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] flowers" and that she "raised her green eyes at me". Later in Arinos's version (1917), Iara is given a complicated description by the youth, here named Jaguarari. She has hair of the color of ''pau d'arco'' tree flowers (''
In the film version of the novel '' Macunaíma'' (1969), the eponymous protagonist meets his death at the hands of an Iara. He embraces her eagerly and sees too late the blow hole in the back of her neck that gives her away as the creature she is and not the beautiful woman he mistook her for.
In 2021 Brazilian supernatural TV series, Invisible City, the protagonist meets an Iara but survives her drowning attempts. She tells him that she became an Iara after her lover killed and drowned her in a river, but she was resurrected.
In the 2021
Vol. 2 (J–Z)
* * * * ; @gallica * * *
Iara, also spelled Uiara, Yara or Hiara (, , ) or Mãe das Águas (, "mother of the waters"), is a figure from
waterlily or Pontederia">water hyacinth
''Pontederia crassipes'' (formerly ''Eichhornia crassipes''), commonly known as common water hyacinth, is an aquatic plant native to South America, naturalized throughout the world, and often invasive species, invasive outside its native rang ...
Brazilian mythology
Brazilian mythology is a rich and diverse part of Brazilian folklore with cultural elements, comprising folk tales, traditions, characters, and beliefs. The category is representative of Brazil’s greater culture, being a melting pot of Iberic ...
based on Tupi and Guaraní mythology
The Tupi-Guarani mythology is the set of narratives about the gods and spirits of the different Tupi-Guarani peoples, ancient and current. Together with the cosmogonies, anthropogonies and rituals, they form part of the religion of these people ...
.
The Iara may have developed from the lore of the carnivorous fish-man . Conflation with the European myth of the siren, or a beautiful mermaid
In folklore, a mermaid is an aquatic creature with the head and upper body of a female human and the tail of a fish. Mermaids appear in the folklore of many cultures worldwide, including Europe, Latin America, Asia, and Africa.
Mermaids are ...
probably is part of the Iara myth as the seductress of the Amazon River.
Some commentators believe the original version of Iara must have been dark-skinned and black-haired, black-eyed, like the indigenous populations. However the Iara in the 19th century were described as blonde and blue-eyed or green-eyed, or even green haired.
Etymology
The word derives from Nheengatu , from "water" + "lord; lady". Formally the word occurs astrisyllabic
A syllable is a basic unit of organization within a sequence of speech sounds, such as within a word, typically defined by linguists as a ''nucleus'' (most often a vowel) with optional sounds before or after that nucleus (''margins'', which are ...
, ''u''- 'ára'' or ''u''- 'ára''.
Physical description
Her physical traits, sometime given as black haired and brown eyed, may vary according to regional oral tradition, perhaps turned blonde or green, due to literary influence.João Barbosa Rodrigues
João Barbosa Rodrigues (June 22, 1842 – March 6, 1909) was considered one of Brazil's greatest botanists, known especially for his work on orchids and palms. For nearly two decades he was director of the Botanic Garden of Rio de Janeiro. Somet ...
(1881) insisted the freshwater Iara, in the original telling, were ascribed black hair, dark eyes, and dark skin (). though it is also admitted that the ''tapuyo'' (Westernized native) also believed in the blonde blue-eyed mermaid () of the sea.
Later, the poetry by Romantic writers in the 19th century would give her blonde hair, or green hair of the color of vegetation. These were European-influenced alterations of indigenous folklore. has professed he prefers the version where Yara is depicted more like a (suggesting copper skin tone), with long black hair and almond-shaped eyes.
Her features appears to have been altered even through the retelling of the same tale: In the tale of ''A Yara'' of the version of Manaus
Manaus () is the List of capitals of subdivisions of Brazil, capital and largest city of the States of Brazil, Brazilian state of Amazonas (Brazilian state), Amazonas. It is the List of largest cities in Brazil, seventh-largest city in Brazil, w ...
, as come down through Francisco Bernardino de Souza (1873), the native boy captivated by the Yara's beauty and song says her "hair was as blond as gold, tied with ''mururé'' Handroanthus
''Handroanthus'' is a genus of flowering plants in the Family (biology), family Bignoniaceae.David J. Mabberley. 2008. ''Mabberley's Plant-Book'' third edition (2008). Cambridge University Press: UK. It consists of 30 species of trees, known i ...
'' spp.) and pink skin like the plumage of the '' colhereira'' (spoonbill
Spoonbills are a genus, ''Platalea'', of large, long-legged wading birds. The spoonbills have a global distribution, being found on every continent except Antarctica. The genus name ''Platalea'' derives from Ancient Greek and means "broad", refe ...
) bird. In a later recension in English (1997), the Yara simply has "green hair and pink skin".
