Thread: Rusalka - HC Andersen

P.S. Arguably, it was Hans Christian Andersen who INVENTED the "sweet, innocent mermaid" -- before he came along, mermaids had bad reputations in many different cultures as beautiful but semi-demonic seductresses whose three hobbies were singing, combing their hair, and drowning horny lovestruck sailors.



Однако, в мифе о Гиласе и русалочках, здесь написаном викториянским художником John William Waterhouse, всё происходилось чуть-чуть по-другому, а получилось одинаково. (In the myth about Hylas and the nymphs, here illustrated by Victorian artist J.W. Waterhouse, things went a little bit differently, but turned out identically.)

The nymphs didn't want to harm Hylas, but they were so horny for him (Hylas was the handsomest youth in all Greece), they simply forgot that human men can't breathe underwater. And Hylas, too, was horny for the nymphs, and also forgot about the "people need air" principle. В конце концов, Гилас всё-равно упал в воду и погиб, а не нарочно, и в этом русалочки не были виноваты. (In the end, Hylas fell in the water and died anyway, but it wasn't on purpose, and the "rusalochki" weren't to blame for this.)

P.P.S. If Hylas had not drowned accidentally, ему пришлось бы "играть пассивную роль" for Heracles. So, either way, poor Hylas would've been screwed!

(It's not easy being the hunkiest young man in ancient Greece...)