By far the most enticing thrilling enchanting movie I’ve watched this year sofar (2024), definitely atop my all time favorites. The Lure, which i stumbled upon on some streaming channel I can’t remember which one … I was instantly mesmerized by this foreign horror musical drama featuring one of my favorite fae species … Mermaids. Anyone who knows me, knows I’m overly obsessed with Faerie lore. This movie embraces fae living amongst us in the 1980’s time period. Not only that, but the 80’s/alternative music atmosphere drives me home to my era, with even more excitement. The story shows the tale of mermaid sisters named “Silver” and “Golden” who become enchanted by the song of “Figs and Dates” band members partying on the beach – they make friends and become adopted by the cabaret club the band operates within. Its a twisted love story beyond the “Little Mermaid” obsession with a human and going through a twisted operation to gain human legs permanently. The sister doesn’t understand and decides to listen to her natural desires -devouring the flesh of humans in the city. While this pitstop was meant only as a stop-over for the sisters new life in America, they become trapped in Warsaw. The music, sex, horror, the gore, comedy, drama, and the art-house madness makes it a uniquely enchanting mermaid tale. Review: 5 stars out of 5 by Oisin Rhymour
Naiad John William Waterhouse (1849-1917): ”A Naiad” or ”Hylas with a Nymph”. 1893 (first exhibited at the New Gallery, London 1893) This work is in the public domain in those countries with a copyright term of life of the author plus 90 years or less.
A Fresh water nymph that lives along springs, holy wells, rivers, waterfalls, and fountains known to be a guardian of the waters in her domain. Depicted as an attractive nude bathing woman, they are known to entice and lure men to their waters. Sometimes this is to seductive folly, a love affair, or a dangerous end. Derived from the Greek word ?????, or Naiás, meaning “to flow” or “running water”. The Naiad is a female water nymph or spirit that guard over wells, springs, streams, brooks, fountains, and fresh water pools or lakes. Some say the Undine is the salt water variant while the Naiad is the fresh water variant. They are not to be confused with River God/desses who embody rivers or inhabit still waters of ponds, lagoons, lakes, and marshes such as the pre-Mycenaean Lerna described in the Argolid.
They belong to Greek mythology but have spread throughout the European world-view. Although they are most believed to be associated with fresh water, since the Greeks believed that all of the world’s waters were one, flowing through a cavernous aquifer and inter-connected, they could be in more than one place at the same time. This is also their explanation in relation to Oceanids, Nereids, Undines, and Mer-folk. In the Greek myths about Arethusa, a water nymph of a spring, that could make her way from Peloponnesus to surface on the island of Sicily. They were worshiped by water cults who often made offerings into the waters or along its edges with such things as bins, coins, cloth, clothes, sandals, jewelry, treasures, figurines, flowers, and/or sacrificed animals to the waters in hopes the Naiads would bring them healing, inspiration, gifts, magic, blessings, or passage. In some practices, boys and girls that werre coming-of-age would dedicate their childish locks to the local Naiad of the spring. In Lerna, ritual cleansings utilized the magical waters from the Naiad’s spring or well that were believed to possess certain healing or medicinal properties. In ancient Mythology, Hylas of the Argo’s crew was lost when he was captivated by Naiads who were in awe of his beauty. They are known to be jealous fae folk – as in Theocritus’ tale of a Naiad’s jealousy when the Naiad Nomia or Echenais who was in love with Daphnis, the Shepherd. He was unfaithful to her on numerous accounts and she blinded him out of revenge. Hermaphroditus was forced into sex with the Naiad Salmacis, and when he sought to escape her, she fused with him, giving birth to hermaphrodites. In the mytho of Aristaeus, The Naiad Chlidanope marries Hypseus, the King of the Lapiths and giving birth to Cyrene. Aristaeus also consulted the Naiads when his bees died and his aunt Arethusa invited him below the water’s surface where he was washed with the waters from a perpetual spring and given his advice. Throughout Europe, magical springs and holy wells were at first attributed to various Deities and/or water nymphs before they were converted to wells and springs associated with Saints. It was a very common practice in Celtic cultures.
