The sea maiden from myths, the miller’s daughter deceived by the prince from the unfinished drama of A. S. Pushkin, who drowned “in the depths of the Dnieper River, woke up as a mermaid cold and
mighty." She has a destructive power for men, being the patroness of fields and forests in Slavic countries in pre-Christian times. The image of a supernatural being goes back to the Syrian goddess Atargata (Derketo), she is described by the Roman historian Lucian: “She is half a woman, but a fish tail grows from her hips down.” It contains a host of female archetypes from the foam-born Aphrodite of the sea, the warlike Athena and the bread-giving Demeter to the modern Disney little mermaid - an allusion to Mary Magdalene.
Her sacrificial love was sung by Andersen, from whom, through suffering, she acquires an immortal soul in the Christian sense and ascends to heaven. A witch takes away the “wonderful voice” of a little mermaid from a Danish storyteller. But our speech is an expression of will, beliefs, ideas. Having lost her voice, Ariel did not become happy. A modern woman can be different - powerful and weak, gentle and strong. But neither the right to spiritual search and self-determination, nor the opportunity to express herself and her desires can be taken away from her.
