MERMEN : THE MYTHICAL BEINGS

Mermen are the male equivalent to mermaids. Just like mermaid this creatures are based on myth. Recent research would prove that mermen are not as popular as mermaids. So one reading this might not have heard of them before. This creatures have a man's structure and body which stops at the waist region , the waist down-wards would then be scaly fish tails which takes the place of legs.

In contrast to mermaids, mermen were traditionally depicted as unattractive.However, some modern depictions show them as handsome.

MYTHOLOGY
GREEK
In Greek mythology, mermen were often illustrated to have green seaweed-like hair, a beard, and a trident. In Irish mythology, mermen are described as extremely ugly creatures with green hair, teeth and skin, narrow eyes and a red nose.In Medieval Europe, mermen were sometimes held responsible for causing violent storms and sinking ships.

CORNISH
In Cornish folklore into early modern times, the Bucca, described as a lonely, mournful character with the skin of a conger eel and hair of seaweed, was still placated with votive offerings of fish left on the beach by fishermen. Similarly vengeful water spirits occur in Breton and Gaelic lore which may relate to pre Christian gods such as Nechtan.

FINNISH
Finnish mythology portrays mermen as powerful and handsome creatures that wield magic and have the ability to cure illnesses, lift curses and brew potions. They are most often depicted with a beard made from seaweeds, and are sometimes capable of causing much destruction if they come to close to human civilization.
A vetehinen, a type of Neck, is sometimes portrayed as a magical, powerful, bearded man with the tail of a fish. He can cure illnesses, lift curses and brew potions, but he can also cause unintended harm by becoming too curious about human life.

IN THE AMAZON
The region of Amazon River is a home of a myth of boto -fresh water mermen who is responsible for seducing and impregnating many women while being transformed into full human form.
The boto of the Amazon River regions is described according to local lore as taking the form of a human or merman, also known as encantado ("enchanted one" in Portuguese)

CHINESE
Chinese mermen were believed to only surface during storms or, in some cases, were believed to have the ability to cause storms.

INDIAN
Indian Hindu religion also celebrates mermen, as they are thought to be the first incarnation of their supreme deity Vishnu (the only difference to the modern mermen is the presence of two sets of arms, each holding one artifact - conch shell, wheel, Lotus, and Mace).

Most times the actions and behaviour of mermen can vary wildly depending on the source and time period of the stories. They have been said to sink ships by summoning great storms, but also said to be wise teachers, according to earlier mythology. Mermen, just like mermaids, can lure and attract humans with their enchantingly beautiful, soft melodic and seductive siren-like singing voices and tones.

NOTABLE MERMEN

TRITON
The most well-known merman was probably Triton, son of Poseidon and Amphitrite. Although Amphitrite gave birth to a merman, neither Poseidon nor Amphitrite were merfolk, although both were able to live under water as easily as on land. Triton was also known as the Trumpeter of the Sea for his usage of a conch shell.
Triton was regularly depicted on stone walls and pottery as strikingly handsome mermen with a fish tail. He often carried a trident with the twisted conch shell (which he used to control the sea and calm or raise storms) and was believed to have the power to multiply himself into a host of smaller sea spirit demons called Triones.

GLAUCUS
Glaucus was born a human and lived his early life as a fisherman. One day, while fishing, he saw that the fish he caught would jump from the grass and into the sea. He ate some of the grass, believing it to have magical properties, and felt an overwhelming desire to be in the sea. He jumped in the ocean and refused to go back on land. The sea gods nearby heard his prayers and transformed him into a sea god. Ovid describes the transformation of Glaucus in the Metamorphoses, describing him as a blue-green man with a fishy member where his legs had been.

NOMMO
In Dogon mythology an ancestral spirit called Nommo had humanoid upper torsos, legs and feet, and a fish-like lower torso and tail. Nommo is different from Dagon as the latter has no Dogon records.

OANNES

The Babylonian deity Era or Oannes, the Fish-god ... is usually depicted as having a bearded head with a crown and a body like a man, but from the waist downwards he has the shape of a fish."
Oannes the Babylonian Merman
Merman Oannes, of Babylonian lore, is credited with teaching Babylonians how to write, build cities and churches, and how to establish a government.

