Editing Mermaid (section)

=== Roman Lusitania and Gaul ===
In his ''[[Natural History (encyclopedia)|Natural History]]'' 9.4.9–11, [[Pliny the Elder]], remarked that a triton (merman) was seen off the coast of [[Olisipo]] (present-day [[Lisbon]], Portugal),<ref name="ni_mheallaigh"/> and it bore the physical appearance in accordance with common notion of the triton, according to a deputation from Lisbon who reported it to Emperor Tiberus. One nereid was sighted earlier on the same (Lisbon) coast. Pliny remarks that contrary to popular notion, the true nereids are not smooth-skinned in their human-like portions, but covered with scales all over the body.{{Refn|Reads "the portion of the body that resembles the human figure is still rough all over with scales" ub Bisticj and Riley's translation.<ref name="pliny-hn-9.4.9-tr-bostock&riley"/> This is given as "bristling with hair", in Rackham's (Loeb Classical Library translation, but ''{{linktext|squama}}'' here is probably 'scales' and the emendation is given in Hansen's rendering.<ref name="hansen"/>}} Their mournful songs at death have also been heard by the coastal inhabitants. Also, multiple nereids had washed up on the shore according to the legatus/governor of [[Roman Gaul|Gaul]], who informed the late [[Emperor Augustus]] about it in a letter.<ref name="ni_mheallaigh"/>{{Refn|{{Verse translation
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 | <!--original text-->IV.<br />9 Tiberio principi nuntiavit Olisiponensium legatio ob id missa visum auditumque in quodam specu concha canentem Tritonem qua noscitur forma. et Nereidum falsa non est, squamis modo hispido corpore etiam qua humanam effigiem habent; namque haec in eodem spectata litore est, cuius morientis etiam cantum tristem accolae audivere longe; et divo Augusto legatus Galliae complures in litore apparere examines Nereidas scripsit.
 | <!--translation-->IV. Tritons, Nereid and aquatic monsters. <br />9 An embassy from Lisbon sent for the purpose reported to the Emperor Tiberius that a Triton had been seen and heard playing on a shell in a certain cave, and that he had the well-known shape. The description of the Nereids also is not incorrect, except that their body is bristling with hair {{sic}} even in the parts where they have human shape; for a Nereid has been seen on the same coast, whose mournful song moreover when dying has been heard a long way off by the coast-dwellers; also the Governor of Gaul wrote to the late lamented Augustus that a large number of dead Nereids were to be seen on the shore.
 | attr1      = Pliny, ''Historia Naturalis'' IX.iv.9<ref name="pliny-hn-9.4.9-tr-rackham"/>
 | attr2      = translated by Harris Rackham (1958)<ref name="pliny-hn-9.4.9-tr-rackham"/>
}}}}<ref name="hansen"/>{{Refn|group="lower-alpha"|Pliny follows with an account of a "sea-man" witnessed on the Gulf of Gades ([[Gulf of Cádiz]]).<ref name="pliny-hn-9.4.9-tr-rackham"/>}}

Sixteenth-century Swedish writer [[Olaus Magnus]] quotes the same passage from Pliny, and further notes that the nereid are said to utter "dismal moans (wailings) at the hour of her death<!--(cuius morientis etiam gannitum tristem acclae audiuere longe)-->", thus observing a connection to the legend of [[sea-nymph]]s<ref name="nigg"/> and the [[Moirai|sister Fates]] whose clashing cymbals and flute tunes could be heard on shore.<ref name="olaus"/><ref name="olaus-eng"/><ref name="nigg"/> Olaus in a later passage states that the nereids (tr. "mermaids") are known to "sing plaintively",<ref name="olaus2"/><ref name="olaus2-eng"/> in general.{{efn|i.e., not qualifying they do so at the hour of death.}}

It has been conjectured that these carcasses of nereids washed up on shore were "presumably seals".<ref name="ni_mheallaigh"/>{{Refn|Cf. the conjecture in the index to the Loeb Classics Library translation that Pliny's ''homo marinus'' (merman) may refer to "African manatee (?)".<ref name="pliny-hn-idx"/>}}