Is there really a sea animal with a human body and a fish tail?

There are many legends about mermaids all over the world, which are very beautiful and moving. Among them, the "Daughter of the Sea" in Wen Tusheng's fairy tale is the most touching. It has not only touched the hearts of countless readers, but also given beautiful longings and wishes to sailors wandering in the ocean. In 1912, Danish sculptor Edward. Erikson, based on Andersen's fairy tale and adding his own imagination, sculpted the statue of "Sea Maiden" out of copper and placed it on the beach of Copenhagen Harbor Seaside Park.

There was such a legend in the history of navigation: One day, a Venetian merchant ship was returning from India. That night, the moon was as bright as silver and the sea was as flat as a mirror. The sailors suddenly saw a human-tailed fish appearing in the distance on the water. The beauty, with her breasts bare, was holding a baby sucking milk peacefully, but when they approached, nothing was seen.

Not many people believe in these distant legends and fairy tales. In the 1970s, there was a rumor that a fish whose upper body was a fish and whose lower body was like a human body was found on the western coast of Arabia, and a photo was taken of it. Some people don't believe it and think it is a forgery drawn and photographed based on legends and imagination.

The ancient legend of mermaids has spread across cultures, regions and centuries, and is widely spread around the world. Bizarre stories about mermaids have inspired people's imagination.

According to tradition, a mermaid is bounded by the waist. The upper body is a woman, and the lower body is a beautiful fish tail covered with scales. The entire body is both attractive and easy to escape quickly. They are soulless and as ruthless as the sea; their voices are often as deceptive as their appearance; they are a combination of seduction, vanity, beauty, cruelty and desperate love.

Historically, many natural historians and explorers believed in her existence. The naturalist Pliny was the first person to make detailed records of mermaids. In his immortal masterpiece "Natural History" written in the 1st century AD, he wrote: "The mermaids people call 'sea nymphs' are by no means fables. They are exactly the same as the mermaids described by the painter, except that their skin is extremely rough and the whole body is covered with scales, even the upper body that looks very like a woman is no exception." In 1492, Columbus also mentioned mermaids when he returned from his voyage. He described the story of one of his sailors who saw three mermaids standing tall on the sea. However, they are not as beautiful as in the painting, and there are certain aspects of their faces that are similar to those of human beings.

But by the early 18th century, people were increasingly doubting the legend of the mermaid, and naturalists began to reevaluate their opinions. In "Natural History of Norway", Eric Pontoppidan believes that most legends about mermaids are pure nonsense. He accused some people of confusing fictional stories with history: "Obviously, people with a little bit of intelligence will never be interested in such bizarre theories, and will even doubt the possibility of the existence of such creatures."

However, many countries in the world have folklore similar to mermaids. Its enduring vitality shows that the story of mermaids is likely to be based on some kind of fact. In fact, there are probably several types of animals that look like mermaids from a distance: manatees, dugongs, and various seals. Although they are not impressive in appearance, they are somewhat similar to the legendary mermaids.

The body of the manatee is almost hairless and slightly larger than the human body. The protruding breasts of the female manatee are similar to female breasts to some extent. Manatees have no other limbs, and their fatty torso ends in a tail consisting of two horizontal fins. Dugongs are shaped like manatees, with rough beards on their protruding snouts. It is said that when nursing, it often sticks its upper body out of the sea and holds the cub on its chest with one fin. The seal not only has manatee-like front flippers and a barrel-shaped body, but its eyes are particularly gentle and attractive. The seal's jumping and usual posture also resemble the legendary mermaid.

Today, mermaids still attract us with their ancient and magical charm. In some remote areas of the world, reports of mermaids have been spotted from time to time. But generally speaking, today's mermaids exist mainly within the realm of folklore, art, and cryptozoology. As George Zucker, director of the Vertebrate Zoology Department of the Smithsonian Institution’s Museum of Natural History, said: “Without a real mermaid specimen, all conclusions can only be conjectures.

