they tire of your feather toys and catnip mice

The Varieties of Chinese Mermaids

In the modern day, most people will think of the pearl-crying Jiaoren. However JIAOREN IS NOT THE PERFECT EQUIVALENT OF THE MERMAID in pre-modern folklore.

Chinese mermaids come in multiple types. Most of them can be found in the Chronicle of the Mountains and the Seas (Shan Hai Jing/山海經). Others can be found in the In Search of the Supernatural (Sou Shen Ji/搜神記) or Extensive Records of the Taiping Era (Taiping Guangji/太平廣記).

YUFU/MER-WIFE (魚婦): Zhuanxu was a god-emperor in legendary times, whose accomplishments included sending two of his sons to complete the separation of Heaven and Earth. When he died, fish ate his corpse, becoming half fish and half human women. They live in the Great Wilderness toward the west of China. They combine traits of humans, fish, and snakes. The Classic of Mountains and the Seas states: "There is a fish half-withered, it is Zhuanxu that died and then revived; when the winds blow northward, the sky whips up great geysers, snakes transform into fish, and those are mer-wives."

LINGYU/HILL FISH (陵魚，鯪魚): The Lingyu lived in the northern regions of China, either in the sea or mountain streams. They have human faces and limbs, but fish bodies. They are identified with Chinese giant salamanders or mud carp in the modern day. The Classic of Mountains and Seas states: "The nation of Guye is in the sea, among the Guye mountain range, surrounded by peaks to the southwest. There are great crabs are in the sea. There are Lingyu, which have human heads, feet, and hands, in the sea."

CHIRU/RED RU FISH (赤鱬): The Chiru lived in mountain in the south of China. It was red all over, had a human face, and its call sounded like that of a shelduck or mandarin duck. Eating its flesh protected people from contracting scabies. They are identified with sockeye salmon in the modern day. The Classic of Mountains and Seas states: "Three hundred miles more to the east, there is the mountain called Blue Hill...The Ying Waters emerge from here. Within are many Chiru; their forms are like fish, yet they have human faces, and their cries are like that of a shelduck. Those that eat its flesh will never have scabies."

DIREN/DI PEOPLE (氐人): The nation of the Di People was in the South of China. They were human from the waist up and fish from the waist down. They might have been a mythologization of the real Di People, who lived in western China, spread out from Shaanxi to Gansu. They joined the confederation of nomadic peoples who conquered Northern China during the Sixteen Kingdoms period. The Baima people of Gansu believe themselves to be descended from the ancient Di. The Classic of the Mountains and Seas states: "The nation of the Di People is west of the Jianmu Tree. Its inhabitants have human faces but fish bodies, with no feet."

HAI RENYU/SEA MERMAID (海人魚): The Sea Mermaid lives in the East China Sea. They tend to be around five to six shaku tall. (4'7"-5'6" or 1.4-1.68 meters.) Their upper bodies were that of humans, and they were all very beautiful. Their skins were white as jade, and their tails had no scales, but were covered in fine rainbow-colored hairs. Their hair grew long and wild like horse manes. Their private organs were much like that of humans, and they often sought humans or were sought by humans as mates in coastal communities, where they would live in a pool on their spouse's property. Sometimes they had red feelers or fins on their elbows and backs. Their bodies could not be penetrated by blades, but their fats could be harvested after death to form ever-burning candles. Han Dynasty texts state: "Merfolk have a human-like form longer than one shaku. They are not fit for consumption. Their skins are rougher than those of sharks, and cannot be penetrated by saws. They have little holes on their neck that they breathe through...Their fat is used to light lamps in royal tombs because the fire will never extinguish." Extensive Records of the Taiping Era states: "Sea Mermaids are found in the Eastern Sea. The largest ones are five or six shaku long. They are shaped like humans, with the brows and eyes, mouths and noses, hands and fingers, and heads of beautiful women, lacking in no feature. Their flesh is white as jade, and they have no scales, but thin, soft, and sleek hairs of five colors about one or two inches in length. Their private organs were no different from those of ordinary men and women. Widows and widowers from coastal communities often acquire them and raise them in pools. They mate the same way humans do, and never harm humans."

