Essense Of Water - Stories And Symbolism

Let's talk a little bit about the symbolism of mermaids.

Water has always been considered as sort of a feminine element.

According to one theory that when we see a mermaid swimming in the ocean,

That reminds us from our own origin.

Since we all started our journey in our mother's womb,

The mermaid reminds us of the underwater realm where anything is possible.

So perhaps we unconsciously are longing to remember that feeling of being weightless.

And our bodies and our brains contain lots of water.

We are all made of water.

Even though we cannot breathe underwater,

We have this connection with water and infinity with water.

A mermaid is this half human,

Half fish hybrid.

It represents this longing that we still have towards the sea.

And the early people identified their gods and goddesses with water because water is needed for life to sustain.

Then we have these massive storms and tsunamis.

This duality in nature is fascinating.

And it's the same with mermaids,

Because they are these beautiful seductive creatures who bring good things.

But then they can also be aggressive and destroy things.

Same way as the ocean.

In these 19th century paintings when the mermaid has her hair open and hair is loose,

In the 19th century that loose hair symbolized open sexuality.

Like from the top of my mind,

I can't think of any mermaid story or a mermaid from a pop culture,

A female mermaid that has a short hair.

So that's really interesting.

In the Victorian times,

These mermaid paintings,

They brought certain drama to the society.

Certain feelings of mystery and things that are unsolved.

Certain type of magic to this mundane life.

People often have very dual relationship to the sea.

And this also affects to mermaid legends and sort of the magic that the mermaid has,

Because the sea is often compared to woman.

Because the sea possesses the mystery that a woman has.

Sea can be very angry,

Aggressive and destroy things.

And these mermaids in myths,

They can also be angry and possessive and destroy things.

And if we think about Poseidon in Greek mythology,

Not Poseidon is the god of the sea,

But he's literally the sea seas in him.

And when Poseidon is in a good mood,

It's easy to sail on the sea.

When he's on a bad mood,

You want to stay away from the sea.

Because Poseidon is a very temperamental god.

In many cultures,

Water was sacred.

Water is the secret of life.

We are all made from water.

We can't live without water.

Nature cannot flourish without water.

So water has been sacred in many cultures.

But what it cost the sea?

The water has also been scary,

Because person can get lost into the sea.

Many people have drowned and disappeared to the sea.

So the sea can create anxiety and fear.

One of these very famous mermaid motifs is the goddess Aphrodite from Greek mythology,

Because when Aphrodite has been portrayed in Western art,

She rises from the sea foam.

Many of you have seen the Botticelli painting,

Where she arrives from the sea foam in a sea shell.

And she's surrounded by all these mythical creatures in this joyous parade.

But that idea of a woman connected to the sea has worked as an inspiration for mermaid imagery.

And still that today.

In the 19th century,

Mermaid got officially a tail.

Now these stories about mermaids having tails,

They have existed in folklore for eons.

But in the 19th century,

You started to see more of that in art,

Especially in England.

Because the Victorian society,

It was very crude.

They did not approve sexual themes,

Unless it was sort of guided into this world of romanticism and fairy tales.

So that's where we get artists like John William Waterhouse and other pre-Raphaelite artists,

Who created these mermaid and fairy paintings with some erotic undertones.

And often they included mermaids in their paintings.

For example,

This famous painting from Waterhouse with a mermaid.

This mermaid represents suppressed sexuality of the 19th century Victorian England.

The mermaid is half naked.

She has this long hair that she's brushing and she's pretty coy.

So when these artists would paint mermaids,

It was a way to depict a female body without getting sort of a moral backlash.

It is a naked body,

But she's a mermaid,

So that's okay.

People often have very dual relationship to the sea.

And this also affects to mermaid legends and sort of the magic that the mermaid has.

Because the sea is often compared to woman.

Because the sea possesses the mystery that a woman has.

She can be very angry,

Aggressive and destroy things.

