The Truth Behind the Mermaid Myth

[Music] mermaids the truth behind the myth one of the interesting things about legends is that they often seem almost believable I mean how can entirely different parts of the world describe seeing the exact same thing for centuries is it so ridiculous to ask are mermaids real did or do these half-human half-fish mythical sea creatures really exist do they look like the red-haired Beauty Disney introduced to the world in 1989 or are they a little less glamorous believe it or not scientists and historians have been interested in the mermaids existence for years in today's video we're turning to their research to find out the truth but before we dive into the legendary world of mermaids be sure to click the subscribe button and bring that notification belt so that you'll always be the first to see all the newest updates coming out daily on the bright side of life the merriam-webster dictionary describes the mermaid as a fabled marine creature with the head and upper body of a woman and a tail of a fish it has a male counterpart the Merman and both have made plenty of appearances in books comics cartoons and movies the most popular of which for our generation is of course Disney's lovely Ariel in the Little Mermaid but this cartoon was an adaptation of a fairy tale written by Danish author Hans Christian Andersen in 1837 however in Anderson's The Little Mermaid we don't get a happily ever after ending but a tragic one sorry to ruin your childhood anyway going back to our current topic The Little Mermaid isn't the first story that opened our eyes to the world of merfolk the first mermaid according to legends is at tardik is the ancient syrian goddess of the sea she didn't start out as a mermaid though she was once a powerful priestess who like the little mermaid fell in love with a human but his mortal body couldn't handle her divine powers in bed and he died she became pregnant with his baby and she never could move on from the death of her beloved after a target is gave birth to the child she decided to drown herself in the ocean but the gods took pity on her because of her exceptional beauty and turned her into a mermaid to this day she's revered as the goddess of fertility protection and well-being for those who worship her and then there's iya the Mesopotamian god of water wisdom magic and creation he was a merman and what's his backstory according to the legend aaaahhhhhh saved humanity which he'd created himself from a flood sent by the god and lil and lil wanted to destroy the people because their noisiness kept him from sleeping whoa overreact much this was told in the Babylonian myth called Atrahasis and the epic of gilgamesh like most legends that of the mermaid spans across cultures in Japanese folklore there's the minge o which is a giant fish with a human face and a monkey's mouth if you can get over its monstrous appearance it's believed that adding ninja to your diet will give you eternal youth and beauty you'll just be cursed after consuming one is all no big deal in most parts of Africa they have mama whatta which is derived from the English mommy water if you're on her good side she'll choose you as a medium for her special powers if not well you'll be fed to the fishes they've always got a catch don't they the female marrows of Ireland are beautiful with long green hair the male's not so much marrows have to wear something called a KO fooling druid which is a magical cap that helps them live underwater in Russia they have the rusalka a water nymph in slavic mythology that's been portrayed as both good evil in the lighter version the rusalka mermaids will believe to be kind and help water the crops the darker side of the myth is that they were girls who died in cruel ways and they dragged their victims to a watery death in Norway and parts of Scotland they have the Finn folk who were shapeshifters of the sea they have an affinity for silver and tempt to make humans their slaves the inuit also have a fair share of mermaid stories particularly the tail of the Sedna she's the guardian spirit of the inuit and the mother of all sea mammals the Caribbean islands and other parts of the Americas are home to a water spirit called placer derives from the French lassie hen meaning the mermaid and on a related note linguistically we can't forget the sirens of Greek mythology beautiful on the outside and deadly on the inside these famous mermaid light creatures had a faceoff with Odysseus and his crew in Homer's The Odyssey luckily Odysseus and his men managed to come out with their lives by stuffing wax into their ears so they couldn't hear the seductive and hypnotic singing of the sirens but mermaids aren't just a thing of ancient legends the hype continues even today unconfirmed and probably false sightings have been reported all over the world in the past years in 2013 Animal Planet added fuel to the fire when they made a fictional documentary titled mermaids the body found that racked up 3.6 million views this only proves that people's fascination with these mythical sea creatures still hasn't wavered even in the 21st century Animal Planet's stunts although they were open and honest about the fact that it was all made up isn't the first one in 1842 PT Barnum created a fake mermaid by sewing together the head and torso of a monkey and a tail of a fish as part of his circus show he called it the Fiji mermaid and claimed that had been caught near the Fiji Islands thousands of people fell for it and it still considered one of the greatest mermaid hoaxes of all time one thing's for sure no one has actually seen met or caught a real mermaid alive or not even Christopher Columbus's mermaid sighting in 1493 was debunked by experts he described what he saw as not so beautiful as they are said to be for their faces have some masculine traits so what had Columbus really witnessed back then historians for Cloris and scientists are convinced that it wasn't a mermaid what Columbus actually spotted was a manatee yep it was just a case of mistaken identity some older species like the extinct Steller's sea cow were known to go up to 33 feet long however today's manatee and its indo-pacific cousin the dugong only get to about nine to ten feet long and here's a fun fact manatees and dugongs which belonged to the scientific class Suren ian are closely related to elephants plus they're the only marine mammals that are strictly herbivores so how on earth could Columbus make that big of a mistake well from afar manatees are about the size of a human their front flippers could resemble an arm from a distance and their neck vertebrae allow them to turn their heads around like we do plus they're round heads and protruding nose and whiskers could be mistaken for a man especially one with a moustache and marine biologist dr. James Powell who has studied and observed manatees for over 30 years totally agrees according to him with the right lighting and angle a manatees head does look like a person's plus for lonely sailors deprived of human contact for so long when they saw the flat mermaid-like tail of manatees doing tale stands in the distance they can easily take it for the mythical sea creature to further solidify this theory even the suspected mermaid skeleton discovered on the island of Mombasa and brought to Portsmouth to be investigated by the philosophical Society was later found to be that of a dugong the findings were published in the magazine of natural history in 1830 now let's consider the question of whether or not their unique body structure could even function the short answer is that it's impossible the human part of the mermaid wouldn't be able to withstand a life in the cold oceanic waters that is not unless mermaids have a thick layer of hair like sea otters or blubber like other marine mammals evolutionarily speaking humans and fish have branched out into two entirely different species this means that a mermaid can't have the best of both worlds even reproducing would be more complicated do they give birth like humans or lay eggs like fish how do they digest their food a person's digestive system is nothing like that of a fish physiologically merging the two just wouldn't work but who knows maybe they really are out there and we just haven't found them yet I mean it's possible when you consider the fact that according to the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration more than 80% of our ocean is unmapped unobserved and unexplored but so far the only evidence of mermaids points to a case of mistaken identity they're nothing more than sea cows for the time being mermaids remain fictional characters and a favorite mythical subject to discuss what about you do you believe mermaids could exist tell us in the comments don't forget to give this video a like and share it with your friends if you've enjoyed it be sure to subscribe and join us on the bright side of life [Music]

Channel: BRIGHT SIDE

Views: 4,781,235

Rating: 4.7824917 out of 5

Keywords: mermaids, manatees, aquaman, mermaid’s existence, first mermaid, Japanese folklore, African folklore, Russian folklore, Christopher Columbus’s mermaid, Syrian goddess, Atargatis, Ningyo, fish with a human face, Slavic mythology, Finfolk, marine mammals

Id: Htq45X4qypU

Length: 10min 20sec (620 seconds)

Published: Sat Sep 08 2018