Sirens & Mermaids | Ep. 73

Today, Charlie tells about the lore and myths behind some of humanity’s oldest legends. What lives in the vastness of the ocean? Are there spirits that crave human flesh, or gentile creatures that want to help us?

We may never know for sure but Sirens and Mermaids will always be in the back of our minds when traveling the seas. Listen now!

Have you ever seen a face under the water when swimming in the oven? Are there creatures trying to lure passing ships to their demise in the vastness of the ocean?

What’s up Bizarros?  This week we dive (literally) into the tale of Sirens and Mermaids.

Are sirens and mermaids the same thing?

A siren is similar to a mermaid, but they are half-woman half-bird and are known to sing to lure sailors into the ocean. They have been reported to be seen from the time of the Odyssey until the present day.

There are still sailors that claim to hear the siren’s song in the ocean. And there are still reports of mermaids to this day.

These creatures of the sea are reported to inhabit the Mediterranean Sea but have been reported in oceans and seas across the globe.

How Did Sirens And Mermaids Begin?

There are multiple origin stories of how to sirens and mermaids came to be.  

In one version, the goddess Demeter, mother of Persephone, is said to have created the Sirens.  Her daughter, Persephone, was kidnapped by Hades and taken to the underworld. 

She demanded Persephone’s handmaidens to find her and return home.  To help with this she granted them wings to find her daughter.  They flew singing a song to bring Persephone home, but alas they were unable to find her.

In a state of rage, Demeter cursed them to live all eternity singing their song, and bringing sailors to their doom by crashing on the rocky shores as they search for the source of the entrancing song.

The origin of mermaids has been around much longer.  According to one version, the goddess Atargatis dove into a lake in the form of a fish due to the loss of her lover.  

The gods felt that her beauty was too great, turned her bottom half into the fish, and kept her top half in human form, to preserve her beauty.

Across the spectrum of time sirens and mermaids have become thought of as the same thing. While they share many similarities they are two different creatures.

One of the main differences is that the sirens are more nefarious.  They are trying to lure men to their death.  

Mermaids on the other hand are peaceful and try to keep their distance from humans. This is formed mostly from the European views of mermaids, which most of the world is familiar with.

However, in the view of non-European cultures, mermaids are thought to trick humans and be more sinister like their counterparts, the sirens. 

Take for example the African Mami Wata.

In West, South, and Central Africa, a range of tales exist about mythical water spirits called Mami Wata (meaning “Water as Mother” or “Mother of the Waters”).

As these spirits or divinities stem from multiple African cultures with ancient roots, there is no singular characteristic to their identity. Mami Wata’s gender is fluid, meaning she can sometimes appear as a man or woman. The spirit is worshipped for both their benevolence in offering beauty, healing and wisdom, and as a way of warding off natural disasters. 

Are Mermaids and Sirens Supernatural?

Other than their origin stories, what could explain the presence of these mysterious creatures?

Facial pareidolia is one possible explanation.  This is the condition when humans see a human likeness in anything that has two small circles and a line. In an ocean filled with unknown sea creatures that can swim up from the deep, one could see how they could be mistaken with a human face.

The songs sung by these beings could be explained by natural occurrences or the sounds of dolphins and whales that are carried across long distances.

But these are all tales of old, no one sees mermaids or sirens anymore right? Right?

Not so fast my friend.  Let’s take a look at some more recent encounters.

“It was July 2018. I was on a trip to Goa (India) with some of my friends, and we were on this rented yacht in the Arabian Sea/Indian Ocean for the night. A lot of us were drunk as hell, except for me — I’d stayed away from the bottles that day because of a bet with a friend (he bet me around $20 that I couldn’t go two vacation days without drinking or smoking). 

Early on in the night, some of my more intoxicated friends decided to look out at the sea and yelled excitedly that they’d seen mermaids around us, which turned out to be dugongs, marine mammals commonly mistaken for mermaids. 

This was at around 11:30-12 at night, and I helped get them back inside with the others. The party had died down by around 2 or 3 a.m., and I decided to enjoy the view of the sea with a good old late-night snack (a pack of BBQ Lays’ Chips). I was about halfway through the pack when I noticed these strange human-like figures coming up out of the water, and I, assuming they were actually mermaids seen by my drunk friends, decided to get a closer look. 

They formed what I think was a circle around the boat, and drew closer. Now I could tell that they had long dark hair (it was a moonlit night) and that they had greyish white faces. They did not rise very far above the water, I could only see their shoulders at most. I was still assuming they were somewhat ugly mermaids in poor lighting and tried waving to them, at which they all stared in my direction. 

They began to emit what I now feel was the most ghastly wailing I’d ever heard. It was oddly mesmerizing and as I inched closer to the railing, I felt a strong urge to join them in the water, but I started to back away when I saw their eyes. 

They had no irises or any white, but just dark black eyes. Their mouths seemed to grow in size, and that was when my eyes convinced my ears not to give in. I dropped my chips and pulled away from the railing and fought my urges to jump over, and I ran inside, shutting the door behind me and falling to the ground.

Everyone else was asleep, and the wailing just stopped abruptly. I was far too afraid to go outside at this point, so I decided to lose the bet and have a fairly good amount of Henny and rum, plus half a blunt that my friends had left. I passed out, and the next morning, no one was missing, so that was good.

No one believed me though, and we had to head back to the hotel in the afternoon.

What do you think Bizzaros?

Are there creatures in the ocean that are luring humans to their death?