Iara (folklore)
Iara or Uiara (from the Tupi 'y-îara "lady of the waters") or "Mother of water," according to Brazilian folklore is a mythological character with characteristics of Siren.
Olavo Bilac, describes it in his poem A Iara.
She is brunette with long black hair and accustomed to bathe in the rivers, singing an irresistible melody. The men who see her can not resist her desires and jump into the water and then she takes them to the bottom, they almost never come back alive. Those who return are crazy and only a ritual performed by a shaman can heal them. The Indians are so afraid of Iara that they try to avoid the gaps in the twilight.
History
Iara before being a mermaid was an Indian warrior, the best of her tribe. Her brothers were jealous of Iara because only she received praise from her father, who was a shaman, and one day they decided to try to kill her. At night, when she slept, her brothers went into her cabin; just as Iara had a very fine hearing he heard them and had to kill them to defend herself and for fear of her father, fled. Her father proposed an incessant search for her. And they managed to find it; as punishment, Iara was thrown well in the encounter of the Black River with the Solimões. The fish brought her to the surface and on full moon nights she transformed her into a beautiful black-haired mermaid with dark eyes.
Iara was, according to others, the goddess of fish. Myth
Beautiful girl, with very long hair, who always lives in a fountain in the middle of the forest.
Again, in the middle of the night, especially on moonlit nights, he sings.
They say that it is a voice so good, beautiful and touching that the man who hears dies of passion for her.
When the man falls in love with her, she is dragged to the bottom of the lake and is almost always loved by Iara. Iara makes them mermaids and stays with them for three days and then brings them to the surface. And they say that afterwards they die of love.
No one understands anything about his songs because he sings in the indigenous language. If the mother of water one day dies by accident, her source will dry up.
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