9. Mermaids in Original Mythology Were Scary
Nowadays, thanks in no small part to Hans Christian Andersen’s highly influential The Little Mermaid story, we are accustomed to the notion of mostly kindly mermaids. In times past, however, mermaid mythology did not always depict those supernatural creatures as benign. Even if they brought gifts, there was often a catch involved, and the gift’s recipient suffered some misfortune. In other tales, the mere sighting of a mermaid could be bad news, and herald things like storms, floods, and shipwrecks.
In medieval mythology, mermaids were like the ancient Greek sirens that seduced sailors to their doom with songs. They were often symbols of the dangerous temptations embodied by women, such as the Lorelei of the Rhine River, who lured mortals to their death by drowning. Other lore, such as that of Slavic rusalkas, has them seductively call out to young men, to entice them into the water in order to drown them. Some even pose as drowning women, in order to kill would-be chivalrous men who get into the water to rescue them.