Related to Undines, Oceanids (salt water), Nereids (Mediterranean), Water Nymphs, and Mermaids and Mermen.
Ondines or Undines is the modern English term for Water elementals, spirits or nymphs. The term is derived from the Latin term “Unda” meaning “a wave”. Undines are seen as the true essence or spirit manifestation of waves in water. It is believed to first have derived from the Greek alchemical works of Paracelsus as the elemental spirits of water. It also is descriptive in some meanings and works for the focus of attention for water magic, whose course and function the undines control. They are believed to exist within the waters themselves and not usually able to be seen with normal human vision, unless the human has an artifact, charm, or spell to allow them to see faerie folk or unless blessed by the undine to be revealed. Some believe that they live in the coral caves along lakes or on the banks of rivers. Smaller Victorian imagery of the undines depict them living under lily pads. When seen, they resemble human beings, except for those of Victorian description living in smaller streams and ponds fit more with the “Disney”-esque Tinker bell humanoid forms. Their clothing is usually described as being shimmery and green in color though reflective of all the shades and colors found in water. Undines are also centered in European folklore, as a type of water nymphs that become human when they fall in love with a human male and is doomed to die if he is unfaithful to her. Her essence is believed to have come from the Nereids, the attendants of Poseidon, the Sea god. Paracelsus first wrote about them, calling them spirits who inhabit the element of water. They are believed to dwell within every body of water in existence from streams, ponds, rocky pools, marshes, rivers, lakes, rivers, and ocean waves. Every waterfall, fountain, or well is believed to have an undine living within its waters. These also describe the Naiad, a female water nymph or spirit that guard over wells, springs, streams, brooks, fountains, and fresh water pools or lakes. Some say the Undine is the salt water variant while the Naiad is the fresh water variant. Sometimes they are confused with Mermaids and Mermen. They are also sometimes confused or entwined with Oceanids. Most mythology places Undines in salt water environments like the Oceanids and these creatures overlap and combine in folk tales around the world as either Nereids, Mermaids, Oceanids, Naiads, Undines, Ondines, or Water Nymphs. Some say they have interbred and there exists combinations, half-breeds, and mutations of these in watery realms. Since the Greeks thought of all the world’s waters as one biological system (blood stream and veins of Gaia, the Earth mother – Gaia Hypothesis) which perculates in from the sea through the cavernous aquifers within the earth, the waters would mix and inter-lap. They explain this in tales of such nymphs like Arethusa, the spring nymph, that could make her way from her spring through the subterranean flows from Peloponnesus to surface on the island of Sicily. It is through this manner that Undines and Naiads often get confused. They became objects of local water cults and worshiped in various ways with requests for healing, blessings, magic, or passage. Sometimes people would offer them pins, charms, cloth, clouties, flowers, plants, or ritually drowned animals into their waters. In hopes that they might communicate prophesy, oracles were situated by ancient springs or wells. As they were seen to be a jealous lot, they could endanger seamen, explorers, or boats passing within their realms.
You know there has to be something incredible about to be revealed when after thousands of years of myth and legend, all of the sudden the Government has to address fairy tales and telling people that such things “PROBABLY” do not exist … ~ Leaf McGowan [cross post via WordPress PressThis ] http://news.yahoo.com/no-mermaids-us-government-212628320.html
AFP 3 hrs ago
The United States government has assured its citizens that, much like zombies, mermaids probably do not exist, saying in an official post: “No evidence of aquatic humanoids has ever been found.”
“Mermaids — those half-human, half-fish sirens of the sea — are legendary sea creatures,” read the online statement from the National Ocean Service (NOS).
The agency, charged with responding to natural hazards, received letters inquiring about the existence of the sea maidens after the Discovery Channel’s Animal Planet network broadcast “Mermaids: The Body Found” in May.