And these mermaids in myths,

They can also be angry and possessive and destroy things.

And if we think about Poseidon in Greek mythology,

Not Poseidon is the god of the sea,

But he's literally the sea seas in him.

And when Poseidon is in a good mood,

It's easy to sail on the sea.

When he's on a bad mood,

You want to stay away from the sea.

Because Poseidon is a very temperamental god.

In many cultures,

Water was sacred.

Water is the secret of life.

We are all made from water.

We can't live without water.

Nature cannot flourish without water.

So water has been sacred in many cultures.

But when it comes to the sea,

The water has also been scary.

Because person can get lost into the sea.

Many people have drowned and disappeared to the sea.

So the sea can create anxiety and fear.

One of these very famous mermaid motifs is the goddess Aphrodite from Greek mythology.

Because when Aphrodite has been portrayed in western art,

She rises from the sea foam.

Many of you have seen the Botticelli painting where she arrives from the sea foam in a seashell.

And she's surrounded by all these mythical creatures in this joyous parade.

But that idea of a woman connected to the sea has worked as an inspiration for mermaid imagery.

And still that today.

In the 19th century,

Mermaid got officially a tail.

Now these stories about mermaids having tails,

They have existed in folklore for eons.

But in the 19th century,

You started to see more of that in art.

Especially in England.

Because the Victorian society,

It was very crude.

They did not approve sexual themes.

Unless it was sort of guided into this world of romanticism and fairy tales.

So that's where we get artists like John William Waterhouse and other pre-Raphaelite artists who created these mermaid and fairy paintings with some erotic undertones.

And often they included mermaids in their paintings.

For example,

This famous painting from Waterhouse with a mermaid.

This mermaid represents suppressed sexuality of the 19th century Victorian England.

The mermaid is half naked.

She has this long hair that she's brushing and she's pretty coy.

So when these artists would paint mermaids,

It was a way to depict a female body without getting sort of a moral backlash.

It is a naked body,

But she's a mermaid,

So that's okay.

The birth of Aphrodite is very famous visual in western art.

Because it has been created so many times.

So Aphrodite in Greek mythology,

She's the goddess of love and sex and sexuality.

There are many different versions how Aphrodite was born.

And in the version by Hesiod,

Aphrodite was the daughter of Uranus,

A titan of the world,

A god of the sky and Gaia,

The goddess of the earth.

Uranus was a very violent and aggressive ruler and Gaia wanted to escape her husband.

And she suggested that her son Cronus would stand against his father.

Cronus attacked his father and during the battle,

He cut out his genitals.

Those fell into the water and from that seafall,

Aphrodite was born.

You just got to love the Greek myths because they are so unbelievable.

West wind,

Sephiroth,

Brought Aphrodite to the land,

To the island of Cyprus.

The seashell is often seen as a symbol of sexuality,

But because it can hold a pearl,

It has also been seen as a symbol of birth and rebirth.

So it makes sense that Aphrodite brought the lad standing on a seashell.

It wasn't Botticelli who made this connection from the city of Pompeii.

There are actually wall paintings of Aphrodite standing on a seashell.

French artist William Bejereau also painted Aphrodite,

Where she rises from the seashell.

The seashell has its own special symbolism because,

Yes,

It does represent femininity.

But the pearl,

It can also be seen as a symbol for the moon.

The white color actually symbolizes virginity.

And this mysterious gleam and shining also connects the pearl to the moon.

And moon is often connected to femininity.

That the pearl is hidden in the seashell actually represents hidden wisdom.

Herbert James Traper has this very beautiful painting called Water Baby.

In this painting,

This sea maiden opens this giant seashell or an oyster.

And there is this water baby.

And you can see this pearly glimmer in the painting.

It's just beautiful.

And there's all these narrations about this painting,

That it can represent the idea that all these mermaids and water babies,

They're actually born inside these seashells.

And that these babies,

They are the small pearls of the sea.