Why we should not go to swim at all? (2)

For those who miss the first part:

Why we should not go to swim at all? (1)

Let's continue our journey. Those who born in January might know our next sea monster pretty well. With hooves and horns, Capricorn can be nominated as one of the weirdest sea creatures because it is a goat with a tail of a fish, which doesn't quite make sense even in the mythological context. Capricorn is the tenth astrological sign in the zodiac, originating from the constellation Capricornus. But make no mistake, this thing is a badass: it has no conclusive origin and it is the only one of its kind. Plus, Capricorn is the most serious and the most solid and the most stable of all zodiacal types. It is also by far one of the most ancient sea monsters among all. Its picture can be found in Babylonian art, and people said it is the Sumerian god Enki's symbols, goat and fish, combined.

Capricorn and the constellation of Capricornus
 w/ 'don't mess with me' kinda look

Speaking of animal with a tail of a fish reminds me of Matchanu (as we call him in our language), the son of Hanuman, an ardent devotee of Rama the main character in the epic Ramayana. Also known as Makardhwaj, Matchanu is a monkey with a tail of a fish, which he retrieved from his mother who is, not so surprisingly, a mermaid. Having mermaid as a mom and the general of monkey army as a dad doesn't make sense as much as the combination of goat and fish, so I'd call it even. But no one ever considers him as a sea monster, so I guess his story should be told in some othe time.  

Now, the term sea monster does not limit to only animals. That's discrimination and it's wrong. In Japan, the stories of the sea god known as Umibozu have been told for generations. It is a huge figure said to live in the ocean, waiting to rampage on anyone who dares talking to it. Umibozu has a large round head like a shaven head of Buddhism monk plus serpentine limbs. I wonder what was it that made people believe they saw this kind of thing in the first place.  

I might as well die of a heart attack if I were on that ship

Up until now we have sea serpents, octopus, seagoat, and buddhist monk, but are there any sea cretures that appear to be as normal as a fish. Well, I don't think so but the best I can find is the stroy about whales! Yeah, this guy's everyone's favorite, right? I'm pretty sure you've heard the story about Moby Dick, the antagonist from the novel of the same name written by Hermann Melville. That's pretty much the most normal sea creature I found so far. He's just a giant sperm whale, a wicked one I'd say. To think about it, there's an American musician named Moby, whom I have looked up on the internet and found out he's like a great great grandnephew of Hermann Melville himself. But that's irrelevant to this blog, so I should drop this topic for now.

Moby, who is not a sea creature...

 To this point you might as well think that why the hell I did not mention about mermaids, the most recognizable and the most famous sea creature among all. Well, it's simply because its story is too long so I think it would be better to leave it for the other time. For now I would like to end this with something more exciting:




Charybdis was once considered as a sea monster that waiting to rampage on the ship passing by that area. In the Greek legend Charybdis was once a beautiful naiads, that..........oh you don't think this story is exciting? Ok let's see what this thing does every day and you'll probably change your mind. According to the myth, Charybdis can takes form as a huge bladder of a creature whose face was all mouth and whose arms and legs were flippers and who swallows huge amounts of water three times a day before belching them back out again, creating whirlpools. Wow! I don't even understand the whole sentence properly. My point is, of all this, she's the one that is real, solid, touchable. She was there the whole time until people gave her a fancy story then she was no longer a 'thing' but a 'creature'.A living legend I'd say. This whirlpool often found in the strait of Messina and totally dangerous from time to time. I think this is one of the cute points of folklore: people tell stories in order to warn or to teach the next generations that they should or should not do something. The story of Charybdis is defenitely created to warn that normal people would not dare shipping through that area.