File photo of Hannah the Mermaid The show “paints a wildly convincing picture of the existence of mermaids, what they may look like, and why they’ve stayed hidden… until now,” a Discovery Channel press release says.
Conversely, the US government declaration offered no conclusive proof to deny the existence of mermaids.
The statement comes after another government agency, this time the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), declared there was no conclusive evidence for the existence of zombies.
The CDC had published instructional materials on how to survive a “zombie apocalypse,” in what the agency now calls “a tongue in cheek campaign to engage new audiences with messages of preparedness messages.”
The campaign was followed by a series of cannibalistic attacks in North America. People dressed as zombies march
In one such attack on May 26, a 31-year-old Miami man stripped naked and chewed off most of a homeless man’s face.
The Twittersphere was suddenly alive with people talking about the real and present danger of a zombie apocalypse.
The CDC was quick to respond to allegations of corpses rising from the dead to eat the living. (more…)
4500 B.C.E. to ca. 500 B.C.E. The Mythological Cycle:
The understanding of the folktales, folklore, myths, and legends of Otherworldly creatures who landed in Ireland in prehistoric times is known as The Mythological Cycle. A notable work exists called the Lebor Gabála Érenn(The Book of the Taking of Ireland) or otherwise known as the Book of Invasions which is a Middle Irish title of a loose collection of poems and prose narratives recounting the history, mythology, and origins of the Irish race from the creation of the world down to the Middle Ages. The Fomorians:
According to the myths and legends of early Ireland, the very first human-like inhabitants of the Green Island of Eire were the Fomorians. The Fomorians are believed to be beings who preceded the Gods, similar to the Greek Titans representing Gods of Chaos and wild nature. They were also depicted as the supernatural undead and magical beings of the Underworld or Otherworld. They were seen as a giant demonic race of beings who lived in boats off the coast of Ireland, often coming ashore to plunder and pillage all that existed on this grand Green Isle. According to medieval scholars, the name Fomorians, Fomhoire, Formorian, Fomoraig, and Faoi-Mhuir came from Fomoire a word combination of fomó meaning giant or pirate, the Gaelic Faoi-mhuir meaning beneath the sea, with the elements muire or sea or mor as spirit or phantom giving them the reputation as sea pirates or under-sea phantoms. Some legends suggest that the Fomorians originally came from Asia or Northern Africa having been birthed by Noahs son Ham after he was cursed by Noah. Some believe the Fomorians were the descendants of GogmaGog. They left Africa as seafarers who were often depicted as having black skin, black haired with the body of a man and the head of a goat according to the Eleventh century text called the Book of the Dun Cow or the Lebor na hUidre. In some manners, they have similarities to the descriptions of Ancient Egyptian and Nubian Gods, Goddesses, and half-human/half-animal creatures. Some of them have also been described as having one eye, one arm, and one leg; while others were fancied as elegant beauties as with Elatha the father of Bres. They were also notorious for their powers over the forces of nature, such as being able to bring forth fog, storms, diseases, blights, and plagues with their so-accused evil magic. Through history, they claimed several famous royalties, especially in guise as kings by various names, the most remembered as King Conaing, King Morc, King Indech, King Tethra, King Balor, King Elatha, the Warrior Cichol, the Smith Dolb, the Steward Liagh, the Poet Oghma, and Queen Ceithlenn. Throughout the lands of present day Ireland and the United Kingdom, are their mythical tromping grounds of Conaings Tower, Tory Island, The Hebrides, Rathlin, Islay, Lochlann (Norway), and Dun Aengus. By the period of history when they participated in the Second Battle of Magh Tuiredh, the rumor was that their fleet stretched far and wide from the Northeastern coast of Ireland all the way to Norway.