About mermaids The legend has a history of more than two thousand years, spanning cultures, regions and centuries, and has been widely circulated around the world. Many countries have cast mermaid statues, but this statue of the Little Mermaid in Denmark is the most famous in history. >

Legend has it that a long time ago, a prince was passing through Copenhagen by boat. Due to a storm, the boat sank. The prince was rescued by a mermaid. The two fell in love at first sight and vowed to love each other forever. The prince agreed when he parted. One day, he took a boat to welcome the mermaid girl into the palace. From then on, the infatuated girl sat on the rocks by the sea and waited for the prince's return: as time went by, dreams were hard to come true, and the prince did not return in the end. The poor mermaid girl was just like the Yangtze River. The mermaid statue in Copenhagen is a Danish art treasure and is famous all over the world. According to reports, tens of thousands of tourists come to visit it every day. There are as many as 50,000 photos taken, which can be said to be the largest number in the world. Because the world loves her, people often put garlands and laurels on her secretly. There are tens of thousands of garlands and laurels collected by relevant departments.

Whenever the weather turns cold, people are afraid that she will freeze, so they always put her in various sweaters and floral shirts, although the relevant departments took away the clothes a thousand times in order to maintain her graceful figure. , but still found her covered in red and green 10,000 times. In order to satisfy the wishes of domestic and foreign tourists, she has been imitated into souvenirs made of various materials and taken to all corners of the world.

In 1983, when she celebrated her 70th birthday, the mayor of Copenhagen specially awarded her a silver medal of honor in recognition of her great contribution to Denmark's tourism industry. So whenever she was hurt by gangsters, as soon as the news spread, people would come from all over to see her and couldn't help but shed tears.

The "Gravity" of Switzerland's famous mermaids built a replica of a mermaid statue on the shores of Lake Leman in the north of Geneva in 1965. The author was so bold and innovative that the mermaid girl actually picked up her head and stared back, as if she had just jumped out. Climbing the water onto the rocks, marveling at everything you see and always ready to jump back into the water. This exotic mermaid sculpture makes tourists who have been to Copenhagen want to take a look at the mermaid girls of Geneva.

In Poland, the Vistula River, which has its outlet at the Petro Sea, is said to have mermaids. At that time, a young man named Wall and a young woman named Sawa teamed up and took a boat down the river to Warsaw, now the capital of Poland, to open up their home. The mermaid in the river was their witness and protector. It gradually developed into a city. In order to commemorate them, later generations combined their names to "Warsaw" as the name of the city. At the same time, the mermaid image was used as the emblem of Warsaw.

In 1936, the famous Polish sculptor Rudwika Krakowska-Niczowa began to sculpt a mermaid statue. This statue, like other mermaids, has a naked young girl on the upper body and a naked lower body on the lower body. For the fish tail. The difference is that the statue of the Mermaid in Warsaw is tall. The girl holds her head high, holds a shield in her left hand and holds a sword in her right hand. It turned out that war was raging in Europe at that time. The author was worried about the fate of the motherland, so he decided to create a heroic image of protecting the motherland. Now there are bouquets of flowers in front of the mermaid statue all year round, showing the Polish people's love for their motherland

There is also a mermaid statue in Songkhla, a famous coastal city in southern Thailand. It is close to the Gulf of Siam and not only has a pleasant climate, but also has particularly beautiful scenery. , this mermaid statue on the right side of the golden sandy beach like black brocade, with her hands holding her flowing long hair, her charming and graceful body features, showing the style of an oriental girl, it is very charming from a distance. Most of the tourists who come to Songkhla are fascinated by the charm of this mermaid. Some tourists even wait in a long line just to sit on the mermaid's lap and take a photo. She shows the characteristics of Songkhla and has become the symbol of the province.

Pliny the Elder was a natural scientist who described the "mermaid" creature. In his immortal work "Natural History" he wrote: "As for the mermaid, also called Nielid, this is not It’s unbelievable. They are real, but their bodies are rough and covered with scales. Even the parts that look like women have scales.”