As for her pink skin-color, a connection has been made between the Iara and the ''boto'' or the pink river dolphin
River dolphins are a polyphyletic group of fully aquatic mammals that reside exclusively in freshwater or brackish water. They are an informal grouping of dolphins, which itself is a paraphyletic group within the infraorder Cetacea. Extant rive ...
. The Iara may have the form of the ''boto''s torso and tail from the waist down, or have a tail similar to manatee, or fish (the Tupi word ''y'' did not have a distinct meaning, being used in general for any riverine or freshwater lacustrine place) who sits on a rock by the river combing her hair or dozing under the sun.
Legends
Seductress
She would lure the men with her sweet voice, and the seduced men are taken to her home at the bottom of the river, to be drowned. In other versions, the men who fell under the spell of the Iara would leave everything behind to live with her underwater forever, due to the fact that she was pretty and would cater for all the needs of her lover for the rest of his life. Iara is immortal, but many of her lovers age and die, so she is condemned to live most of eternity alone. In the so-called Manaus version of the Yara legend given by Bernardino de Souza (1873), the tragic hero is an unnamed youth, a son of a ''tapuyo'' chieftain (), who becomes enchanted by the beauty and song of the Yara, and falls prey. In Arinos's version, the youth is named Jaguarari, the son of the chieftain of the Manaus people, who likewise becomes enthralled and visits the Yara at the waterfall point of Taruman (var.Tarumã
Tarumã is a municipality in the state of São Paulo in Brazil. It was founded in October 20, 1927 and has a population of 15,183. Is 455 km away from the capital, São Paulo.
History
Tarumã started as a village called Vila Lex (Lex Villag ...
) after nightfall. The worried mother begs this to stop, even suggesting they move out of the settlement to a new location. But the boy (describing the Yara as above) cannot free himself from obsessing over her. One day, the boy and the Yara are witnessed together by the villagers, but after that, the boy is seen no more.
According to some folkloric accounts, those who survive end up going crazy or survive with teeth marks on their neck. Merely passing through the iara's territory could cause a man to be melancholy, and develop nervous excitement which others perceive as madness. The symptoms resemble rabies
Rabies is a viral disease that causes encephalitis in humans and other mammals. It was historically referred to as hydrophobia ("fear of water") because its victims panic when offered liquids to drink. Early symptoms can include fever and abn ...
but instead of hydrophobia ("fear of water"), he becomes hydrophilic ("attracted to water").
Warrior-maiden
According to Brazilian folklore, Iara was a beautiful warrior-woman, a young indigenous woman who developed admirable skills in warfare in a patriarchal tribe, gaining admiration of the whole tribe and respect from her father, the chief of the tribe, but aroused the envy of her brothers who decided to murder her during the night. The legend says Iara knew how to defend herself from her brothers' attacks and accidentally killed them. Discovered by her father, she took refuge in the woods but was captured and punished for the murders of her brothers by being drowned in the river. Other versions claim they killed her and dumped her body in the river and blamed the night goddess, Jaci, for her disappearance. Turned into a mermaid upon being saved by nearby fish on the night of a full moon or by Jaci in some versions, she decided to take revenge on all men by seducing them and drowning them in the river.Anecdotal versions
The legend of the Iara was one of the usual explanations for the disappearance of those who ventured alone into thejungle
jungle is land covered with dense forest and tangled vegetation, usually in tropical climates. Application of the term has varied greatly during the past century.
Etymology
The word ''jungle'' originates from the Sanskrit word ''jaṅgala'' ...
. had heard his own version of the Yara tale from a friend, but suspected it was a cover-up story for a murder. Néri gave the title as the version of Pará, and purports it to be based on a real death, the body found in water of one Januario Marinho, as reported in the local newspaper of the provincial capital (Belém
Belém (; Portuguese for Bethlehem; initially called Nossa Senhora de Belém do Grão-Pará, in English Our Lady of Bethlehem of Great Pará), often called Belém of Pará, is the capital and largest city of the state of Pará in the north of B ...
). Though the dead man was Portuguese, his fiancée Mundica was from the Belém elite community, as was Néri. The fiancée recounted that the man was in the habit of visiting a water spot in the canal (''igarapés'') haunted by the Yara. But one time, his strange behavior upon return convinced her he had seen the Yara (which he eventually admitted, describing her as wearing a white robe and later as gold-tawny haired and emerald-green eyed). A German friend accompanied when the man went to the spot armed with rifle, but wound up being attacked and fainting. Afterwards, he seemed mentally disturbed. The story encouraged the listener to believe the man probably could not repress his impulse and returned to the water spot again, and met his fate. Néri suspected there was foul play.
Another real-life incident tied to the iara myth concerns Dr. João Barbosa Rodrigues Júnior (1872–1931) who while collaborating with his father to domesticate a tribe, was accompanied by his wife, who was fair-skinned, blue-eyed and blonde, and when she was spotted bathing in the creek, the natives shouted "Uiara! Uiara!"