The first Fomorian King to have settled in Ireland was Conaing taking root on all the Northern Islands along the coasts of Ireland, Scotland, and Norway. In some respects, they had a under the seas glamour about them having lived beneath the waves giving some affiliation with mer-folk, selchies, and mermen or mermaids. They were then reputed to have split themselves up into different tribes, residing in the Underworld, which was later ruled by Tethra the Fomorian Faerie King. Often described to have the color and composure that is common-place for a Nubian with the darkest of black skin and hair, oddly though Elatha the father of Bres was depicted as having the most golden hair and the handsomest man in sight. He seemed the fairest of the leaders, not being so blood-thirsty as the other Fomorian leaders, and very interested in justice. In later years, he refused to go to war with his son Bres against the later faerie invaders known as the Tuatha de Danann as he felt such actions was unjust. By right of the myths and legends, the Fomorians were unique in their DNA, racial, and family lineage with their own customs and language dialects than the other invading inhabitants of Ireland. Whereas the Nemedians, the Fir-Bolg, and the Tuatha de Danann were believed to have shared the same DNA, family lines, languages, and were considered to be of the same races. At a later point in history, they were known to have intermarried with the Tuatha De Danann according to faerie tales and legends. Popular stories relating to the Fomorians were the Bres Mac Elatha and the Tuatha De Danann, The Second Battle of Magh Tuiredh, How Balor was Defeated, The Courting of Emer, The Fate of the Children of Turenn, the Fir Bolg, The Story of the Tuatha De Danann, The Death Tales of the Tuatha De Danann, Credhes Lament, the Hard Servant, and Partholon myths. They came to be defeated by the first invaders of Ireland from Greece known as the Partholon by 2680 or 2061 B.C.E. (dates differ to scholars theories). Shortly after defeat by the Partholon, they took back the land by instilling a plague that killed off the Partholon, laying them waste in the fields. They battled again with the Nemeds and then finally defeated and vanquished by the Tuatha de Danann. Ever since, any settled pirates or sea-based raiders were labeled Fomorians. By Thomas Baurley
Bibliography:
Anomymous scholar:
11th c. C.E. Lebor Gabála Érenn (The Book of the Taking of Ireland)
Encyclopedia Mythica:
2012 The Fomorians. Website referenced March 2012.
http://www.pantheon.org/articles/f/fomorians.html.
Magic & Mythology:
2012 The Fomorians. Website referenced March 2012.
http://www.shee-eire.com/Magic&Mythology/Races/Formorians/Page1.htm
Slavin, Michael:
2010 The Book of Tara. Wolfhound Press: Dublin, Ireland.
Walsh, Brian:
2006 The Riddle of the Hobbit: August 28, 2006: Time Magazine Online:
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1399614,00.html.
Wikipedia: The Free Online Encyclopedia.
2012 The Fomorians. Website reerenced February 2012.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fomorians
W.Y. Evans-Wentz:
1966 The Fairy Faith in Celtic Countries. Citadel Press: New York.
Ondine(PG-13: 2010)
* Rated: 5 stars out of 5 * Starring: Colin Farrell … Syracuse; Alicja Bachleda … Ondine; Dervla Kirwan … Maura; Alison Barry … Annie; Marion O’Dwyer … Nurse – Dialysis; Tony Curran … Alex; and many more. * Director: Neil Jordan * http://www.ondinefilm.com/ *
A modern Irish lyrical faerie tale about a fisherman named Syracuse who pulls up a stunning woman in his net called “Ondine”. Her name means “She who came from the sea” and begins to believe his daughter’s theory that Ondine is a selchie or mermaid, a seal woman who in Celtic myth is believed to be able to become human by taking off her seal coat in order to pursue love with a human. They begin to treat Ondine like she is a selchie as many oddities in the situation, the events, and the tale is mystical and tragic. Whenever Ondine is aboard the fishing vessel and sings her siren song, his nets are filled with bounty. It becomes a torrid love affair that turns out to have an even crazier origin of truth. Beautifully woven tale embedded in myth. Brought tears to my eyes and edge of your seat excitement. Why can’t I pull up a beautiful selchie like that in my fishing nets? Amazing plot, storyline, and cinematography.