LOTING YUREN/LOTING FISH-MEN (盧亭魚人): Loting Fish-Men were found in the south of China, mostly around the Guangdong, Macau, and Hong Kong regions. They had humanoid limbs and humanoid faces with yellow hair and yellow eyes, but scaly bodies with fish tails. They lived mostly in the water, feeding on fish, but also built houses from mussel shells, and their favorite snack was chicken blood. They were a mythologization of the Tanka People, a southern Chinese pariah class who were once forced to live on their boats, as well as the Semang People. Ming Dynasty texts state: "The Jin Dynasty rebel Lu Ting was defeated and fled into the Guangdong region, where he lived a fugitive life on the water. After some generations, his descendants were unable to procure food or clothes, so they went about bare bodied and were called Loting. They would often sail out on the sea fishing for food, and they could all lie underwater for three or four days without dying, for they had already become fish." Qing Dynasty texts state: "Among the merfolk are the Loting Fish-Men, who are very numerous on Dayushan Island and the Wanshan Islands. Their adults are like humans, with male and female. Their hairs are dusky yellow and short and their eyes are also yellow, while their faces are black. Their tails are around an inch long. When they encounter humans they dive fearfully into the water. Often they would float along the waves, which would amaze people, who would they chase them. When a man who acquired one their females did the dirty with her, the fish-woman could not speak, only giggle. After a long while, she learned to wear clothes and eat grains. She was brought to Dayushan, where she went back to the water. These are the merfolk who do not harm men."

JIAOREN/SAMEBITO/SHARK-MEN (鮫人): Jiaoren are found in the South Seas. THEY ARE MER-SHARKS. THEY HAVE INKY BLACK BODIES, WILD HAIR, GLOWING GREEN EYES, AND SHARP TEETH. They are usually employed by dragon gods as weavers, capable of working tirelessly and spinning special waterproof silks. Their tears became pearls. They were first equated to Western mermaids by modern fantasy writers romanticizing the fact that they cried pearls.

WA WA YU/KIDDO FISH (娃娃魚): The Chinese Giant Salamander was often called a "mer-person" in the Ming and Qing dynasties, and described having a cry that resembled a baby's wail. To this day the colloquial name is still "Kiddo Fish".

Persée et Andromède by Gustave Moreau (19th Century)

Who is persephone' father? Is it still Zeus?

it was always Zeus.

Charles Amable Lenoir (French, 1860-1926) The Death of Sappho, 1896

Persephone of Spring

Edward Poynter, Andromeda

Theseus #5 (The Minotaur)

Theseus treks deeper and deeper into the heart of the Labyrinth, under the low light of the torches. The air grows more stale, the stench of death, ever fouler and more oppressive. But Daedalus’ secret directions prove true, and Theseus successfully navigates to the heart of the labyrinth, where he finds the Minotaur in slumber. Catching the beast by surprise, Theseus fights and grapples with every inch of his power, eventually killing the beast after a brutal, bare-handed struggle.

The Minotaur backstory begins with King Minos of Knossos (Crete) receiving a beautiful, sacrificial white bull from Poseidon as a symbol of the god’s favor. But King Minos, favoring the beauty of the white bull, sacrifices a lesser animal, angering the god. Vowing revenge, Poseidon makes the Queen Pasiphae, a daughter of Helios and a sea nymph, and known as a goddess of witchcraft, fall in lust after the white bull. She enlists the help of Crete’s ingenious inventor and architect, Daedalus, to construct a hollow, wooden cow, which Pasiphae hides within, mating with the white bull. The offspring is the Minotaur; having the head and tail of a bull, and body of a boy. As the child comes of age, he grows savage and bloodthirsty for human meat. Receiving a prophecy from The Oracle at Delphi, Daedalus is once again recruited, this time to build an inescapable labyrinth with which to hold the beast in captivity. The creature having been born from such a scandalous act, imprisoned, and then killed by Theseus, certainly gives the monster one of the more empathetic and tragic backstories in Greek myth.

After Theseus and Princess Ariadne escape Knossos, King Minos imprisons Daedalus and his son in the labyrinth as punishment for failure. In the tale made famous in Ovid’s Metamorphosis, the inventor constructs flight wings form feathers and wax, escaping the island through flight. His son Icarus, fails to heed his fathers warning about flying to near the sun, and the wax melts, sending the boy to his death in the sea below.

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Thor

Art by Eric Canete

drew my own versions of artemis and apollo, i love when twins twin

Hii! It's an anon Punderworld's fan :3

Can i ask for a little drawing or sketch that you have of Apollo? (Not a spoiler is you don't want to spoil) 🥺🙏 I just love your despiction of him in Punderworld, is wonderful to finally see a good representation of Apollo 🤗💙

hello!! I have a bunch of those :D thank you so much I love my golden boi.

you'll see more of him in punderworld volume 2 ;3

William Adolphe Bouguereau (French, 1825-1905) La toilette de Vénus, 1873 National Museum of Fine Arts, Buenos Aires

"Why is Hypnos the only child of Nyx that escaped the House of Hades in Hades 2?"

Have you seen how many kids Nyx has?? Hypnos sleeps most of the time so she clearly had a favorite