Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Schwartz, Charles E.
• Stevenson, Roger E.

Titel

In search of the earliest images of symmelia in works of art

Ist Teil von

• American journal of medical genetics. Part C, Seminars in medical genetics, 2021-06, Vol.187 (2), p.151-156

Ort / Verlag

Hoboken, USA: John Wiley & Sons, Inc

Erscheinungsjahr

2021

Quelle

Alma/SFX Local Collection

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• Symmelia (alias sirenomelia, mermaid malformation) is one of the most distinctive malformations which, not surprisingly, has attracted the attention of many artists, writers and other observers of the human condition. Works of art depicting symmelia date back at least two millennia. Some are anatomically based while others are more fanciful creations intended to stir the imagination. The figure of Atargatis as a mermaid on a first century BC coin is one of the earliest known images of symmelia. A nearly 2000‐year‐old Native American pottery figure representing an infant with symmelia is another.