In what way is 'The Little Mermaid' based on real-life mythology ?

[UM-Bot]

The Little Mermaid might be mythological, but stories of mermaids have been told all across the world for thousands of years.

https://www.unexplained-mysteries.com/news/367471/in-what-way-is-the-little-mermaid-based-on-real-life-mythology

[CrimsonKing]

36 minutes ago, UM-Bot said:

The Little Mermaid might be mythological, but stories of mermaids have been told all across the world for thousands of years.

https://www.unexplained-mysteries.com/news/367471/in-what-way-is-the-little-mermaid-based-on-real-life-mythology

Read about someone squalling the other day about not teaching about Caribbean slavery in the film...

Whole new world alright 

[quiXilver]

In that situation, I usually tell folks that when they make their movie, they can focus it on whatever they want.

[Nicolette]

Why would mermaids build bridges from water to land i dont get it how does that work. Is this like a water slide?

[+and-then]

1 hour ago, Nicolette said:

Why would mermaids build bridges from water to land i dont get it how does that work. Is this like a water slide?

Maybe more like an aqueduct?   

[Jon the frog]

1 hour ago, and-then said:

Maybe more like an aqueduct?   

Or a sewer ?

[Tatetopa]

What does real-life mythology even mean?  Mythology seems to adapt to what each generation needs. Before mermaids were sanitized in modern  times by Disney among others, they go back in Greek mythology to creatures like the sirens who used their singing to lure sailors to their deaths.   Now we don't want fear and danger, we want cute. 

[pellinore]

7 hours ago, Tatetopa said:

What does real-life mythology even mean?  Mythology seems to adapt to what each generation needs. Before mermaids were sanitized in modern  times by Disney among others, they go back in Greek mythology to creatures like the sirens who used their singing to lure sailors to their deaths.   Now we don't want fear and danger, we want cute. 

I had a similar thought. 'Real-life mythology' is an oxymoron anyway, it is either one or the other.

[Gilbert Syndrome]

We've always had a deep connection to the seas, from literally emerging from them, to living beside them and utilizing them for our own needs, to travelling across them in exploration. 

I always thought that sightings by early sailors of creatures like seals and manitees, etc, were what initially sparked off ideas of "sea people." When you take a look at old maps, they're rife with all kinds of imaginative beasts that people presumed were out there. 

A very common thing you'd read on ancient maps would be the line "Here There Be Monsters."

That one line always sparked my imagination, so much so that I wrote a poem about it that went on to become the lyrics for the opening track of my mate's extreme metal project, lol. 

Anyway, all manner of monsters were created then much like they're created now. Superstition, mistaken identity, presumption and fear of the unknown. 

[Myles]

Are mermaids really cryptozoology?

[Jon the frog]

21 hours ago, Myles said:

Are mermaids really cryptozoology?

It's more folklore than crypto a bit like the bogeyman because nothing in nature could came up with that chimera the way it was imagined. It fit in the ''myth and legend'' category.

Edited June 6 by Jon the frog

[Abramelin]

On 6/4/2023 at 7:46 PM, UM-Bot said:

The Little Mermaid might be mythological, but stories of mermaids have been told all across the world for thousands of years.

https://www.unexplained-mysteries.com/news/367471/in-what-way-is-the-little-mermaid-based-on-real-life-mythology

http://gakuran.com/ama-the-pearl-diving-mermaids-of-japan/

 

[Commander CMG]

32 minutes ago, Abramelin said:

http://gakuran.com/ama-the-pearl-diving-mermaids-of-japan/

 

Booking my flight now, while grabbing my snorkel, and mask 

[darkmoonlady]

Coincidentally this just popped up

https://www.instagram.com/reel/Cs6BrMKtcYW/?igshid=MmJiY2I4NDBkZg==

 

[MissJatti]

I read somwhere a long time ago, that mermaids originally came from Greece known has the 'sirens' whether they were real or not. But wherever the story goes, it gets told differently from person to person or community to community region to region and so on. Obviously the way we know sirens is from that disney movie the little mermaid

[Abramelin]

On 6/7/2023 at 10:52 AM, darkmoonlady said:

Coincidentally this just popped up

https://www.instagram.com/reel/Cs6BrMKtcYW/?igshid=MmJiY2I4NDBkZg==

 

Great: nothing shows up.

I must have Instagram installed on my phone, right?

Sorry, but I won't.

[Abramelin]

1 hour ago, MissJatti said:

Obviously the way we know sirens is from that disney movie the little mermaid

No.