A mermaid is a legendary aquatic creature with the upper body of a female human and the tail of a fish. Mermaids appear in the folklore of many cultures worldwide, including the Near East, Europe, Africa and Asia. Mermaids are sometimes associated with perilous events such as floods, storms, shipwrecks and drownings. In other folk traditions (or sometimes within the same tradition), they can be benevolent or beneficent, bestowing boons or falling in love with humans.

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Hortus Sanitatis, Mermaid, 1547

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Size: 3341px × 4200px
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Photo credit: © Science History Images / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No

Keywords: -female, -fish, 1547, 16th, aquatic, body, century, creature, cultures, encyclopedia, fabled, famous, female, fish, folklore, history, hortus, human, hybrid, imaginary, including, incunabla, jacob, legend, legendary, medieval, merfolk, mermaid, mermaids, meydenbach, myth, natural, ocean-dwelling, sanitatis, tail, upper, woodcut, worldwide