Some scientists are trying hard to find this most amazing discovery in archeology today. , the origin of the mummified remains of a 3,000-year-old mermaid. A team of construction workers discovered the unbelievable creature in a tomb containing treasures near the shores of the Black Sea outside Sochi. News of this discovery was recently revealed to the West by Russian archaeologist Dr. Yeremiah. She looks like a beautiful dark-skinned princess with a fish tail underneath. This astonishing creature measures 173 centimeters from the top of its head to its scaly tail. Scientists believe she was over 100 years old when she died.

Singapore's "United Daily News" published a report titled "12,000-year-old mermaid fossil discovered on the coast of Yugoslavia": Scientists recently unearthed the world's first complete mermaid fossil, confirming that this species was only found in the past. Animals that appear in fairy tales did indeed exist in the real world. The fossil was discovered off the coast of Yugoslavia. The fossils are well preserved, and it can be clearly seen that this animal had sharp teeth and strong jaws, which were enough to tear flesh and bones into pieces and kill prey. "This animal is female. It appeared on the nearby coast about 12,000 years ago." Dr. Bailie Oganyi said. Dr. Ogani is an archaeologist from California, USA, and has been working in the sea where mermaids appeared for 4 years. Dr. Ogani said: "It was buried alive in an underwater landslide, and then was protected by the surrounding limestone, and slowly turned into a fossil. The fossils show that the mermaid is 160 centimeters tall, like a human from the waist up, with a well-developed head and a brain. It is quite large, has claws on its hands, and has no eyes like other fishes.

There was also an incident in 1962 when scientists captured a little mermaid alive. "The Sun", "New Evening News" in Harbin, China, and many other newspapers and magazines reported on the matter. Dr. Vinograd of the Lenin Academy of Sciences of the former Soviet Union told the story: In 1962, a ship carrying scientists and military experts. The little mermaid's exploration ship captured a child who could speak human language off the coast of Cuba. He had scaly skin, gills, a human-like head, and a fish-like tail. The little mermaid claimed that he was from the city of Atlantis, and told researchers that he was in a few countries. Millions of years ago, the continent of Atlantis stretched across Africa and South America, and later sank to the bottom of the sea. The surviving people now live on the bottom of the sea and live up to 300 years old.

Later, the little mermaid was sent to a secret research institution in the Black Sea for scientists to study in depth.

In 1958, Dr. Rotan of the National Oceanographic Society of the United States photographed some human-like footprints on the seabed 5 kilometers deep in the Atlantic Ocean. In 1963, on the seabed southeast of Puerto Rico, a U.S. Navy submarine discovered a strange ship with a speed of 280 kilometers per hour. It was untraceable and beyond the reach of modern human technology. In 1968, American photographer Mooney discovered a monster near the seabed. It had a face like a monkey, a neck four times longer than a human, eyes like a human but much larger, and fast "propellers" on its legs.

Since the existence of strange underwater creatures such as "mermaids" has physical evidence, it has also been transformed from what people call "absurd", "superstition" and "myth" into a current item. A serious scientific research topic.

When reading classics about marine culture, I often come across an allusion - the shark, which is a unique amphibian form on the earth - a fish-tailed body, which is different from what is recorded in ancient Chinese classics , European people call her mermaid or mermaid. If we think about mermaids from our habitual thinking, we should think of them as an amphibious marine animal. For a long period of time, this animal has had contact with humans. So there are all kinds of strange legends about mermaids and humans.

Most of the mermaids in myths and legends are women. They are amiable, not only beautiful in appearance, but also gentle in temperament. Going a step deeper, you can actually fall in love with someone and have sex with each other passionately. According to "Shu Yi Ji" written by Ren Fang of the Qing Dynasty: "There is a room of mermaids in the South China Sea. They live in the water like fish and do not waste their weaving. If their eyes can weep, pearls will come out." This may be the more complete allusion of Chinese mermaids. Provenance. We can imagine how beautiful this shark is in her room under the vast expanse of blue waves, but we don’t know whether she misses her beloved brother who shivered in the cold wind and had no clothes, busy working at the loom day and night with no leisure, or whether His father, who hated her and forced her to return to the Dragon Palace, shed tears while weaving, and the tears were crystal clear and turned into pearls when they fell.