DAGON
Dagon, a merman from Philistine culture, was a fertility god who earned a biblical mention in (1 Samuel, Chapter 5)when the Philistines take the Ark of the Covenant from the Israelites and store amid images of the merman in a Dagon Temple.

MARBENDLAR.

Norse mythology, in particular Icelandic folklore, has mermen known as Marbendlar.

Through the history of human mythology and religion, mermaids received much attention, but their male counterparts were much less showcased. While mermaids represented beauty and romance that the predominately male ship crews longed-for on the long journeys, mermen remained left behind in the folklore, usually shown only as children made in a union of a man and mermaid.

In their appearance, mermen do not differ much from mermaids. Originally celebrated as the deities, mermen slowly slipped back into the legends as the ordinary mythological creatures of the sea, who very rarely show up on the surface. The reason of that was sometimes because of their shyness and sometimes because they are ugly.

With the rise of the modern view of mermaids that started with the appearance of the Hans Christian Andersen's fairytale "The Little Mermaid", mermen revived an increased attention in the minds of the public. During the last few decades, mermen became part of many fantasy settings as one of the most common dwellers of the sea, and with each passing year, their appeal grows more and more.
Some of the most famous examples of mermen in modern culture can be found in the Disney's "The LittleMermade" franchise of cartoons, DC Comics mythology, and one of the main villains from the popular "He-Man and the Masters of the Universe" cartoon in the 1980s.

MERMEN AND MERMAIDS

In folklore, a mermaid is an aquatic creature with the head and upper body of a female human and the tail of a fish. Mermaids appear in the folklore of many cultures worldwide, including the Near East, Europe, Africa and Asia. The first stories appeared in ancient Assyria, in which the goddess Atargatis transformed herself into a mermaid out of shame for accidentally killing her human lover. Mermaids are sometimes associated with perilous events such as floods, storms, shipwrecks and drownings. In other folk traditions (or sometimes within the same tradition), they can be benevolent or beneficent, bestowing boons or falling in love with humans.

Although traditions about and sightings of mermen are less common than those of mermaids, they are generally assumed to co-exist with their female counterparts.

Some of the attributes of mermaids may have been influenced by the Sirens of Greek mythology. Historical accounts of mermaids, such as those reported by Christopher Columbus during his exploration of the Caribbean, may have been inspired by manatees and similar aquatic mammals. While there is no evidence that mermaids exist outside folklore, reports of mermaid sightings continue to the present day, including 21st century examples from Israel and Zimbabwe.

Mermaids have been a popular subject of art and literature in recent centuries, such as in Hans Christian Andersen's well-known fairy tale "The Little Mermaid" (1836). They have subsequently been depicted in operas, paintings, books, films and comics.

With most of our blue planet covered by water, it's little wonder that, centuries ago, the oceans were believed to hide mysterious creatures including sea serpents and mermaids. Merfolk (mermaids and mermen) are, of course, the marine version of half-human, half-animal legends that have captured human imagination for ages. One source, the "Arabian Nights," described mermaids as having "moon faces and hair like a woman's but their hands and feet were in their bellies and they had tails like fishes."

C.J.S. Thompson, a former curator at the Royal College of Surgeons of England, notes in his book "The Mystery and Lore of Monsters" that "Traditions concerning creatures half-human and half-fish in form have existed for thousands of years, Greek mythology contains stories of the god Triton, the merman messenger of the sea, and several modern religions including Hinduism and Candomble (an Afro-Brazilian belief) worship mermaid goddesses to this day.

Many children are perhaps most familiar with the Disney version of "The Little Mermaid," a somewhat sanitized version of a Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale first published in 1837. In some legends from Scotland and Wales mermaids befriended — and even married — humans. Meri Lao, in her book "Seduction and the Secret Power of Women," notes that "In the Shetland Islands, mermaids are stunningly beautiful women who live under the sea; their hybrid appearance is temporary, the effect being achieved by donning the skin of a fish. They must be very careful not to lose this while wandering about on land, because without it they would be unable to return to their underwater realm."

WHY MERMAIDS ARE MORE POPULAR THAN MERMEN.

Mermaids have hogged the spotlight cast upon merfolk mermaids and mermen collectively for hundreds of years, and are culturally depicted as beautiful women who just happen to be a fish from the navel down.
In recent studies it appears that mermaids are 18 times more popular than mermen. A Google search for “Mermaid,” generated 78,100,000 search results, and a search for “Merman,” returned only 4,260,000 results. These results are not scientific, but certainly paint an unflattering circumstantial portrait of mermen’s lack of popularity in modern pop culture. The results themselves aren’t flattering to the reputation of mermen.

