Scuba Diver Australasia + Ocean Planet
MYTHICAL CREATURES OF THE UNDERSEA
The mythical creatures that inhabit the depths of the ocean give form to waterDZs essential mysteries. They arouse feelings of curiosity, hope, and bottomless fear. Like water itself, these creatures can be enticing… and frighteningly familiar
THE CTHULHU
From the Loch Ness monster of Scotland to the kraken of Scandinavian folklore, we have all heard versions of mythological creatures that lurk in the deep sea. H.P. Lovecraft introduced Cthulhu, a bizarre tentacled monster of unknown origin resting on the bottom of the sea in his 1926 short story The Call of Cthulhu, where he describes it as “a monster of vaguely anthropoid outline, but with an octopus-like head whose face was a mass of feelers, a scaly, rubbery-looking body, prodigious claws on hind and fore feet, and long, narrow wings behind.
In fact, in April 2019, an exceptionally preserved fossil of a 430 million-year-old tentacled sea creature reminded an international team of palaeontologists so much of the description given by the American science-fiction and horror author of his creature Cthulhu, that they named the new species they described in a recently published scientific article as Sollasina cthulhu!
This goes to show that the folk tales, stories, and mythologies, all deriving from different cultures and communities, are etched into our minds and passed down generations, and these larger-than-life characters close to our hearts seem that they did once exist, as if they are real.
They were the blasphemous fish-frogs of the nameless design – living and horrible.
– The Shadow Over Innsmouth, H.P. Lovecraft
THE MERMAID
Mermaids have fascinated many with their prominence in folklore and the mystery that surrounds them. This water spirit features the face and upper body of a female human, and the tail of a fish. They can be associated with good or evil – in perilous events such as floods, storms, shipwrecks and drownings, or even known to be benevolent or beneficent, bestowing blessings or falling in love with humans.
Mesopotamian mythology and culture is filled with anthropomorphic beings, represented in reliefs, stories and coins. One of the first creatures with both human and fish characteristics is the Sumerian water god, Enki, who came to be known as Ea in Babylon and was later called Oannes by the Greeks. He took the form of an amphibian human and was portrayed in several different ways.
However, the figure that most interests us is Atargatis, the mermaid goddess. This amphibian figure begins to appear around 1,000 BC and possesses diverse representations: fish from the waist down and woman from the waist up; a fish’s body with the head of a woman; a woman’s body with the tail of a fish. As a goddess of fertility and protection, she had many sanctuaries built in her honour, usually with pools filled with carp – a sacred fish that, in many cases, could only be touched by the priests in charge of the services in Atargatis’ honour.
Some scholars claim that Atargatis is the continuation of other goddesses from the
Bronze Age, such as Atirat, Anat and Attart.
At first, she was often worshipped in northern Syria, especially in Hierapolis. Later, her worship spread to all of Syria, then to northern Mesopotamia and the whole of the Roman
Empire. She gained notoriety in Greece, where she arrived in the late fourth century BC and was called Derketo or Derceto. Syrian merchants, who carried statuettes of her for good fortune, were responsible for her popularity. She became important all over the Roman Empire (including Egypt), where she came to be known as the
Syrian goddess.
In time, certain deities of previously independent cults and mythologies merged.
With syncretism, Atargatis was confused with other goddesses, such as Aphrodite. She was then called the goddess of Nature. Eventually, she took on all the aspects of protection that water entails in life, thereafter being known as the goddess of fertility.
MERMAIDS IN ASIA
Aquatic figures also appear in Asian legends and mythologies, sometimes represented similarly to the Western mermaids, but at other times, as monstrous beings with physical features unlike what we’ve seen so far.
