since when do mermaids have gills?
dennisgray41
Posts: 976
in The Commons
since when do mermaids have gills?ND Dahut for Coral 8.1 | Daz 3D
Maybe it's just me, but I can't remember ever seeing a mermaid in a movie or TV show where she had gill slits. I understand why someone might expect that to be able to breath under water,but It doesn't seem to follow the mythos very well and it turns her from the alluring siren into a hideous monster.
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Maybe that's the point. What would a half human half fish being be other than than some kind of monster? they lure people in with the upper half to kill them and feast upon their flesh. Seems pretty monstrous to me.
Gills evolved through natural selection.
Mermaids are not exempt from that law.
Mermaids could be mammals. In fact the look like mammals. And as other sea mammals they don't have gills.
But don't mermaids have scales like fish, and aren't their tails shaped like those of fish? If they were actual mammals, wouldn't their tails be shaped like dolphins or whales and be free of scales?
Actually, sirens were hideous monsters. They were described as birds with the heads (and sometimes upper halves) of women. Historians believe that Homer's Odyssey wasn't written down at first, but told through oral tradition. One storyteller weaving his or her tale to an entire audience. And an audience member becoming enchanted with the tale and repeating it. Changing bits and pieces along the way. Even myths and legends that were written down weren't written down in the exact same way.
How did Athena, ancient Greek goddess of wisdom and war come into being? Was she the daughter of Zeus and Metis? Or did she spring from the head of Zeus after he had a headache? Or was she the daughter of Metis who turned into a fly and was swallowed whole by Zeus, and later sprang form his head from a headache? Myths and legends change over time.
Heinous to beautiful and back again isn't anything new. Vampires were disgusting undead creatures from Eastern European mythology. Then along Sheridan Le Fanu (Carmilla) and Bram Stoker (Dracula) who humanized them just a bit. Then along came Anne Rice (The Vampire Chronicles) who made them tragic and beautiful. Then came another author and made them sparkly. Stories change over time.
Heck, just look at our constant retellings of comic books and remakes of old tv shows/movies to entertain a new audience.
In closing, mermaids are whatever we need them to be. Plot devices used to entertain a whole new generation.
I have a vivid memory of some stranded mermaid in a movie (she couldn't talk, just sort of screech) who had gills... blasted if I can remember the movie, though.
But aside from the fact that mythological creatures aren't represented unformly across time and cultures anyway... they're made up by humans. If some other human wants gills on their mermaid, why not? It's still obviously the base idea of a mermaid.
Need a back story? Gills are an "evolutionary" enhancement. Mermaids were shallow water mammals. But modern mankind has pushed them into deeper territories. To survive, Poseiden evolved them so they can breath air and water with equal ease via gills.
and it isn't unprecedented in daz products:
Clearly makes no sense to have gills, legend is they had the upper body of a woman so of course there would be no need for gills since she already had lungs. Even If you're going with the siren angle, which was a different legend, then you still have the fact that she can sing, which still implies lungs. Just stick with Coral 6, many things from Gen2/V6 were never improved upon at Daz, Coral, Lilith, Callie, Alani, etc. We had a lot of really good characters back then.
Gills make perfect sense for a species that primarily lives in or under water. There's no rule that says the gills have to be on the human half of a mermaid either. That's the beauty of fantasy creatures, you can create any number of explanations for how and why they work.
In the OP's case, the character is obviously more fish-like than human, so gills make perfect sense. They help drive home that the character isn't human and lives underwater.
As to the legends, mermaids were supposed to be these incredible beauties that lured sailors to their deaths, so of course the gills were left out. Would you believe a story where a half-woman, half-fish with visible gills could draw sailors overboard? As to singing, why couldn't a mermaid's lungs evolved to breathe both in and out of water?
This particular mermaid includes a zombie texture. Not realistic, but could be fun.
https://www.daz3d.com/coral-81, required for the Dahut character, also has gills.