Literary depictions
Antônio Gonçalves Dias's poem "A mãe d'água" (1851) describe the female figure as having golden hair, and 's poem "As Uiaras" depict these singing sirens as being "whiter than the teeth of tapirs, more blonde than the skin of jaguars" and beautiful.José de Alencar
José Martiniano de Alencar (May 1, 1829 – December 12, 1877) was a Brazilian lawyer, politician, orator, novelist and dramatist. He is considered to be one of the most famous and influential Brazilian Romantic novelists of the 19th century, ...
's novel ''O tronco do Ipé'' (1875) gives "long tresses the same color as her leafy surroundings".
Modernists poets also alluded to the iara. Cassiano Ricardo
Cassiano Ricardo (July 26, 1895 – January 14, 1974) was a Brazilian journalist, literary critic, and poet.
An exponent of the nationalistic tendencies of Brazilian modernism, he was associated with the ''Green-Yellow'' and ''Anta'' groups ...
in (1928) described her as "a strange woman, very beautiful, very fair, like no other in the world: Green hair, yellow eyes. Her name was Uiara". Mário de Andrade
Mário Raul de Morais Andrade (; October 9, 1893 – February 25, 1945) was a Brazilian poet, novelist, musicologist, art historian and critic, and photographer. He wrote one of the first and most influential collections of modern Brazilian po ...
in ''Clã do Jabuti'' ('Clan of the Turtle', 1927) writes of a siren in the river, presumed to refer to the Mãe d'Água, as having "hair of green river slime" ().
Origin theories
It has been claimed until the 18th century, there was no Iara legend about the seductive rivermermaid
In folklore, a mermaid is an aquatic creature with the head and upper body of a female human and the tail of a fish. Mermaids appear in the folklore of many cultures worldwide, including Europe, Latin America, Asia, and Africa.
Mermaids are ...
, but such legend grew out of the indigenous myth about the monstrous river merman
A merman (: mermen; also merlad or merboy in youth), the male counterpart of the mythical female mermaid, is a legendary creature which is human from the waist up and fish-like from the waist down, but may assume normal human shape. Sometimes mer ...
known as Ipupiara ("freshwater monster").
The blond, blue-eyed image was not attested until after the mid-nineteenth century, to the best knowledge of Camara Cascudo., "IARA", cross-referenced to: "MÃE-D'ÁGUA". Cascudo in his earlier writing contended that though the Iara was rooted in two indigenous beings, the water-devil Ipupiara (cf. below) and the Cobra-Grande, he also saw the combining of the Portuguese lore of the Enchanted Moura
The Enchanted moura or (enchanted female Mouros) is a supernatural being from the fairy tales of Portuguese and Galician folklore. Very beautiful and seductive, she lives under an imposed occult spell. Shapeshifters, the occupy liminal space ...
(moorish girl), who was obviously dark-skinned. The Iara became increasingly to be regarded as a woman-fish, after the image of the European sirens/mermaids.
Parallels
The (Mother of the Water, also styled ) is a supernatural being of the rivers and lakes, held to be the equivalent of the Iara of the Amazon. The belief inYoruba religion
The Yorùbá religion (Yoruba language, Yoruba: Ìṣẹ̀ṣe), West African Orisa (Òrìṣà), or Isese (Ìṣẹ̀ṣe), comprises the traditional religious and spiritual concepts and practice of the Yoruba people. Its homeland is in pres ...
of the African immigrant influenced orisha
Orishas (singular: orisha) are divine spirits that play a key role in the Yoruba religion of West Africa and several religions of the African diaspora that derive from it, such as Haitian Vaudou, Cuban Santería and Brazilian Candomblé. The p ...
, Iemanjá has been conflated with the Iara. One analysis contends that both Iara and Iemanjá share a common root origin as the purely indigenous Ipupiara. Another paper emphasizes that even though the Iemanjá which originally an ocean deity could be distinguished from the freshwater Iara, the demarcation became blurred through a long period of convergence, starting when the Europeans began proselytizing in the African-descent community.
The lore of ''boto'' river dolphin sometimes transforming into human women is likened to Iara or Iemanjá.
In her mermaid form, she is called Nyai Blorong.
There are other comparable metamorphosing and seducing beings besides the boto in Brazilian lore, such as and Cobra-Grande.
The Iara is also similar to several other folkloric female figures from other regions of Latin America
Latin America is the cultural region of the Americas where Romance languages are predominantly spoken, primarily Spanish language, Spanish and Portuguese language, Portuguese. Latin America is defined according to cultural identity, not geogr ...
such as the Colombian La Patasola
The Patasola or "single leg" is one of many legends in Colombian folklore about female monsters from the jungle, appearing to male hunters or loggers in the middle of the wilderness when they think about women. The Patasola appears in the form ...
and the Tunda
The Tunda () is a myth of the Pacific coastal region of Colombia and Ecuador, and particularly in the Afro-Colombian community of the Chocó department, about a shapeshifting entity resembling a human woman that lures people into the forests and ke ...
