This time I am not going to talk about sailors and mariners who are definitely children of the sea. No, I will dedicate this post to these legendary aquatic creatures that are typical for the folklore of lots of cultures all over the world. They are known as sirens (or mermaids) and they have a strange appearance – a head and upper body of a gentle woman and a tail of a fish. They were active figures in the Greek and Roman mythology. They have always been taking part in a great number of legends as well as they’ve been popular characters of fairy-tales (1836 “The Little Mermaid” by Hans Christian Andersen, for instance), operas, paintings, movies and so on, and so forth. After this introduction, let me retell you two legends and one fairy-tale about mermaids and love.
Il Castel dell’Ovo is located along the beautiful promenade in Naples. Actually, it is the place where the city was established by siren Parthenope. There are two legends that tell the story of the city. Of course, they are connected with the mythology – the Greek and Roman one.
According to the ancient Greeks, siren Parthenope (Παρθενόπη) inhabited the shores of Sorrento where she lived with the other sirens. She fell in love with Odysseus and followed him to Naples (by the way, it was said that sirens could live in their own waters only and once they left them, they died). Unfortunately, her love was unrequited and she decided to die by jumping into the sea. The sea waters pushed out here body on the Island of Megaride. Thus the town was established where il Castel dell’Ovo is situated nowadays and it was named after its first founder – Parthenope. Later sailors from the Island of Rhodes named the town Neapolis and they turned it into one of the most important commercial ports of Magna Graecia.
The Roman legend says that a centaur named Vesuvius was in love with Parthenope. Zeus got furious and in his jealousy he turned the poor creatures in love into a volcano and a city – Vesuvius and Naples, respectively. Vesuvius’s anger was oftentimes seen in the form of volcano eruptions, one of which totally destroyed and buried Pompeii and Herculaneum and damaged severely the surrounding villages and villas around the Bay of Naples.
It’s turn of the unknown siren that lived near the coasts of beautiful Sicily. She was a very beautiful creature of the sea with yellow-brownish long hair that covered her naked back. One day a local fisherman from one of the Sicilian villages near Trapani saw her near il faraglione. She was looking at herself in a small mirror and combing her beautiful hair. Her mirror reflected the sea which was her home. At that first moment the fisherman felt greatly attracted by her. He was sitting on the cliffs while listening to her song. This was the nicest sound he had ever heard.
Unfortunately, the fisherman couldn’t accept the fact that he would listen to this creature only once a month. It wasn’t enough for him at all. He wanted to enjoy her song every evening. That’s why he made an attempt to keep her for a longer period of time … forever. He asked her to remain on the mainland:
“You ought to come with me. You ought to live with me and allow me to love you”, he said.
“If I leave the sea, my song will fade away”, she answered him.
“Can’t you understand me?” he continued. “I can go fishing only if I listen to you. Please, follow me and we shall enjoy going fishing and living together. We shall love one another and we shall be happy”.
“I can’t”, she went on. “If I leave the sea, fish will do it as well. And then you will remain hungry.”
“Nope”, the fisherman tried to convince her. “When you are near me, I feel safe. My boat is safe, my harpoon is sharp. Sea is my enemy without you. Please, come with me.”
The mermaid couldn’t think of the fisherman getting drowned. She left her mirror and comb and went to live with him on the mainland. He even called his humble fisherman’s house “Siren”. But the mermaid was captured. She wasn’t free. High tides followed low tides, seasons changed and fish disappeared. The fragile creature of the sea lost her strength and she could stand on the cliffs no more. Step-by-step her song faded away.
Finally, the fisherman realized what he had done to her. One evening he pulled his boat to the shore, they both got into it and off they went. All of a sudden he told her with a great sorrow that she was free and allowed her to jump into the sea. She was immediately taken by the waves while her tail glittered like silver for a while.
He fisherman’s heart was broken. He didn’t care about the fish that had turned back and that he could listen to the mermaid’s song at full moon.
“I shouldn’t have hoped that she would be able to live in my world” he said to himself.
He went to the shore and was embraced by the waves at next full moon. He saw her lit by the moon on the cliffs. He looked into her blue-violet eyes. He listened to her splendid song which he knew so well. And when the siren jumped into the sea at sunrise, he followed her……
