S1E6 - The Mermaid of St Augustine

“Unto many, a sailor falls to the luring sound of the siren’s call.” Mermaids are one of the most enduring myths of all time. The Talegaters attempt to interview one… or will they, too, submit to the Siren’s Call?

Mermaids have been a part of myth and lore since some of the very earliest civilizations. Dating back to ancient Assyria, the goddess Atargatis, is the first recorded instance of a human body becoming part aquatic animal. Since then, countless civilizations have incorporated merfolk as part of their folklore and mythologies. While Sirens are often synonymous with mermaids, they were actually half-human, half-bird in the original Ancient Greek texts, though they, too, were known to lure sailors to their deaths as "sirens" and merfolk are thought to do today. 

It may be easy these days to dismiss the idea of these submariners, famous European explorers such as John Smith, Christopher Columbus, and Henry Hudson have all logged sightings of these creatures in the Americas with conviction. Be that as it may, it was common to mistake the tails of manatees, dugong, whale, and dolphin tails for that of mermaids, and so this complicates the sailors's authenticity. But we at The Talegate Podcast can tell for you in all earnest that mermaids are very real...

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