. They all function as sirens leading men to their deaths, though the Patasola and Tunda are specifically forest spirits and the Tunda does not target only men and can treat the people it kidnaps nicely.
Adaptations
Andrew Lang
Andrew Lang (31 March 1844 – 20 July 1912) was a Scottish poet, novelist, literary critic, and contributor to the field of anthropology. He is best known as a folkloristics, collector of folklore, folk and fairy tales. The Andrew Lang lectur ...
wrote an adaptation of the legend of Yara in '' The Brown Fairy Book'', based on ''Folk-Lore brésilien'' (by , Pará version summarized under ).
Legacy and influence
Iara (or Yara) is a very popular female name in Brazil.In modern media
In the film version of the novel '' Macunaíma'' (1969), the eponymous protagonist meets his death at the hands of an Iara. He embraces her eagerly and sees too late the blow hole in the back of her neck that gives her away as the creature she is and not the beautiful woman he mistook her for.
In 2021 Brazilian supernatural TV series, Invisible City, the protagonist meets an Iara but survives her drowning attempts. She tells him that she became an Iara after her lover killed and drowned her in a river, but she was resurrected.
In the 2021 DC Comics
DC Comics (originally DC Comics, Inc., and also known simply as DC) is an American comic book publisher owned by DC Entertainment, a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery. DC is an initialism for "Detective Comics", an American comic book seri ...
' ''Wonder Girl
Wonder Girl is the alias of multiple list of superheroines, superheroines featured in comic books published by DC Comics. They are associated with the superheroine Wonder Woman and possess Amazons (DC Comics), Amazonian powers.
The Wonder Girl a ...
'' comic book starring the future Brazilian Wonder Woman
Wonder Woman is a superheroine who appears in American comic books published by DC Comics. The character first appeared in ''All Star Comics'' Introducing Wonder Woman, #8, published October 21, 1941, with her first feature in ''Sensation Comic ...
, Yara Flor
Yara Flor is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. She is one of four heroines to use the identity of Wonder Girl. Created by Joëlle Jones, she first appeared in '' Dark Nights: Death Metal'' #7 (January 2021).
Ya ...
, Iara was a great Brazilian warrior who was later transformed into a mermaid-like divine being as the protector of the sacred waters
Sacred waters are sacred natural sites characterized by tangible topographical land formations such as rivers, lakes, spring (hydrosphere), springs, Water reservoir, reservoirs, and oceans, as opposed to holy water which is water elevated with th ...
. It was she who bestowed on Yara Flor her characteristic weapon of power, the Golden Boleadoras.Jones, Joëlle. ''Wonder Girl'' (Volume 3) #2. DC Comics. 2021.
Iara appears in ''AdventureQuest Worlds
''AdventureQuest Worlds'' is a browser-based massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) released by Artix Entertainment in 2008.
Synopsis
The player character, referred to as 'the Hero', arrives in the midst of a war pitting the fo ...
''. It was mentioned that Iara was knocked off the cliff into the river during a family scuffle and was turned into a mermaid by nature itself.
In Love, Death & Robots
''Love, Death & Robots'' (stylized as LOVE DEATH + ROBOTS; represented in emoji form as ❤️❌🤖) is an adult animation, adult animated Anthology series, anthology television series created by Tim Miller (director), Tim Miller and streamin ...
season 3 (2022), episode 9 "Jibaro", a deaf warrior meets an Iara who lures his comrades with her screams, causing them to enter a dancing frenzy, rushing to her to ultimately drown in the lake.
Iara is a minor antagonist in the TV series adaptation of Beastmaster, presenting as a siren who appears as a beautiful woman but it's only an illusion as she is really a water snake. She always kills the warriors she loves and she spends her story arcs trying to make Dar her latest love/victim.
See also
* List of legendary creatures by type#Water * Alamoa * * Yacumama (Quechua: "Madre del Agua") - legendary serpent of the AmazonExplanatory notes
Citations
Bibliography
* ** * *Vol. 2 (J–Z)
* * * * ; @gallica * * *
Further reading
* * http://revistas.unisinos.br/index.php/fronteiras/article/view/fem.2015.172.10 * Sá, Lúcia, Maria Ignez França, and Lemos, Rafaella. "Macunaíma (1928)." In Literatura Da Floresta: Textos Amazônicos E Cultura Latino-americana, 79-120. Rio de Janeiro: SciELO – EDUERJ, 2004. {{refend Brazilian folklore Guaraní legendary creatures Mermaids Tupí legendary creatures Women warriors