Editing Merman (section)

== Antiquity ==
Perhaps the first recorded merman was the [[Assyria]]n-[[Babylonia]]n sea-god [[Ea (Babylonian god)|Ea]] (called [[Enki]] by the [[Sumer]]ians), linked to the figure known to the [[Greeks]] as [[Oannes (mythology)|Oannes]].{{sfnp|Waugh|1960|pp=73–74}} However, while some popular writers have equated Oannes of the Greek period to the god Ea (and to [[Dagon]]),<ref name="spence"/><ref>{{harvp|Waugh|1960|p=73}}: "the first merman in recorded history is the sea-god Ea, or in Greek, Oannes"</ref> Oannes was rather one of the ''[[apkallu]]'' servants to Ea.<ref name="breucker" />

The ''[[apkallu]]'' have been described as "fish-men" in cuneiform texts, and if [[Berossus]] is to be believed, Oannes was indeed a being possessed of a fish head and man's head beneath, and both a fish tail and manlike legs.{{Efn|Berrosus, as preserved by [[Alexander Polyhistor]].}}{{sfnp|Waugh|1960|pp=73–74}}<ref name="breucker" /> But Berossus was writing much later during the era of Greek rule, engaging in the "construction" of the past.<ref name="breucker" /> Thus even though figurines have been unearth to corroborate this fish-man iconography, these can be regarded as representing "human figures clad in fish cloaks",<ref name="breucker" /> rather than a being with a fish head growing above the human head. And the god Ea is also seen as depicted wearing a fish cloak by modern scholars.<ref name="worthington" />

=== Greco-Roman mythology ===
{{Further|Triton (mythology)}}
[[File:Galéria mesta Bratislavy11.jpg|thumb|upright=0.8|Triton with a [[nymph]], Mirbach Palace Courtyard, Bratislava, Slovakia]]
[[Triton (mythology)|Triton]] of [[Greek mythology]] was depicted as a half-man, half-fish merman in [[ancient Greek art]]. Triton was the son of the sea-god [[Poseidon]] and sea-goddess [[Amphitrite]]. Neither Poseidon nor Amphitrite were merfolk, although both were able to live underwater as easily as on land.

Tritons later became generic mermen, so that multiple numbers of them were depicted in art.<ref name=handbook-triton/><ref>{{cite book|last=Lattimore |first=Steven |author-link=<!--Steven Lattimore--> |title=The Marine Thiasos in Greek Sculpture |publisher=Institute of Archaeology, University of California, Los Angeles |year=1976 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WPo2AQAAIAAJ |page=30|isbn=9780917956027 }}</ref>

Tritons were also associated with using a [[Conch|conch shell]] in the later [[Hellenistic period]].<ref name=oxford-classical-dict/> In the 16th century, Triton was referred to as the "trumpeter of [[Neptune (mythology)|Neptune]] (''Neptuni tubicen'')" in [[Marius Nizolius]]'s ''Thesaurus'' (1551),<ref name=nizolius/>{{Efn|It also occurs in {{harvp|Gesner|1558}}.}} and this phrase has been used in modern commentary.<ref name=brooks>For example, {{cite book|editor-last=Brooks|editor-first=Nathan Covington|editor-link=Nathan Covington Brooks |title=The Metamorphoses of Publius Ovidius Naso |year=1860 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4TFKAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA78 |page=79, n94 }}</ref> The [[Elizabethan period]] poet [[Edmund Spenser]] referred to Triton's  "trompet" as well.<ref>"Triton his trompet shirll", ''[[Faerie Queene]]'', 3.11.12</ref>

Another notable merman from Greek mythology was [[Glaucus]]. He was born a human and lived his early life as a fisherman. One day, while fishing, he saw that the fish he caught would jump from the grass and into the sea. He ate some of the grass, believing it to have magical properties, and felt an overwhelming desire to be in the sea. He jumped in the ocean and refused to go back on land. The sea gods nearby heard his prayers and transformed him into a sea god. [[Ovid]] describes the transformation of Glaucus in the ''[[Metamorphoses (poem)|Metamorphoses]]'', describing him as a blue-green man with a fishy member where his legs had been.