages the church used mermaids and sirens to teach Christians about sin and salvation[10](https://news.liverpool.ac.uk/2017/07/12/why-we-cant-resist-the-lure-of-mermaids/). The mermaid also served as a symbol of lust and wantonness, which may explain her popularity as an inn sign in England[11](https://sshm.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/PROCEEDINGS-SESSION-1992-1993-and-1993-1994.pdf). That symbolism cut into politics in 1567, when handbills posted in Edinburgh, implicating [Mary, Queen of Scots](https://www.edgepedia.org/mary-queen-of-scots) and the Earl of Bothwell in the murder of Lord Darnley, portrayed Mary as a mermaid, crowned and naked to the waist, invoking a longstanding tradition that equated mermaids with prostitutes[10](https://news.liverpool.ac.uk/2017/07/12/why-we-cant-resist-the-lure-of-mermaids/) • [11](https://sshm.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/PROCEEDINGS-SESSION-1992-1993-and-1993-1994.pdf).
## A global family of water people
Half-fish, half-human beings appear across many independent traditions, often with distinctive local forms:
- **Africa and the Caribbean.** African cultures had their own half-fish, half-human water spirits before European contact, many resembling snakes or crocodiles; the European mermaid image later blended with local stories into the powerful water spirit [Mami Wata](https://www.edgepedia.org/mami-wata), often shown holding a snake. In the Caribbean the corresponding spirit is Lasiren, typically depicted with a mirror and comb[12](https://www.amnh.org/explore/ology/ology-cards/278-mermaid).
- **Australia.** Aboriginal traditions include the Yawkyawks, mermaid-like spirits with green, string-like hair associated with sacred water holes; some accounts say they grow legs at night to walk on land[12](https://www.amnh.org/explore/ology/ology-cards/278-mermaid).
- **East and Southeast Asia.** Japanese folklore knows the ningyo, a human-fish with human or ape-like features above the shoulders and a fish-like main body ending in a fin[13](https://gothicnaturejournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/9-GN2-Articles-T-Thelen.pdf); Southeast Asian folklore tells of the mermaid princess Suvannamaccha, "golden fish"[1](https://www.rmg.co.uk/stories/art-culture/what-mermaid).
- **The Celtic fringe.** Irish and Scottish folklore distinguishes the merrow, a fish-tailed mermaid whose male counterpart was considered ruthless, from the selkie, a seal person who can shed a seal skin to become human[1](https://www.rmg.co.uk/stories/art-culture/what-mermaid).
Romance and marriage between mortals and merfolk is a recurring theme, particularly in the folklore of Ireland and the west of Scotland[11](https://sshm.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/PROCEEDINGS-SESSION-1992-1993-and-1993-1994.pdf).
## Andersen, Disney, and the modern mermaid
The best-known mermaid story is [Hans Christian Andersen](https://www.edgepedia.org/hans-christian-andersen)'s "The Little Mermaid" (1837), which associated the figure with the body-versus-soul opposition and made the mermaid a figure of longing and sacrifice[4](https://www.encyclopedia.com/literature-and-arts/classical-literature-mythology-and-folklore/folklore-and-mythology/mermaids) • [14](https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14797585.2026.2671708). In the modern United States the mermaid's image derives less from classical sources than from Andersen's tale, which migrated into "Disneyan normative codes" with the 1989 full-length animated feature[4](https://www.encyclopedia.com/literature-and-arts/classical-literature-mythology-and-folklore/folklore-and-mythology/mermaids). Disney's live-action *The Little Mermaid* (2023) capped a decade-long global wave[8](https://academic.oup.com/isle/article-abstract/32/3/766/7682043).
The mermaid also lives in performance. The Weeki Wachee mermaid show in Florida, where synchronized swimmers in tails have performed in a submerged 400-seat theater about 16 feet below the spring surface since 1947, grew out of the popularity of "aquamusical" films starring the swimmer [Esther Williams](https://www.edgepedia.org/esther-williams)[15](https://www.theatlantic.com/books/archive/2024/06/swimming-pretty-vicki-valosik-book-review/678748/).
## Sightings, science, and skepticism
Mermaids were long treated as empirical questions. Hans Sloane, Linnaeus, and Darwin all engaged with mermaid sightings and specimens as part of their natural-history research[2](https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-0424.12769), and in 1842 the showman [P. T. Barnum](https://www.edgepedia.org/p-t-barnum) announced in New York newspapers that a mermaid had been caught near the Fiji islands[12](https://www.amnh.org/explore/ology/ology-cards/278-mermaid). The modern verdict is unambiguous: the National Ocean Service states that no evidence of aquatic humanoids has ever been found[9](https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/mermaids.html). The order containing manatees and dugongs is Sirenia, whose name reflects the association of sirens with mermaids; Homer did not describe the sirens' appearance, and Greek art depicted them as bird-human hybrids[16](https://www.si.edu/collections/snapshot/mermaid-or-manatee) • [20](https://www.metmuseum.org/exhibitions/listings/2018/dangerous-beauty/exhibition-gallery).