A rich realm of characters in faerie lore, mermaids, and mermen have consumed popular myth through the ages, including fantasy, entertainment, and imagery. Mermaids (and the male form “Mermen”) are a race of Faerie that consist of human-like mythological aquatic creatures that are depicted with a human head and torso attached to the tail of a fish. They are related to sirens, selchies, naiads, and sea nymphs.
Their names come from the Old English root “Mere” for “Sea” and “maid” for “woman”. Caribbean tales of mermaids appear as the Aycayia – with attributes similar to the Goddess Jagua and the hibiscus flower of the majagua tree. Voodoo lore speaks of the Lwa La Sirene, the lwa of wealth and beauty, and the Orisha Yemaya. Other names are “Mami Wata” (Africa), “Jengu” (Cameroon), “Merrow” (Ireland/Scotland), “Rusalkas” (Russia/Ukraine), “Iara” (Brazil), “Oceanids, Nereids, Naiads” (Greek), “Sirena or Siyokoy” (Philippines).
In folktales, mermaids were similar to sirens in that they often sang to enchant passersby, distracting them and causing them to walk off the deck of their ships and ground their ships. Some horror tales depict mermaids squeezing the life out of drowning men or carrying them down to their underwater realms, thereby drowning the men by either not realizing humans can’t breathe water or drowning them out of spite.
The first mention in the lore of Mermaids appeared around 1,000 B.C.E. in Assyria with the story of the Goddess Atargatis, who accidentally killed her shepherd lover. To bring him back, she jumped into a lake and transformed into a fish, but the waters wouldn’t conceal her divine beauty, thereby forcing her into the form of a ‘mermaid’ – human above the waist, fish below the waist.
Around 546 B.C.E., the Milesian philosopher Anaximander stated that mankind came from an aquatic species and, thereby, from merfolk. Greek legend places Alexander the Great’s sister Thessalonike as a mermaid upon her death. 2nd century C.E. Lucian of Samosata wrote about mermaids in the Syrian temples – notably Derketo and Hera Atargatis. Many Arabian Nights tales talk of Sea People such as Djullanar the sea-Girl or Abdullah the Merman, who can breathe water, interbreed with humans and create aquatic half-breeds. In the British Isles and Ireland, there are many tales of Mermaids and Mermen in local lore and legend – mainly from Fishermen (1800s).
Seeing them was considered an unlucky omen – foretelling disaster or provoking it. Some were described as monsters as large as 2,000 feet in size. It is believed that Mermaids can swim up rivers to freshwater lakes and that they often appear as drowned victims when presenting themselves to humans they are attracted to. Some lore portrays merfolk as helpful, teaching humankind cures for diseases.
Claims of sightings range from British Columbia to Ireland to Java. In the 19th century, P.T. Barnum displayed the “Fiji Mermaid” in his taxidermy exhibit, which was proven to be a hoax. There is a rare congenital disorder called the “Mermaid Syndrome,” where a child is born with his/her legs fused together combined with reduced genitalia that occurs as often as conjoined twins (1 out of 100,000 births and usually fatal due to kidney and bladder complications).
Today, many movies feature “mermaids,” from Aquaman and Pirates of the Caribbean to The Little Mermaid.
Disney’s Animated Classic: The Little Mermaid Throughout film and cartoons, the mythos of the mermaid has enchanted us all, including the popular character “Arial”, aka “The Little Mermaid”.
The Lure (NR: 2015) – A tale of two mermaid sisters in the 1980’s venturing into Warsaw, joining a band called “The Lure” with one falling in love with a human and ready to give up her tail for legs, and the other creating a buffet of humans in the city.
Habitats:Mermaid Cove at Carrick-A-Rede in Antrim, Northern Ireland:
