#mermaid's tears

[maiawrites]

//--Mermaid's tears--//

[window-view-orion]

From the Kayla X “Legendary Spirits” blind box figure collection:

Her name is Mirage.

My first thought when I saw her was of Princess Tamatori, or Tamatori-hime, who stole a pearl from the sea god and escaped him and his minions by cutting open her chest and hiding the pearl inside, which ultimately lead to her death.

However after having the figure in hand and noticing her tear, and doing a bit of searching, I believe she's actually a depiction of the myth of mermaid's tears. I couldn't find any reputable sources for the myth, beyond jewelry websites. The best source I found was this, from the description of artist's Sasha Katz's work based on the tale, (the image wouldn't load for me, so I can't comment on the art itself) from superrare.com

If you just google mermaid's tears, you'll find more places describing sea glass as the tears. Again, it's mainly jewelry websites trying to sell you pearls that reference this supposed myth. Presumably Roman in origin, given the appearance of Neptune. There's this slightly more detailed summary from capecodchokers.com

Here's the myth delivered with more purple, but this time with sea glass as the eponymous tears, from bohosilver.co.uk

I could go on, but I think I've pretty much hit the bottom of the well for sources on this supposed myth. In my opinion it's far more likely a modern creation for the purpose of selling pearls, or sea glass. There's a book from 2009 titled "Tears of Mermaids: The Secret Story of Pearls" by Stephen G. Bloom about the economic, political, and cultural history of the global pearl trade, which notably uses the myth as a title, but as far as I could tell from searches on Google Books, does not actually reference the myth anywhere in the text. It does look interesting though.

So that's the origin of Mirage, as far as I can tell. Her pearl in the right hand and tear from her right eye tell the story of how she fell in love with a sailor, and was banished to the bottom of the sea by Neptune to weep pearls for the rest of eternity. And she doesn't look too pleased about it!

Sources:

[retrogamingblog2]

Zelda Disney VHS Boxes made by VipersIslandVideo

[minijenn]

Finally finished my big mermay project! I was dramatically compelled to draw a bunch of Zelink mermaids Because I love them all so much, literally how could I not.

[houseofcatwic]

[snail-studios]

miphlink week day 4: keepsakes | bite

[whampersan]

Grandparents are there for a good haircut and a good hug

[annama-art]

Mermaid lagoon (Coral and Aqua version!)

[laylakeating]

But a mermaid has no tears, and therefore she suffers so much more.

[grand-line-shenanigans]

And the dance floor is filling up with blood

But oh lord, you've never been so in love

[lolapinta]

It's still mermay and I need some saoriham in my life.

[d4jamso]

I just wanted to draw him with more detail<3

[paperzombiie]

those last two asks made me go dig in my files for some unposted/unfinished doodles to post

[bananaspliit]

does anyone else remember these too faced lip glosses?? they were so cute i wish they still sold them, id die for an angel tears lipgloss </3

[ybkitten]

I know some eels are pretty small but they still need a lot of space, you know?

[sydneighsays]

It's Mermay time on Instagram... Dunno if we do that here. WHAT I DO KNOW is that we have to get hype for BoTW ToTK cause CHRIST I'm excited

Edit: been informed Tumblr does do mermay!! Sorry I'm a bit new

Anyways, I drew Sidon meeting mermaid Link 💜

🫂