The familiar mermaid image originated from Lorelei, a beautiful mermaid often mentioned in German legends and poems. She often appeared on the Rhine River when it was dark, confusing the passing boatmen with her beautiful appearance of Leng Yan and her sad and moving songs, distracting them, losing their way and finally sinking into the river.
Mermaid's upper body is human (mostly female) and the lower body is fish's body, which is the basic form. At that time, people probably misunderstood and regarded dugong and manatee, mammals living in the ocean today, as monsters, so they were widely circulated, but this statement was not based on facts. However, in art, literature or painting, as a symbol of metaphor, this is more credible. Mermaids are often used to symbolize unfortunate things, such as the mermaid in Andersen's fairy tales. In most literary works, mermaids have a tragic ending, and they are not happy in the end. Incidentally, although the familiar mermaid sculpture has only one tail fin in the lower body, in ancient western paintings, mermaids usually have two tail fins, which is quite incredible.