JAPAN
Japan speaks of a hybrid, half-human-half-fish called the ningyo, and the most well-known stories are those of Amabie and Yao Bikuni. These are creatures that possess aquatic and human characteristics, although they are quite different from the Western mermaids: They possess long fingers, sharp claws, shining golden scales, deformed heads, horns and salient teeth. They usually have a semi-demonic appearance – not at all seductive. Their tears turn into pearls and their flesh, when consumed, brings eternal youth to those who have done so. One feature they have in common with Western mermaids: a beautiful voice. With time, especially after the late 19th century, the word ningyo acquired connotations similar to those associated with the word “mermaid” in the West: beautiful and seductive. This was in part owed to the mermaid stories told in Japan by the Western sailors that had sailed there.
In the 19th century, thousands of people, mainly in the US and England, visited freak shows to see skeletons and mummified creatures that were believed to be the remains of actual mermaids. Some of them were known as “Japanese mermaids”, since it was said the creatures were caught in Japan by sailors who brought them to the West. After the 1837 publication of The Little Mermaid, by Hans Christian Andersen, the idea of mermaid brides was particularly in vogue, and those who expected a beautiful mermaid found themselves looking at a creature with the lower body of a fish and a head and torso of a monkey. These “handmade mermaids” were so well done that it was impossible to detect where the joints were. The Japanese became famous for being master craftsmen of fake mermaids. The most famous one is known as “The Fiji Mermaid”, which was claimed to have been caught near the Fijian islands, in the South Pacific, but was probably made by Japanese fisherman around 1810.
INDIA
In Indian culture, we can find the Matsya, the fish avatar of Vishnu in Hindu mythology. Sometimes it is depicted as having the upper body of a man and the lower body of a fish. But, most of the time, we can see Vishnu emerging from the fish’s mouth. It’s not exactly an amphibian creature, as the Naga, an anthropomorphic half-man-half-serpent, is presented in Indian and other southeast Asian legends and myths as water spirits. In some cases, the serpents are replaced by dragons. The Nagas are serpents who inhabited rivers and pools and could change their form at will. Sometimes they were depicted as demons, but the female Naga, the Nagini, can be represented as a sensual woman, associated with bodies of water, fertility, and protection, playing similar roles to mermaids in Western culture.
CHINA
Mermaids are mentioned in some Chinese works, such as the Shan Hai Jing, a compilation of Chinese geography and mythology from the fourth century BC that refers to mermaids as ling yu or ren yu. The book also mentions other types of mermaid, such as chi ru, di ren and hu ren. Interestingly, some of them had four feet and could emit a sound similar to that of a crying baby; others could even resurrect after death.
A book written in the Ming Dynasty (1368–1644), Sou Shen Ji, refers to mermaids living in the South China Sea: They were called jiao ren and were excellent craftswomen who would weave cloth that could never get wet. Hermaphrodite mermaids with black skin, yellow hair, human eyes, webbed hands and feet, and red wings are mentioned in Hai Cuo Tu, a book written by the biologist Nie Huang from the Qing Dynasty (1644–1911).
Similar to the Japanese the Chinese mermaids were famous for their tears that turned into pearls. Because of this, mermaids were largely depicted in literary stories as lonely, tragic figures who sacrificed themselves for love.
MALAYSIA
In Malaysian mythology, mermaids are known as duyung, meaning “Lady of the Sea”, which is where dugongs get their name from. Dugongs are marine mammals from the Sirenia order that live in the Indo-West Pacific region. Drawings of the dugong, which are estimated to have been made between 2,000 and 5,000 years ago, are etched inside Malaysia’s Gua Tambum Cave in Ipoh. Some say they were the inspiration behind many sailors’ tales of sirens and mermaids because of their cultural importance and common physical characteristics: They share the same fluke and fusiform body, and don’t have dorsal fins. It was easy to mistake dugongs for mermaids from afar.
INDONESIA
Indonesian mermaids are called putri duyung – putri meaning princess. Indonesians have a strong belief in the legend of the healing power of mermaid tears, and have even created a mermaid oil that is supposed to help people fall in love. Since they can’t find real mermaid tears, they collect the tears of dugongs under special and ritualistic conditions to make the famous and miraculous oil.