Some historic sightings have a physical explanation. A study of the 13th-century Norse text *King's Mirror* examined its "wonders" of [Greenland](https://www.edgepedia.org/greenland) and Iceland, including the hafstramb (merman) and margygr (mermaid), and showed that these creatures were probably superior mirages, produced by atmospheric refraction that distorts and magnifies distant objects; computer simulations show that mirages of an orca, a walrus, or even a boulder match the text's descriptions almost point for point[17](https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/polar-record/article/abs/hafstramb-and-margygr-of-the-kings-mirror-an-analysis/0DFA2B8FDC6B6901E7AEAF6022E38BEC).
## The mermaid in contemporary culture and scholarship
The figure remains a growth industry. Recent evidence of the "mermaid craze" includes a wave of books and films, two US museums claiming to be the world's first mermaid museums (both opened in 2021, in Washington State and Maryland), *The Penguin Book of Mermaids* (2019), mermaiding as an amateur and entrepreneurial activity, mermaid conventions ("mercons"), and mermaid eco-activism[8](https://academic.oup.com/isle/article-abstract/32/3/766/7682043).
Recent scholarship reads the mermaid as more than decoration. Literary critics treat her as an uncanny hybrid, simultaneously human and nonhuman, whose watery boundary-crossing lets artists and writers address disability, posthumanism, and the environmental crisis of the [Anthropocene](https://www.edgepedia.org/anthropocene)[14](https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14797585.2026.2671708). Fan studies work shows digital artists using mermaid imagery to contest normative beauty standards and articulate more inclusive visions of identity[18](https://firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/14230). Children's-literature research describes contemporary mermaid tales as driven by the desire to break out of the Romantic paradigm shaped by Andersen and his Disney adaptations[19](https://benjamins.com/catalog/clcc.16.02wes). The creature defined for centuries by a fish tail has become, in academic as in popular culture, a versatile figure for negotiating the boundaries of gender, species, and the human itself.
## References
1. [What is a mermaid? Royal Museums Greenwich](https://www.rmg.co.uk/stories/art-culture/what-mermaid)
2. [Of mermaids and monsters: Transgender history and the boundaries of the human in eighteenth- and early-nineteenth-century Britain, Gender & History (2024)](https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-0424.12769)
3. [Mermaid: Etymology, Origin & Meaning, Online Etymology Dictionary](https://www.etymonline.com/word/mermaid)
4. [Mermaids, Encyclopedia.com](https://www.encyclopedia.com/literature-and-arts/classical-literature-mythology-and-folklore/folklore-and-mythology/mermaids)
5. [Mermaids (ERIC full text, ED354532)](https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED354532.pdf)
6. [The sirens in ancient mythology weren't the seductresses of today, National Geographic](https://www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/article/sirens-mythology)
7. [Mermaids, Mythical Creature, Edward Worth Library](https://mythicalcreatures.edwardworthlibrary.ie/sea-creatures/mermaids/)
8. [Siren: An Allegory for the Anthropocene and Example of the Contemporary Mermaid Craze, ISLE (2024)](https://academic.oup.com/isle/article-abstract/32/3/766/7682043)
9. [Are mermaids real? National Ocean Service, NOAA](https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/mermaids.html)
10. [Why we can't resist the lure of mermaids, University of Liverpool News (2017)](https://news.liverpool.ac.uk/2017/07/12/why-we-cant-resist-the-lure-of-mermaids/)
11. [Proceedings 1992–1994, Society for the Social History of Medicine (Scottish section)](https://sshm.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/PROCEEDINGS-SESSION-1992-1993-and-1993-1994.pdf)
12. [Mermaid, OLogy card 278, American Museum of Natural History](https://www.amnh.org/explore/ology/ology-cards/278-mermaid)
13. [Real Mermaid vs. Nuclear Power Plant: Ecofeminist Vengeance and Ama Divers in Japanese Horror, Gothic Nature 2 (2021)](https://gothicnaturejournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/9-GN2-Articles-T-Thelen.pdf)
14. [Watery uncanny metamorphoses: mermaids, hybridity, posthumanism, Journal for Cultural Research](https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14797585.2026.2671708)
15. [The Enduring Fascination With Women in Water, The Atlantic (2024)](https://www.theatlantic.com/books/archive/2024/06/swimming-pretty-vicki-valosik-book-review/678748/)
16. [Mermaid or Manatee? Smithsonian Institution](https://www.si.edu/collections/snapshot/mermaid-or-manatee)
17. [The hafstramb and margygr of the King's Mirror: an analysis, Polar Record 40(2) (2004)](https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/polar-record/article/abs/hafstramb-and-margygr-of-the-kings-mirror-an-analysis/0DFA2B8FDC6B6901E7AEAF6022E38BEC)
18. [Mad mermaids vs. beauty standards: online mermaid fan art (2010–2020), First Monday](https://firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/14230)
19. [Transcorporeality in 21st-century mermaid tales, Children's Literature, Culture, and Cognition 16 (2023)](https://benjamins.com/catalog/clcc.16.02wes)
20. [metmuseum.org](https://www.metmuseum.org/exhibitions/listings/2018/dangerous-beauty/exhibition-gallery)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Society and history › Philosophy, religion, and mythology › Mythology and folklore › Legendary creatures and beings › Hybrid beasts and monsters*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
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License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license