Galleries : Undying Tales 2021 : UT 11 - Amazonian Manatee
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AMAZONIAN MANATEE - 6.5x6.5 inches $215.00 (sold)
Trichechus inunguis Status: Vulnerable and decreasing in population. They are slow moving creatures and often are victims of boating collisions during their migrations. These strange and gentle ocean herbivore mammals have long been thought to be the origin of sailors` stories of glimpsing mermaids. In ancient Greek mythology, siren were beautiful and deadly creatures who lived in the sea. They looked like women and sang the sweetest of songs. Any sailor who heard their music became lost in the seductive magic and leave their tasks so that their ships would smash into the rocky coasts of the sirens` island. In the earliest depictions of sirens in Greek art they were shown to have women`s heads and a bird1s body. In later art, they had female human forms, but bird`s legs, and were shown playing instruments and singing. By the tenth century, a Byzantine bestiary claimed sirens were woman from the waist up and avian below, and by the Middle Ages they had transformed further into our modern idea of a mermaid with a fish tail from the waist down. When European explorers came across the dark humanoid forms sliding as shadows beneath their ships, or glimpsed them in the distance basking in the sun, they remembered these ancient myths and their eyes reshaped the unfamiliar forms into that of a siren. In Tupi mythology in Brazil, Iara is a freshwater mermaid who lives in the rivers of the Amazon Basin. Iara was once a beautiful young woman, but because she was admired and respected by all, her brothers grew envious. Treacherously, they plotted to kill her, but she defended herself and accidentally slew them. For that crime, she was punished and drowned in the river. Her spirit rose up as a mermaid, and beware to those who come to her river unwary, for she seeks revenge. In other tales she is seen as a protector of the waters and the creatures who live beneath the surface.
Size: 7 x 7 inches Detail closeups:
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