Ming Dynasty's "Pingshan Thatched Cottage Notes" records: "In the thirteenth year of Taizu, in Jiao County, Dongting, a scholar was crossing the sea and encountered a strong wind and was lost in the waves. For several days, his corpse floated on the shore. A fisherman saw a pearl stuck in his mouth, like a dove egg, glowing brightly, and the burning pain was unbearable when he touched it. He thought it was ominous. He suddenly woke up from the clouds and entered the Dragon Palace to be intimate with the dragon girl. Suddenly he felt the water surging, without knowing it. No matter where you are." In this story, the mermaid has changed space. She is no longer underwater in the South China Sea, but the daughter of the Dragon King of Dongting Lake. And she has a chivalrous heart and a gentle and affectionate female character who can save people from floods. A free-spirited, open-minded, gentle and elegant scholar was on a boat on the sea. He was tossed by a storm and was shaken under the boat and sank in the waves.

She happened to fall into the arms of the shark. This beautiful underwater woman gently stretched out her jade arms to catch him, then swung her fish tail lightly, swam into the deep blue, and took him into the deep sea. After entering the golden-walled Shark Room, the Shark Man made peace with him and told him that you can stay in the palace like this for three days. Shizi was naturally surprised and grateful, but he was a mortal who longed for the world, and the shark was quite reasonable. They only lingered with Shizi for a few days, but she also ended her wish to miss the human world in the free underwater world. During these three days The mermaid's intercourse with the scholar seemed to satisfy her thousand-year wait, so the shark agreed to give him three days to return to land. Three days passed in the blink of an eye. On the eve of departure, the shark man handed the scholar a shark bead the size of a pigeon egg. The scholars wondered what the use of this thing was. The shark told him that this shark bead is the national treasure of the underwater dragon palace. Only by relying on it can you cross the land and water realms.

She generously lent the national treasure to her beloved lover. When leaving, she also taught him the method and essentials of holding pearls. In this way, the scholar could hold one of the best pearls under the sea in his mouth. , after sleeping, the sharks drove the water to the shore. Three days later, the scholar floated to the coast, holding a dazzling shark bead in his mouth, as if he were dead. Some brave people stepped forward to touch the bead, and were seriously burned, so they never dared to go there again. Touch it, and after a while, the scholar gradually began to breathe and woke up. The onlookers asked him what was going on. The scholar only remembered falling into the water and being entangled with the dragon girl, and then the waves rolled. As for the shark beads, he couldn't remember anything.

The most beautiful legend about mermaids is "The Daughter of the Sea" by the famous Danish fairy tale writer Andersen.

"The Daughter of the Sea" tells the story of the kind and persistent mermaid Gongyu who turned into a bubble after saving a handsome prince. A little mermaid longed for life in the world. On her 15th birthday, she finally got her wish and surfaced from the water. She saw the night sky dotted with white stars, heard beautiful songs, beautiful fireworks, and a handsome prince. , and after saving the life of a prince who fell into the water in a storm, he fell in love with this human prince persistently. In order to pursue love and happiness, he sacrificed everything he had, and finally obtained a human soul. She exchanges her tongue for a dose of the witch's medicine so that she can take off her fish body and become human.

On a moonlit night, she resolutely left the Coral Palace on the seabed and walked towards the palace of her beloved prince on the shore. She slowly walked up the steps of the palace, taking the strong medicine she had bought from the witch. For a moment, she felt as if a double-sided sharp knife had cut open her slender body. She fainted and fell to the ground unconscious.

When she woke up the next day, she had a more graceful figure than anyone else and beautiful eyes. A handsome man, her beloved prince, was already standing in front of her, looking at her with deep black eyes. Holding her. But the prince mistakenly thought that another princess had saved him and fell in love with the princess.

