In 1493, Christopher Columbus claimed to have spotted a few mermaids and left decidedly unimpressed, writing that they “were not as pretty as they are depicted, for somehow in the face they look like men”. Despite their failure to impress Columbus, mermaids have been both worshipped and despised for centuries.

Ancient cultures around the world saw the sea as a dangerous place filled with beings who preyed upon people – men in particular. Although Roman naturalist Pliny the Elder famously wrote that the nereids are sea nymphs who are recognizable as half-human and half-fish, centuries before Pliny, there was already the Mesopotamian Dagon and the Babylonian Oannes – both deities with human heads and fish bodies. Atargatis, the chief goddess of northern Syria, was human above the waist and fish below it. Accordingly associated with water, Atargatis watched over the fertility of her people as well as their general well-being. The Syrians bestowed Atargatis with the biggest temple they could build complete with a pond of sacred fish.

The sirens, who appeared for the first time in Homer’s description in book 12 of the Odyssey as singing creatures that lured the enchanted sailors to death, are legendary creatures with a bird body and a female heads. Although they sing to mariners, the sirens are not half-fish maidens who lived in the sea. They are half bird – half woman creatures who lived on an island in a flowery meadow. However, in later folklore, the ancient Greek sirens are more often portrayed as fully aquatic and mermaid-like. The fact that in many languages in the world such as Spanish, French, Italian, Polish, Romanian, Portuguese and Filipino the word for “mermaid” is respectively sirena, sirène, sirena, syrena, sirenă, sereia and sirena may have added to the visual confusion.

The sirenas in the Philippine mythology is a mythological aquatic creature with the head and torso of human female and the tail of a fish. Unlike the ancient Greek’s sirens, sirenas are actually portrayed as mermaid-like creatures who live under the sea.

Vicious Mermaids of the Philippines?

In some regions of the Philippines, sirenas are portrayed as evil mermaids. Their method of harming human varies. They mostly sing with enchanting voices while hiding among the rocks by the shore to sailors, thus hypnotizing and causing them to walk off ship decks or even causing shipwrecks before finally abducting the sailors and carrying them under the sea to then sacrifice them to the water spirits. However, there are also stories which claim that the sirenas pretend to need rescuing from drowning to lure men into the sea, before proceeding to squeeze the life out of any man who falls prey to their trick.

Like most vicious creatures in mythology, the sirenas also have their weaknesses. When the evil god Asuang, the mountain god who set the world on fire, planned to abduct the young moon god Bulan when he descended from the heavens to bathe in the waters of Bicol,  Asuang sent the sirenas to capture him. Thus a horde of sirenas awaited the descent of the lunar god. However, upon his arrival Bulan looked so beautiful and luminous that not only did the vicious mermaids forgot their task, they also became instantly tamed. Instead of abducting Bulan, the sirenas played with him as if they were children. Another way in which the sirenas can be tamed is through her love for a human.

Love, Heartbreak and the Sea: Myths of the Sirena

The oldest stories of the sirenas in the Philippines date back to the 1600s. One of the stories depicts a love story between a benevolent ruler and a sirena. Binalatongan (now known as the city of San Carlos) was a very wealthy settlement. Even before the Spaniards’ arrival to the country, Binalatongan already has an organized trading system with the neighboring countries such as China, Japan and India. The agricultural system was so well-developed that the people were dressed in silk and groomed by gold accessories. Binalatongan was ruled by the wealthy, powerful yet unhappy man named Maginoo Palasipas. Maginoo Palasipas’ greatest desire was to find a wife. However, he did not just want any wife. Understanding his own important position in life, Maginoo Palasipas wanted his wife to be the fairest of the fair, whose beauty and character was unmatched by any other women. His loyal datus (ministers) sought the fairest maidens in their land as well as other countries and presented their beauty to Maginoo Palasipas. However, Maginoo Palasipas always found a fault in the women and refused all their offers.

One evening, as Maginoo Palasipas was laying down on the grass by the riverbank to admire the full moon, he heard a faint mystical melody from a distance. Following the sound of the music, he found a maiden sitting on a rock with her back to him. The mysterious maiden was combing her thick long hair and sang with the most enchanting voice. Feeling a presence behind him, the maiden turned around to face him. Maginoo Palasipas then saw the face of a goddess with flawless olive skin, blue green eyes and blood red lips. Instantly smitten, Maginoo Palasipas asked who she was. The maiden answered, “I am the sirena of Binalatongan”. Maginoo Palasipas recognized her straight away as the story of the sirena was very popular among his people. The maiden was the mysterious yet benevolent mermaid who guided his fishermen back into shore during a storm, rescued one of his datus’ son from drowning and comforted a grieving widow whose husband was killed by raiding pirates. Maginoo Palasipas humbly asked the sirena to be his wife and rule as the Queen of Binalatogan. Impressed by Maginoo Palasipas‘ humility despite of his powerful position in life, the sirena gave him her hand. They married and the sirena renounced her sea life to live harmoniously with Maginoo Palasipas.

