Mermaid

A mermaid is a mythological aquatic creature with a female human head and torso and the tail of a fish..The mermaids have been discussed since at least 5000 BC. Her origins are believed to be from the Great Queen Atargatis, who loved a mortal shepherd and unintentionally killed him. Ashamed, she jumped into a lake to take the form of a fish, but the waters would not conceal her divine beauty. Thereafter, she took the form of a mermaid—human above the waist, fish below. Mermaids were however noted in British folklore as unlucky omens – both foretelling disaster and provoking it. There is a high possibility that people had been confusing them with Sirenias (aquatic animals) or people suffering from a congenital disease Sirenomelia (aka mermaid syndrome in which a child is born with his or her legs fused together).