本期主題
作者：
Stories of mermaids have been told for centuries， be it in the form of 1）folklore， legends or fairy tales. Images of this creature have 2）plagued artists and writers in their efforts to bring to life the mystery， beauty， and， yes， 3）eroticism of the mermaid to their audiences. Some still claim， even today， that they exist.
The mermaid and merman legends begin with the worship of gods， as have many 4）mythologies. The earliest representations and descriptions of these now well-known creatures can be traced back as far as the eighth century BC， where 5）merfolk got their beginnings as 6）pagan water 7）deities and supernatural female water beings.
The 8）Babylonians were known to worship a sea-god called Oannes， or Ea. Oannes was 9）reputed to have risen from the 10）Erythrean Sea and taught to man the arts and sciences. In the Louvre today can be seen an eighth century wall-scene 11）depicting Oannes as a merman， with a fish-like tail and the upper-body of a man.
The 12）Syrians and the 13）Philistines were also known to have worshiped a 14）Semitic mermaid moon-goddess. The Syrians called her Atargatis while the Philistines knew her as Derceto. It is not unusual or surprising that this moon-goddess was depicted as a mermaid as the tides 15）ebbed and flowed with the moon then as it does now， and this was incorporated into the god-like 16）personifications that we find in their art and ancient literature. Atargatis is one of the first recorded mermaids， and the legend says that her child Semiramis was a normal human and， because of this， Atargatis was ashamed and killed her lover. Abandoning the infant she became wholly a fish.
In Japanese and Chinese legends there were not only mermaids but also sea-dragons and dragon-wives. The Japanese mermaid known as Ningyo was depicted as a fish with only a human head. 17）Polynesian mythology includes a creator named Vatea who was depicted as half-human and half-18）porpoise.
Greek and Roman mythology is often placed together as the two are very similar， and it is in the literature from these cultures that one finds the first literary description of the mermaid and， indeed， mermen. Poseidon and Neptune were often depicted as half-man and half-fish， and 19）Homer mentions the 20）Sirens during the voyage of 21）Odysseus， although he fails to give a physical description.