But the prince mistakenly thought that another princess had saved him and fell in love with the princess. How sad the little mermaid was. In order to see the prince again, she gave up her beautiful voice to the witch in exchange for human legs. She also refused the dagger that her sisters offered to return to the sea in exchange for sacrificing their hair. Let a drop of her beloved human's blood splash on her body. At the moment of sunrise the next day, she watched the faces of her beloved and his bride slowly turn into foam on the water. This sad and touching story This tragic story has made so many girls in this world cry.

The existence of such legends can also prove the richness of the ancient marine natural ecology - there were also marine creatures such as mermaids in this area at that time. This means that there were an abundance of marine animals in the sea at that time, and people had contact with these strange marine animals. During the contact process, many phenomena that they could not explain occurred, which mixed with their limited knowledge. Thinking and imagination have left behind so many wonderful and touching legends about mermaids. Now, when there are fewer and fewer rare marine animals in the sea, and human high-tech technology has explored everything in the deep and turbulent blue depths, especially those who come and go. Ships and masts swarmed above it, and the derricks for extracting submarine oil and gas reservoirs stretched endlessly. After humans dumped all kinds of garbage here, red tides spread thousands of miles away, and the stench The elegance and romance of blue have long been extinguished by the smell.

When countless dead shrimps and fish float, when groups of whales sing lamentations and rush to the beach to rescue people who can’t pull them back, when crabs clinging to the leaked oil on the beach crawl out of two When people can die within three meters, not to mention the survival of rare mermaids is threatened, some precious marine creatures are also declining, and even large species of fish and shrimps are difficult to survive. How can there be any more conflicts between humans and mermaids? What's the story? As a result, the sea is no longer full of mystery and temptation, and our image thinking is gradually exhausted. I really yearn for the era when the mermaid story was born

If the bronze statue of Andersen really stood up and walked around, what he wanted to do most would be to go to the nearby Newport Canal and watch Look at his Little Mermaid.

Walking eastward from the City Hall Square, passing the famous pedestrian shopping street and New King's Square, as well as the romantic Newport full of boats, you will arrive at the seaside park with the bronze statue of the Mermaid. .

The bronze statue of the Mermaid was funded by the founder of the Danish Casper Brewery and invited the famous Danish sculptor Edward Eriksson to carve it in 1912 based on the protagonist in Andersen's fairy tale "The Daughter of the Sea". It was completed and moved to its current entrance to Copenhagen Harbor on August 23, 1913.

The elegant mermaid sits alone on a huge rock on the seashore. She has a fish-tail body, is shy and serene, and looks at the sea with a thoughtful expression. She reveals the innocent beauty of the girl and is deeply loved by people. It is the most attractive tourist attraction in Copenhagen. It is not only a masterpiece of Danish culture and art, but also a symbol of the city of Copenhagen, so it occupies a special place in the hearts of the Danish people.

Because of its popularity, the bronze statue of the mermaid was "disassembled" three times. On April 24, 1964, its head was cut off for the first time. In 1985, its arms were sawed off. In 1998, On January 5, 2011, the mermaid's head was stolen for the second time. Fortunately, the sculptor's mold was still preserved, so the statue could be restored.

The bronze statue is not big, but it is not easy to take good photos! The reason is that the mermaid is sideways facing the shore, with half of her body turned towards the Danish bay, and her eyes staring at the sparkling sea. Therefore, you must stand at an angle of 45 degrees to the left of the bronze statue to take a picture of the mermaid's face; in addition, the sun is shining brightly in the morning. Behind the bronze statue, the backlight makes the bronze statue pitch black.

If you are going to leave Denmark for Oslo, Norway on a DFS cruise ship that sails at 5 p.m., it is recommended that you watch it two hours before boarding the ship. The Mermaid Statue, firstly, there are not many tourists, and secondly, the sun is in the middle or west, which is ideal for taking pictures. In addition, when the cruise ship sails out of the harbor, you can see the brilliant golden waves accompanying the bronze mermaid statue from the deck, which is unique.

Answer: luanwukuku - Trainee Magician Level 2 7-23 23:35