Kobiety-ryby: ludowe wyobrażenia syren

Abstract

This article is showing the folk images of the mermaids. It is estblishing to both to beliefs, and to myths or literature which these images functioned in. In conducted analyses and interpretations I use the methodology of the foreign-language description. I am using the anthropological method in folk and anthropological researches, also. I am appealing to the symbol, the myth and the ritual. The mermaids are nymphs, who lives in water, have a fishtail bit and a beautiful voice. They seduce men, above all of fishermen and sailors. Their features considerably influenced the image which it survived in literature, in legends of the Warsaw’s mermaid. These images got through underwent their transformations.

Keywords

• polish folk culture
• slav
• traditional culture
• literature
• the mermaids
• polska kultura ludowa
• słowiańszczyzna
• kultura tradycyjna
• literatura
• syreny