Mermaids

seduction and knowledge

Abstract

As an element of a contrapuntal study of the Odyssean myth and Brazilian literature, our proposal is to build on the topic of Mermaids (in Odyssey and in the novel An apprenticeship or The book of delights, by Clarice Lispector, with a brief foray into Heine’s Lorelei). Following an Adornian reading of Odyssey, we approach the mermaid issue from a largely untapped viewpoint in the dilution of this myth, namely, the disturbing relationship between seduction and knowledge – or, rather, seduction through knowledge. This inevitably led to a parallel with the biblical myth of Adam and Eve and the Tree of Knowledge, and the consequent overlapping images of the mermaid and the serpent (tantalizingly present in the Mother Water Native myth).