This Day in History: 9 January 2020
9 January 1493
527 years ago, today, Christopher Columbus mistook three manatees as three mermaids as he sailed near the Dominican Republic, beginning his adventure six months earlier after he set off from Spain to explore the Atlantic Ocean, hoping to find a route to Asia, but instead, he found the Americas. He described them as "not half as beautiful as they are painted", as mermaids in folklore were typically half-female, half-fish creatures, having a woman's head but a fishtail instead of legs. They were meant to reside in the ocean, and some legends even said they could take on a human shape and marry mortal men, sounding a lot like the plot in the 1989 film 'The Little Mermaid'. Mermaids also are closely linked to sirens, another mythological creature, which are part-woman, part-bird, who live on islands and sing songs to seduce sailors and lure them to their death.
Other sightings of mermaids by sailors throughout history were most likely also manatees, dugongs or Steller's sea cows, which are now extinct. Manatees are slow moving mammals, with human-like eyes, and tails like that of a mermaid. They typically weigh 800 to 1,200 pounds as adults and are 10 to 12 feet long. As well as this, they consume plants, have a slow metabolism and can only survive in warm water. Sadly, even though they have no natural predators, they are an endangered species, and in the US, many of them die or are injured due to boat collisions.
Want to read more about Columbus' slight error of identification, and how manatees inspired many mermaid legends? Clickhere for more information.
No comments:
Post a Comment