paternostr on Nostr: The mermaid (siren) is added to* Latin (Roman) Bestiary*. Its appearance evolved from ...

The mermaid (siren) is added to* Latin (Roman) Bestiary*. Its appearance evolved from a hybrid of a bird with a woman's torso or face represented during classical antiquity, to another of a beautiful woman with a fish tail instead of legs in the Middle Ages. In both eras it symbolized the danger on the part of men of allowing themselves to be tempted by feminine attractiveness, something that could have fatal consequences. The scene of the sailor recklessly approaching his boat to the rocky coast attracted by a mermaid who hides her monstrous tail, is accompanied by the inscription *Aliquis latet error * ("Some deception is hidden"), words taken from a different context with which Laoconte, according to Virgil in *Aeneid* II, 48, recommended that the Trojans distrust the great horse built by the Greeks and abandoned in front of the walls of their city.