In last week's #CreteNature blog we finished up in a taverna talking about mermaids. But from which country did the mermaid myth originate?
a) Syria
b) Greece
c) Iraq
If ever a quiz question was designed to court controversy then a question regarding myth origins has to be it. At the risk of being shot down in flames I will tentatively assert that the first mermaid was the Assyrian goddess Atargatis from around 1,000 BC. Like many a goddess before and since she fell in love with a mortal (this one was a shepherd) and accidentally killed him. Mortified, she jumped into a lake and turned herself into a fish. Even that seems to have gone off half cock as she only managed the transition from the waist down. It is somewhat comforting to know that even goddesses sometimes have days when things just don't go right. Assyria equates with modern day Syria and so the answer is A.
A little more on mermaids but much more on modern day wildlife can be found in this week's #CreteNature blog Sikia Beach – Frozen in Time
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Recent Posts
-
Crown Daisies, Glebionis coronaria We are nearly at the end of our journey down the Milonas Valley but before we reach the point whe...
-
As the first part of our walk today takes us along the road from where we finished last week I thought we'd make an early start of i...
-
Before we begin, Chodov is now a suburb of Prague, capital of the Czech Republic. Previously, the Kingdom of Bohemia occupied the western ...
-
Vervain, Verbena officiaonalis On our way down to the beach last week I noticed an interesting small patch of ground to the left of the...
-
Last week we investigated the valley mouth at Agios Fotia where it opens onto the sea so let’s continue our journey inland, along the r...
No comments:
Post a Comment