Mermaids and water virges — Suv-perisi in the traditional representation of turkmen

Abstract

In the views of Turkmens, there are preserved, though in a small volume, various stories about the various human-like creatures inhabiting the water spaces of the seas and rivers. Special groups of narratives are water maidens and mermaids. The stories about them are usually sketchy and fragmentary.

Attempts to highlight this subject in the scientific community were undertaken by a number of researchers in the XX century. The generalization of the accumulated material and the analysis of ethnographic data make it possible to reconstruct the image of the object under study and to give it a clearer outline.

Work in this area makes it possible to make a preliminary classification of mermaids and water maidens living in the Caspian Sea and the rivers of Turkmenistan. The mermaids living in the Amu Darya have traditional Central Asian standards: they are tender, sweet and mysterious. The water maidens of the Caspian Sea and the rivers of the southern regions of Turkmenistan are cunning, dangerous and have a frightening dark color.

Living in the sea and river depths mythical water hostesses — suw-eyesi, mermaids — suw-perisi and water maidens — suw-gyzy, induced indescribable fear and horror at people. The dire role of water hosts, firmly fixed in the mind of a person, is explained by their environmental importance, where they are assigned the status of watchdogs of water wealth. They could allow or forbid people to go out to sea and fish. Created in the minds of man their mythical image and behavior, boiled down to the fact that they were able to limit the immeasurable activity of man on the water expanses.