Who is a Merman?

A merman is a male counterpart of mermaid. While women are more popular in majority of the world, some parts have strong tradition of mermen, especially in Mediterranian area and in Eastern Europe. Similar to mermaids they are mostly personifications of dangers lurking at waters, sometimes with seducing and almost always with destructive powers which are best to avoid for mere mortals.

Number of stories could be found about mermen who abducted children or young women, often resulting in death of humans, sometimes connected with huge treasures under water and almost always with sad undertones of the tales.

Here are some of the portraits of mermen:

Arnold Bocklin (1827-1901) created a series of scenes with Triton and Nereides at the end of 19th century.