Merfolk of Oceania

My new workplace has its own Winter Break from Christmas to New Year.

This has given me a ton of opportunity to upload new art here on

Mythology Worlds.

Ever since I moved to the coast of Connecticut, one of my favorite passions has been maritime themes.

With this has come a keen interest in merfolk mythology.

After learning about merfolk from so many different cultures around the world, I was both surprised and disappointed to have not found any merfolk mythology from the islands of the South Pacific (which you would think would have tons of merfolk folktales)

I did catch glimpses of such stories, but they were all on Internet sources I find hard to trust...including Wikipedia.

I also found one in a book I have called A Wizard's Bestiary by Oberon Zell-Ravenheart (a book about mythical creatures), but it was a contemporary sighting by the author himself while on expedition...which made me wonder if he just made that up.

However, after receiving some cool new books on mythical creatures for Christmas (including one called The Mermaid Atlas by Anna Claybourne and Miren Asiain Lora), I was able to confirm the legitimacy of those very same stories.

As it turns out, there ARE actual merfolk stories from the South Seas islands!

The Maori of New Zealand have a romance story about a mermaid called

Pania of the Reef.

Papua New Guinea has a mermaid called either Ri, Ilkai, or Pishmeri depending on who you're talking to.

Fiji has the shark god Dakuwaqa.

The Cook Islands have Vatea, the First Man and ancestor of humankind (who is a human on one side of his body and a dolphin on the other).

The Sun and the Moon shine from his eyes...which sounds a lot like the Chinese primordial Pan Gu (whose eyes become the sun and moon) and the Japanese deity Izanagi (who cries the sun goddess Amaterasu and the moon god Tsukiyomi out of his eyes).

The wide world of merfolk mythology is normally a vast sea (pun intended) of stereotypical-looking mermaids and mermen who act the way you would expect a merperson to behave.

Indeed, in my cross-cultural analysis of merfolk myths from different cultures, I did find a lot of common attributes between them, such as...

Used to be human; transformed by plunging in water

Half-human, half-water creature

Falls in love with a human (despite the fact that humans harvest fish)

Water deity or spirit

Drags people into its watery domain

Seduces sailors with its song

Warns of incoming storms at sea

Creates storms at sea if disrespected

Before I was able to confirm these Pacific Island merfolk myths as legit, I thought the only "weird" merfolk were the Japanese Ningyo (almost all fish, with a human face, who makes flute noises) and the Selkie of Scotland, Iceland, and the Faroe Islands (a seal who takes off its seal skin and turns into a person).

However, stumbling onto the Fijian god who is full shark-man, and the Cook Islands ancestor being who is half-human/half-sea creature on either side instead of top and bottom has expanded my mind in that regard.

Moreover, in Philippine mythology, while the females (Sirena) resemble stereotypical mermaids, the males (Siyokoy) are more like octopus-men.

It turns out that all this time, I had been reading about the females more than the males.

Maybe at some point, I could draw a Sirena and a Siyokoy hanging out together?

Before we send off, one last tidbit:

I was actually inspired to ask for the Mermaid Atlas by a video by one of my favorite YouTubers.

As the Disney Little Mermaid remake was about to be released, The Mythology Guy made a video in response where he talks about merfolk mythology from around the world.

(He does discuss some controversial topics surrounding the film though, so if you are easily triggered, do not click on the link above)

He included illustrations from a book during his video lecture.

I wanted to know what book that was, so after some arduous Googling, I stumbled upon the Mermaid Atlas!

Hungry for more mythological knowledge (as I always am) I decided to ask for that book for Christmas (as well as the Fairy Atlas by that same author and illustrator), and actually received what I had asked for!

Merry After-Christmas, Happy Kwanzaa, and Happy New Year!