THE Iara is a mermaid that is part of the folklore Brazilian, known for its great beauty, charming voice and riches. She is part woman and part fish and is known for seducing men on the banks of rivers, taking them underwater.
One of the main Brazilian folklorists claims that, despite the legend of Iara presenting characteristics that refer to indigenous folklore, the main elements of this legend are European and were introduced in the Brazilian popular culture by the portuguese. The consolidation of the legend in its current form took place in the 19th century.
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Who was Iara?
Iara, also known as “mother of water”, is an entity that is part of the Brazilian folklore, being very well known, mainly in the North region from Brazil. In the legend, it is said that Iara is a Mermaid, being part woman and part fish. She lives in a river and has great physical beauty, a beautiful voice and many riches.
Legend has it that Iara uses these attributes (beauty, voice and wealth) to seducemen who are sailing on the river or who are on the banks of it. The men, enchanted, go to join Iara, who takes them to his residence underwater. Those who are seduced are not seen again.
According to the narrative, she was daughter of a shaman and she had great skills like Warrior. These abilities were the envy of her brothers, who decided to band together to kill her on one occasion, but she resisted, fought and killed them all.
Afraid of her father's reaction, she fled, but was found, and her father decided to cast her between the Negro and Solimões rivers. She would have been saved by the fish and turned into Iara during a night with a full moon. The term "Iara" originates from the languageTupi, being the mixture of two words: IG, which means "water", and iara, which means “sir”. Iara, therefore, would be the lady of the waters.
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Origin of legend
The legend of Iara has many elements that refer to the indigenous culture, so her origin is indigenous, right? Wrong! Iara is a legend that emerged from thefolkloreEuropean and which was adapted to Brazilian folklore. This statement was made by one of the greatest folklorists that Brazil has ever had, the Potiguar Luís da Câmara Cascudo|1|.
Câmara Cascudo says that, until the 17th century, there was no legend among the indigenous people that had the elements that mark the story of Iara: a woman, part human, part fish, beautiful and who seduced men with her corner. He points out that all these elements were introducedfursportuguesethese, since in European culture there were folkloric entities with these characteristics.
One of the first traits is the mermaidsgreeks, beings who had a beautiful voice and who seduced men. However, to the Greeks, mermaids were part woman, part bird. The form of fish that the mermaid assumed appeared in Portugal around the 15th century|1|. In Portugal there was also the Moorishenchanted, a mythical being in the form of a woman who seduced men by singing and offering them riches. The Enchanted Moura, like Iara, had great beauty and great hair.
Here in Brazil, these folkloric elements that were part of the Portuguese imagination would have been introduced and related to some indigenous legends. The first of them would have been the Ipupiara, an indigenous legend that spoke of a monster that inhabited the rivers, but that came out of them to chase and kill the Indians. O Ipupiaradid not assume human form and it was uniquely a monster. It didn't seduce, it wasn't beautiful and it didn't offer riches, it just killed the Indians.
Another mythical being of indigenous folklore was the being called big snake or boiúna or Mboiaçu. It was a gigantic black snake that inhabited rivers and mangroves, chasing everyone who crossed its lands.
Finally, Câmara Cascudo also associates Iara as a Portuguese adaptation to an indigenous worldview that saw everything on Earth as having a mother. The origin of things for the indigenous theogony would be the woman in the form of a mother. Thus, he theorizes that the Portuguese may have associated Ipupiara as a mmother of water. Over time, this Mother of Water became Iara.
There is, finally, a association with African culture. In this case, one of the associations would be that of Iemanjá, a Candomblé orixá who is considered as the “Queenof thewaters”. The image of Iara as we know it was consolidated from the 19th century onwards, being a very common figure among Brazilian scholars of that century.
Grades
|1| CAMERA CASCUDO, Luís da. Geography of Brazilian myths. São Paulo: Global, 2012.
By Daniel Neves Silva
History teacher