Described in Isabelo delos Reyes’ book, El Folk-lore Filipino,  a litao is a male anito (spirit) of the waters who sometimes goes on land disguised as a normal man. In his human form, the spirit’s true nature is revealed through a strong fishy smell that emanates from his body. Long ago, the beautiful sirena was very much human. She lived with her mother by the sea. At the end of the day, she would sit on a rock to comb her long tresses while singing. One day a litao heard her voice and fell in love. The water spirit wasted no time expressing his feelings, serenading her under the shadows of the moonlight and leaving treasures at her doorstep. The girl’s mother grew fearful of the spirit and forbade her daughter from leaving the house. One morning, while her mother was distracted, the girl opened the window and noticed a bright object sparkling by the water’s edge. Curious, she crept outside and saw a diamond the size of a small coconut dancing on the waves. As her fingers touched the waters a huge bubble enveloped her and transported her to the litao’s palace in the bottom of the sea. When she reached his abode, she saw a half-fish and half human man. The litao showed her his kingdom and by the end of the day she was in love and agreed to live with him at the bottom of the sea. To do this, she drank a potion mixed with his blood to transform her into an immortal half-human and half fish creature like himself.

Unfortunately, the litao had to pay the price for the sirena’s immortality. The litao will be turned into a stone in a hundred years after the sirena drank his blood. The couple lived happily in their underwater paradise for one hundred years. Their union produced seven beautiful daughters who live in the various waters of the area. On their one hundredth anniversary together, the litao kissed the sirena goodbye, swam near the entrance of their home where he turned into a stone. The anguished sirena went up to the shore and transformed herself into a human. Hearing the sounds of a procession, she walked towards town and followed behind the carriage of the Virgin Mary,  walking sorrowfully with her teary eyes fixed to the ground. People wondered who the mysterious lady was. After the procession, a curious few followed the beautiful lady with the fishlike smell as she walked towards the river. Thinking that the lady was about to drown herself, some even followed her to try to save her only to be drowned themselves.

Honoring the Guardians of Nature: Understanding Filipino Mythology and Belief

Unlike the Greek, Norse or Egyptian mythologies, the myths of the Philippines has not been organized into a formal pantheon. It also generally does not contain long epics or been tied to history. However, unlike the Greek, Norse or Egyptian mythologies, Philippine myths still have an active role in the lives of rural Filipinos to this day. The many myths circulating throughout the Filipino countryside contain a large variety of mythical creatures. The lack of scientific evidence for any of these creatures is usually rationalized by the explanation that only the pure and good mortals are able to see them.

Animism, a persistent belief among the different groups in the Philippines, is a belief system which looks at the elements of nature as containing a spirit that coexists with a physical body, similar to the nature of the human being. This facet of Filipino cosmology is expressed through its concept of kaluluwa (life spirit). The term kaluluwa is also a cognate of the term dalawa (“two”), which implies a co-existence with the corporeal body. Apart from the spirits of nature and of mankind, there are also supernatural creatures which live alongside nature spirits. Together, humans, spirits and these supernatural creatures belong to an endless maintenance of balance through a process of give and take. For this reason, believers would then perceive eventualities as blessings or punishments depending on how they have behaved in the eyes of the supernatural. A balance is normally kept through rituals which, in this context, is a transactional event that binds the community and the inhabitants of the spirit world together in a continued balanced existence.

The established relationship between people and the spirits of the elements is is governed by explicit rules – especially regarding land use. For example, humans must first ask the spirits’ or guardians for permission before cutting down their trees, burning their mountains or polluting their oceans. To plant or build on the spirits’ territories, or even to pass through it, one has to recite a prayer or perform a ritual. If these rituals are not accomplished, the spirits and creatures may be angry and cause harm to humans through physiological illness, insanity, or death. Thus the relationship between humans and spirits is manifested as a social control for people to avoid harming nature. Stories related to the spirits and otherworldly creatures  therefore served as effective means of conveying the social awareness across the communities.