Both Malaysian and Indonesian mythologies claim that “their” mermaids originate from the Assyrian goddess Atargatis, who left Syria, crying, after suffering from love. Indonesians claim she swam all the way to their country, while Malaysians believe she went to theirs.
THAILAND
We can find the “Golden Mermaid”, Suvannamaccha, in the Thai version of the Ramayana – a highly-revered piece of Indian literature. A mermaid princess and daughter of Tosakanth, she falls in love with Hanuman, one of the central characters in the various versions of the epic. She tries to spoil Hanuman’s plans to build a bridge from India to Sri Lanka to rescue Sita, another central figure of the story. Nevertheless, she falls in love with Hanuman. She is a very popular figure of Thai folklore, with her statue erected in many houses and shops in Thailand for good luck.
Her character most likely inspired the Thai poet Sunthorn Phu, who created another “Golden Mermaid” for his book Phra Aphai Mani, which has been very popular in Thailand since the 19th century. A golden mermaid statue in Laem Samila Beach, in Thailand’s Songkhla province, is dedicated to Suvannamaccha.
PHILIPPINES
In Phillipine mythology, mermaids are called sirena due to Spanish influence. They have nothing to do with the sirens from Greek mythology, who are portrayed as woman-bird creatures. They are seen as an engkanto – environmental spirits that can appear in human form. Engkantos are one of the Bantay Tubig, the mythical guardians of the water, and are very similar to the beautiful Western mermaids, though they are described to be vicious towards humans together with their male counterpart, siyokoy. While the sirena are beautiful, the siyokoy can appear quite frightening with their gill slits, scaly brown or green skin, and scaled legs with webbed feet, sometimes appearing as a fishtail.
Nowadays, Asia is teeming with films, pictures and books that tell stories about mermaids, more akin to the Western variety. With the growing popularity of mermaids, an influx of mermaid schools and shows have been observed all over the Asian continent.
THE KRAKEN
The mythical kraken – perhaps based on sightings of giant squid tentacles – may be the largest sea monster ever imagined; some stories describe it as more than 2.4 kilometres around, with arms as large as a shipDZs masts.
In Moby Dick, the Pequod encounters what chief mate Starbuck identifies as “the great live squid, which, they say, few whale-ships ever beheld, and returned to their ports to tell of it.” Narrator Ishmael then adds, “There seems some ground to imagine that the great Kraken of Bishop Pontoppodan may ultimately resolve itself into Squid.” He concludes the chapter with this: “By some naturalists who have vaguely heard rumours of the mysterious creature, here spoken of, it is included among the class of cuttle-fish, to which, indeed, in certain external respects it would seem to belong, but only as the Anak of the tribe.”
The kraken has been the focus of many superstitious sailors passing the North Atlantic. Throughout the centuries the kraken has been heavily linked to sailors' abilities of telling tall tales.
THE BAKUYAWA
The Bakuyawa is a serpent-like dragon in Philippine mythology, and it is believed to be the cause of eclipses, earthquakes, rains, and wind. During ancient times, pre-colonial Cebuanos believed that there were seven moons created by their supreme god to light up the sky. The Bakunawa, amazed by its beauty, would rise from the ocean and swallow the moons whole, angering Bathala and causing them to be mortal enemies. To keep the moons from completely being swallowed by the Bakunawa, ancient Filipinos would go out of their homes with pans and pots, and would make a racket in order to scare the Bakunawa into spitting out the moon back into the sky.
Another tale tells that the Bakunawa had a sister in the form of a sea turtle. This sea turtle would visit an island in the Philippines in order to lay its eggs. However, locals soon discovered that every time the sea turtle went to shore, the water seemed to follow her, thus reducing the island’s size. Worried that their island would eventually disappear, the locals killed the sea turtle. When the Bakunawa found out about this, it arose from the sea and ate the moon. The people were afraid so they prayed to the supreme god to punish the creature. The god refused but instead told them to bang some pots and pans in order to disturb the serpent.
