A mermaid is a legendary aquatic creature with the head and torso of human female and the tail of a fish. The male version of a mermaid is called a merman! Origin; Various cultures throughout the world have similar figures. They were known to sing sailors to their deaths, like the Siren, or squeeze the life out of drowning men, while trying to rescue them. Etymology; The word mermaid is from the Middle English mere, in the obsolete sense 'sea' + maid(en). The Sirens of Greek mythology are sometimes portrayed in later folklore, in fact in some languages the name sirena is used interchangeably for both creatures. Mermaids and their kin; Other related types of mythical or legendary creature are water fairies, e.g. various water nymphs and selkies. Legend and myth; Tales of mermaids are nearly universal. The first known mermaid stories appeared in Assyria, ca. 1000 BCE. Atargatis, mother of Assyrian queen Semiramis, was a goddess who loved a mortal shepherd and in the process killed him. Ashamed, she jumped into a lake to take the form of a fish, but the waters would not conceal her divine nature. Thereafter, she took the form of a mermaid human above the waist, fish below, though the earliest representations of Atargatis showed her as being a fish with a human head and legs, similar to the Babylonian Ea. The Greeks recognized Atargatis under the name Derketo, where she was often conflated with Aphrodite.