ABSTRACT
In this chapter, I address aquatic origin myths and deities in human societies around the world. Then, I focus on the shores of the Atlantic, and how these magical–religious understandings are linked to different perceptions of aquatic animals. Other topics discussed in the chapter include the symbolic significance of aquatic bodies, open oceans, coastal waters, lagoons, estuaries, and some of the aquatic entities that are commonly related to them. Although it departs somewhat from the main theme of the book, this chapter allows us to contextualise, in the early modern learned societies, the concepts of mermaids and hybrid ocean beings that are “received” and “reclaimed” during the European Renaissance and the oceanic expansions and early globalisation.
