Mermaid

A mermaid is a folkloric aquatic creature with the head and upper body of a female human and the tail of a fish. They have appeared in the folklore of many cultures worldwide, including Europe, Asia, and Africa. Mermaids have sometimes been associated with perilous events such as floods, storms, shipwrecks, and drownings. In other folk traditions, they can be benevolent or beneficent, bestowing boons or falling in love with humans. The Western concept of mermaids as beautiful, seductive singers may have been influenced by the sirens of Greek mythology, which were originally half-birdlike, but came to be pictured as half-fishlike in the Christian era. Historical accounts of mermaids, such as those reported by Christopher Columbus during his exploration of the Caribbean, may have been sightings of manatees or similar aquatic mammals. While there is no evidence that mermaids exist outside folklore, reports of mermaid sightings continue to the present day. Mermaids have been a popular subject of art and literature in recent centuries, such as in Hans Christian Andersen's literary fairytale The Little Mermaid. And they have subsequently been depicted in operas, paintings, books, comics, animation, and live-action films.