And just maybe we have at least 2 different merpeople species. Some evolved to have separate lungs and gills, while others evolved so that their lungs gained water breathing ability.
all humans had gills at one point
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pharyngeal_slit
(standard flesh dropping off) Zombies in salt water can't last very long. Maybe they're pickled mermaid zombies, (Also available in ranch.)
sliced thinly and wrapped around a dill pickled cucumber
Maybe pickled, but who can say how their zombie flesh would react? Again, not normal reality here. But say the bulk of their flesh does rot away. Then you have animated mermaid skeletons swimming around in salt water. It gets crazier by the second!
Not exactly, As your linked article states, embryos do, indeed, have pharangeal slits that resemble external gills, and at one time they were assumed to be vestigal gills. However, this isn't quite correct as while the slits are there, they lack any of the internal parts that allow gills to perform their natural function, which is to asorb oxygen from water and release carbon dioxide. Without those, it's not complete gills and certainly not functioning ones.
Mermaids are figments, with multiple roots and multiple routes into modern mythology. There is no ur-mermaid against which modern creations can be judged: giving them gills is fine if that is what makes sense or seems cool to the creator; it is then up to you to decide whether it makes enough sense or seems cool enough to you to join your content library (and if so, how you then use it).
Each and any Mermaid I met had gills.
I have had a number of messages sent to me over the years about this or that fantasy creature "not looking like it is supposed to" ....which is weird when something is a "fantasy" creature.
There is even a run on gag among PA's about "Thats not how Anubis is supposed to look"
The fun part about fantasy is things can look however you imagine them, and even if one style is not to your liking, there are likely other versions available that are
I'm not sure "movies or TV shows" is the widest net to cast when researching a "mythos" (pun intended).
In the rich aquatic folklore of the Philippines, for example, there are distinct variations of merfolk:
• The Siyokoy: While the Sirena (mermaid) is depicted as beautiful and human-like, her male counterparts, the Siyokoy, are frightening sea-creatures. They are explicitly described as having prominent gill slits on their necks, green or brown scaly skin, and webbed limbs.
• The Kataw: The Kataw are higher-ranking guardians of the water. Unlike traditional mermaids, they have webbed feet instead of tails, but they feature gills on their bodies and fins on their arms.
As far as Greek mythology goes, while Homer's original Greek Sirens were entirely bird-women, their depiction blended with fish-tailed mermaids during the Middle Ages. Interestingly, the 2nd-century Greek traveler and geographer Pausanias wrote about alleged "living specimens" of sea-monsters and sirens. He described these creatures as having gills, scales, a dolphin-like tail, and a rough fish-like mouth, providing one of the earliest pseudo-historical links between a mermaid archetype and gills.
If, however, we only want to focus on modern TV shows and movies, notable examples include the predatory mermaids in the TV series Siren (who possess visible neck gills when submerged) and the genetically modified protagonist in the classic Soviet sci-fi film Amphibian Man.
As far as I'm concerned, people making stuff up shouldn't have to adhere to the way someone else has made stuff up. There's no reason mermaids shouldn't have as many different types and styles as vampires.
I met a mermaid this morning. I think she's beautiful, so I invited her home. Aqualeena for Genesis 9 | Daz 3D.
She is quite a catch....but I may be biased ;)
I don't know how, but I missed this one, thanks for pointing her out!
What!? You mean he's NOT supposed to look like a hansome debonair werewolf....???
*Files that into the "project Idea" folder*
Sasquatch has a unicorn horn. Prove me wrong.
"I saw a werewolf with a Chinese menu in his hand
Walking through the streets of SoHo in the rain
He was looking for the place called Lee Ho Fook's
Gonna get a big dish of beef chow mein
…
He's the hairy-handed gent who ran amok in Kent
Lately he's been overheard in Mayfair
You better stay away from him, he'll rip your lungs out, Jim
Huh, I'd like to meet his tailor
…
I saw a werewolf drinkin' a piña colada at Trader Vic's
And his hair was perfect"
– Warren Zeavon, 1978
Sorry. Space Sasquatch apparently has two horns*
*(image from The War In Space)