The moon was then regurgitated while the Bakunawa disappeared, never to be seen again.
Later on, with increasing trade between the Philippines and South Asia, and the Indiansation
of Southeast Asia, the Bakuyawa became syncretised with Nāga, Rahu, and Ketu, beings and creatures of Hindu-Buddhist mythology. Today, children in the Philippines still play the traditional game, “Bakunawa”, which is a form of tag influenced by the creature’s mythology.
THE UMIBŌZU
Translating to “sea priest”, the Umibōzu is a paranormal phenomena, or yōkai, from Japanese folklore. Little is known of the origin of Umibōzu but it is a sea spirit and as such has multiple sightings throughout Japan.
In the early Edo period scroll Bakemono no e, the Umibōzu is shown to have a shaved, smooth head and appears to be all black but it also looks like a mix between a dog, a sea serpent and an octopus. Its arms end in what resembles hands made up of five tentacle-like appendages. It also has a longer body with fins running down its spine as the lower body disappears underwater, once again obscuring our view of its lower body and continuing the mystery of what its lower body looks like. Similar to most legends, the eyes are opened wide and it is smiling. There are also two tentacle-like appendages coming from its face.
Normally, the Umibōzu appears to sailors on calm seas which quickly turn tumultuous. It either breaks the ship on emergence or demands a bucket or barrel from the sailors and proceeds to drown them. The only safe way to escape an Umibōzu is to give it a bottomless barrel and sail away while it is confused.
On April 1971, in Onagawa, Miyagi Prefecture, a fishing boat, the 28th Konpira Maru, was on its way to New Zealand to catch tuna when its longline was suddenly cut and from the sea appeared a thing shaped like a giant
organism, and the shipDZs crew called it a monster, creating a big uproar. It had many grey-brown wrinkles on its body and eyes that were about 15 centimetres in diameter, a collapsed nose, and no mouth to be seen. Half its body was submerged in murky water so its whole body could not be ascertained, but it was said to leave a trail. It is said that as they got ready to poke it with a harpoon, the monster disappeared into the sea. When an officer at the Enyō Suisan Kenkyujo, a research lab in Yaizu, heard of this account, he supposed that it was likely that the fishermen were mistaking an organism, like a fish or whale, for a monster. In another eyewitness account, the half of its body that appeared from the water surface was about 1.5 metres in length, so by inferring that its whole body was several times that length, they said that they never heard of an organism as such.
THE MAKARA
Sanskrit for sea dragon or water monster, makara is the origin of the Hindi word for crocodile. It is generally depicted as half terrestrial animal in the frontal part (stag, deer or elephant) and half aquatic animal in the hind part (usually of a fish, a seal, or a snake, though sometimes a peacock or even a floral tail is depicted). Though the Makara may take many different forms throughout Hindu culture, in the modern world, its form is always related to the marsh crocodile or water monitor.
According to art historian John Boardman, depictions of Makara and Chinese Dragon might have been influenced by Kētos in Greek Mythology possibly after contact with silk-road images of the Kētos. Based on the reading of Jain text of Sūryaprajñapt, the South Asian river dolphin may also have contributed to the image of the makara.
THE MULDJEWANGK
This water-creature in Australian Aboriginal mythology inhabited the Murray River, particularly Lake Alexandrina. A legend tells of a monstrous Muldjewangk who once attacked a steamboat owned by European settlers. The captain saw two great hands grasping the hull of the boat so he grabbed his gun. Aboriginal elders on board warned the captain not to shoot, but their pleas fell on deaf ears. Soon after, the captain broke out in weeping red blisters over his body, and took six months to die.
Large clumps of floating seaweed are said to hide Muldjewangks and are to be avoided. Large footprints have also been seen. Some elders now say the Muldjewangks no longer inhabit the river system. Used as a deterrent for Aboriginal children who wish to play near the riverside after dark, the Muldjewangk are portrayed as evil merfolk, or as a gargantuan monster.