In 2013 more than 3.5 million viewers tuned in to Animal Planet during its “Monster Week" promotion to watch the faux documentary, “Mermaids: The New Evidence.”
Viewership numbers like those experienced by Animal Planet prove, just as the stories swapped by sailors 700 years ago were then, mermaids are still hot.
Mermen have not had the same cultural success with their image. Sure, when they are depicted in art they are typically well-sculpted men with chiseled human features and shiny scales leading to their massive fish tales, but stories and images of stunningly attractive mermen are rarely encountered in modern pop culture. The problem is they are rarely depicted when compared to their female counterparts.

Mermen deserve to have their opportunity to glisten in the sun. The time has come for mermen to step into the spotlight and earn the same pop culture status enjoyed by their sisters in scales who shot Animal Planet into the ratings stratosphere, and finally close the merfolk gender gap.

RECORDS OF MERMAIDS

RECORD 1
The reality of mermaids was assumed during medieval times, when they were depicted matter-of-factly alongside known aquatic animals such as whales. Hundreds of years ago sailors and residents in coastal towns around the world told of encountering the sea maidens. One story dating back to the 1600 claimed that a mermaid had entered Holland through a dike, and was injured in the process. She was taken to a nearby lake and soon nursed back to health. She eventually became a productive citizen, learning to speak Dutch, perform household chores, and eventually converted to Catholicism.

RECORD 2
Another mermaid encounter once offered as a true story is described in Edward Snow's "Incredible Mysteries and Legends of the Sea." A sea captain off the coast of Newfoundland described his 1614 encounter: "Captain John Smith (of Jamestown fame) saw a mermaid 'swimming about with all possible grace.' He pictured her as having large eyes, a finely shaped nose that was 'somewhat short, and well-formed ears' that were rather too long. Smith goes on to say that 'her long green hair imparted to her an original character that was by no means unattractive.'" In fact Smith was so taken with this lovely woman that he began "to experience the first effects of love" as he gazed at her before his sudden (and surely profoundly disappointing) realization that she was a fish from the waist down.

RECORD 3
By the 1800s, hoaxers churned out faked mermaids by the dozen to satisfy the public's interest in the creatures. The great showman P.T. Barnum displayed the "Feejee Mermaid" in the 1840s and it became one of his most popular attractions. Those paying 50 cents hoping to see a long-limbed, fish-tailed beauty comb her hair were surely disappointed; instead they saw a grotesque fake corpse a few feet long. It had the torso, head and limbs of a monkey and the bottom part of a fish. To modern eyes it was an obvious fake, but it fooled and intrigued many at the time.

RECORD 4
A temple in Fukuoka, Japan, is said to house the remains of a mermaid that washed ashore in 1222. Its bones were preserved at the behest of a priest who believed the creature had come from the legendary palace of a dragon god at the bottom of the ocean. For nearly 800 years the bones have been displayed, and water used to soak the bones was said to prevent diseases. Only a few of the bones remain, and since they have not been scientifically tested, their true nature remains unknown.

RECORDS OF MERMEN

RECORD 1
Though not as well known as their comely female counterparts, there are of course mermen — and they have an equally fierce reputation for summoning storms, sinking ships and drowning sailors. One especially feared group, the Blue Men of the Minch, are said to dwell in the Outer Hebrides off the coast of Scotland.
They look like ordinary men (from the waist up anyway) with the exception of their blue-tinted skin and gray beard. Local lore claims that before laying siege to a ship, the Blue Men often challenge its captain to a rhyming contest; if the captain is quick enough of wit and agile enough of tongue he can best the Blue Men and save his sailors from a watery grave.

RECORD 2
Japanese legends have a version of merfolk called kappa. Said to reside in Japanese lakes, coasts and rivers, these child-size water spirits appear more animal than human, with simian faces and tortoise shells on their backs. Like the Blue Men, the kappa sometimes interact with humans and challenge them to games of skill in which the penalty for losing is death. Kappa are said to have an appetite for children and those foolish enough to swim alone in remote places and they love fresh cucumbers.

Among the results are links to stories about the Hartlepool Merman, the Zwaanendael Merman, the Banff Merman, and the Fiji Merman, all of which have one key similarity. All three of these famous mermen are novelty items made of monkey bones and fish parts, and were once publicly touted as being a mummified Merman. In the case of the Fiji Merman, it was P.T. Barnum who made it famous. The Fiji Merman was displayed along side other oddities of Barnum’s popular touring show.

Most of these sideshow-staple, monkey-bone mermaids were made in China and sold to sailors as good luck charms. On top of them being fake, these mermen are just plain ugly.

FEEJEE MERMAN
Mummified mermaids have a long history, with some dating back centuries, but they really hit their stride as part of the sideshow circuit when P.T. Barnum got into the action with an elaborately planned hoax in 1845. Supposedly caught in the waters of Fiji by a sailor, the so-called “Feejee Mermaid” was actually a taxidermy gaff of a monkey sewn to a fish, and detailed in papier mache… and that lucky sailor was none other than Barnum’s accomplice. Despite the deception, Barnum’s wild success in showing his monstrosity of dubious origin led to a peak in popularity for this particular kind of fanciful creation, and they joined sideshow line-ups and wonder cabinets around the world.

RECENT RECORDS OF MERMAIDS
Some researchers believe that sightings of human-size ocean animals such as manatees and dugongs might have inspired merfolk legends. These animals have a flat, mermaid-like tail and two flippers that resemble stubby arms. They don't look exactly like a typical mermaid or merman, of course, but many sightings were from quite a distance away, and being mostly submerged in water and waves only parts of their bodies were visible.

Identifying animals in water is inherently problematic, since eyewitnesses by definition are only seeing a small part of the creature. When you add in the factor of low light at sunset and the distances involved, positively identifying even a known creature can be very difficult. A glimpse of a head, arm, or tail just before it dives under the waves might have spawned some mermaid reports.

Modern mermaid reports are very rare, but they do occur; for example, news reports in 2009 claimed that a mermaid had seen sighted off the coast of Israel in the town of town of Kiryat Yam. She performed a few tricks for onlookers just before sunset, then disappearing for the night. One of the first people to see the mermaid, Shlomo Cohen, said, "I was with friends when suddenly we saw a woman laying on the sand in a weird way.

At first I thought she was just another sunbather, but when we approached she jumped into the water and disappeared. We were all in shock because we saw she had a tail." The town's tourism board was delighted with their newfound fame and offered a $1 million reward for the first person to photograph the creature. Unfortunately the reports vanished almost as quickly as they surfaced, and no one ever claimed the reward.

In 2012 an Animal Planet special, "Mermaids: The Body Found," renewed interest in mermaids. It presented the story of scientists finding proof of real mermaids in the oceans. It was fiction but presented in a fake-documentary format that seemed realistic. The show was so convincing that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration received enough inquiries following the TV special that they issued a statement officially denying the existence of mermaids.

REAL LIFE MERMAN
Due to the gap between mermaids and mermen Eric Ducharme has decided to put in some work to breach this gap.

Eric Ducharme was recently featured on cable channel TLC’s show “My Crazy Obsession.”
He spends his free time dressed in a hand-made merman outfit swimming in Florida’s crystal clear waters.

Ducharme swims for hours in local waters astonishing passersby when he surfaces for air, which is something he does about every four minutes.

He started his dress-up obsession while working as a performer in a Little Mermaid water show. Now, in his early 20s, he’s been going merman for more than five years.

His obsession has made him a local celebrity, and the appearance on TLC’s show spread his exploits to a mass audience. Perhaps his efforts will spur a pop-culture shift toward honouring the myths and legends of mermen in ancient world culture, and close a gender gap thousands of years in the making.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merman
https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/banff-merman
http://www.realmermaids.net/mermaid-facts/mermen/
https://www.google.com.ng/amp/s/amp.livescience.com/39882-mermaid.html
http://mysteriousuniverse.org/2013/06/why-do-mermen-get-the-short-end-of-the-trident-in-the-public-eye/
https://www.123rf.com/photo_60531039_stock-vector-merman-or-triton-mythological-ocean-creature-armed-with-trident-and-horn-hand-drawn-artwork-isolated.html
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mermaid#Etymology_and_related_terms