Everything about Cecaelia totally explained
A
cecaelia (pronounced as
seh-SAY-lee-ahh; though unrelated to the
Latin-originated name
Cecilia) is a composite
mythical being, appearing occasionally in art and literature (notably from Japan), combining the head, arms and torso of a woman (more rarely a man) and, from the lower torso down, the
tentacles of an
octopus or
squid, as a form of
mermaid or
sea demon. The term derives primarily from the distorted mispronounced name of a character/story title from a
black-and-white comic in
Vampirella Magazine featured in the early 1970s which shows a woman/octopus hybrid character called "Cilia".
Other common terms used are "octopus-mermaid", "octo-mermaid", "octo-girl", "octopian", and variants thereof. While the broader term
mermaid (
Latin- "sea maiden") would otherwise apply, cecaelia are generally considered a separate unrelated species. Also, more commonly, cecaelia are referred to as "
sea witches" (see below).
History
While it's generally accepted that cecaelia are imagined in a more dominant sensual/sexual role than mermaids/
sirens or human women, they're far-less often seen as such a violent and personally intrusive creature despite their inhuman appearance and additional limbs. But
when used in this light, cecaelia will be seen as using their tentacles to
restrain the human subject/victim by the arms and legs, with a following of
teasing and/or painful stretching, but even then there's rarely any actual sexual violation such as
rape.
Cilia
The originating story of the term cecaelia comes from the comic "Cilia" in Issue #16 of
Vampirella Magazine (
Warren Publications) in
April,
1972, and later reprinted in Issue #27 in
September,
1973, though it's unrelated to the title hero character for which the magazine was named. It was a short black and white comic strip written by
Nicola Cuti and illustrated by
Felix Mas.
In the story, a thin-figure cecaelia rescues the only two survivors of the crash of the wooden
sailing ship Davy Jones just after
April 16,
1872 in an unspecified seaside location somewhere between
England and
Africa. While the one sailor is unconscious for the entire two week ordeal (the story itself is recounted from his point of view after the ordeal), the captain begins to search for help and food, coming upon the cecaelia as she's weeping on the beach. Initially repulsed and fearful of her appearance, she speaks calmly to him:
"
Don't be frightened, mortal. I'm a gentle sea creature. I'm a cilophyte. My people have saved many of yours from drowning."
She tells him that she'd rescued them, but she too became lost and separated from others of her kind during the rescue. She then helps the two survivors by hunting for food in the sea and providing medicine for the unconscious sailor. During this time the captain begins to fall in love with the cilophyte as she helps them. She comes to be known by him as "Cilia". Having also fallen in love with him, she agrees to go back with the captain to England, disguised as a mysterious third passenger- 'walking' on her tentacles in a long black dress to disguise her aquatic origins.
After returning to England, stories among the townsfolk and fishermen quietly begin to circle about the captain's new wife- she's frequently gone for long periods of time, she almost never appears in public, and she's sometimes seen drenched in water. Eventually, a small group of fisherman kidnap Cilia. Days later, they anonymously reveal to the captain where his wife is- chained to the rocks on the nearby shore, where she's been humiliated and badly beaten. When the captain arrives to rescue her, Cilia's injuries are severe, and she dies in his arms. Stricken with grief, he carries her dead body into the water, drowning himself in the process.
Days after this happens, a ship crashes during a stormy night near the village where the captain and Cilia lived. When the rescue party arrives, they discover that all of the sailors aboard- among them the ones who kidnapped Cilia- have been tortured and mauled, literally torn limb-from-limb. Though not specifically mentioned, it's shown in the final windows of the comic that the sailors were attacked by other cilophytes in an act of revenge...
There is only one really clear picture of Cilia in the strip, but oddly it shows her with only six tentacles forming below her waist, as opposed to an octopus' normal eight. It is in that same frame that she speaks to the captain for the first time.
In Literature and Art
Cecaelia have appeared occasionally in artwork and literature- indeed predating the story "Cilia"- though they're not consistently named-
- The Japanese artist Hokusai produced a couple of erotic pieces that featured such a woman-octopus hybrid, as well as related pieces showing couplings of women with octopuses. It is clear that in the original Japanese context at the time that the images were made, the couplings were considered consensual as opposed to the more modern-interpretation which would more likely be hentai-inspired tentacle rape.
H. P. Lovecraft's mythology frequently featured squid and octopoi hybrids, including a two legged female cecaelia derived from both "The Shadow of Innsmouth" and "Dagon", which was made into a movie in 2001, with Macarena Gómez playing the role of the siren-like Uxía Cambarro. Though she only has two tentacles in place of human legs, some classify Uxía as more likely being a variant on a lamia, which- like a mermaid- is half-woman, but features a single long snake's tail instead of a shorter fish tail with fins.
One time in the bi-monthly adult comic book "" (1996-present), the character of encounters a magikal cecaelia within an underwater cavern filled with treasures that she collected over time from beaches. After restraining him and gloating about how inferior and dumb humans are, she tries to seduce him (performing a handjob with one of her tentacles) before transforming herself into a human and forcing him to have sex with her. However, Webb resists temptation and his own limited magik power allows him to summon a dead pirate soul to distract the cecaelia while he successfully escapes. This cecaelia's eyes were yellow with the pupils shaped like an octopus's, her skin was green and her tentacles were black. Her hair was instead made up of many smaller thin black tentacles, similar to the well-known Gorgons from Greek mythology and their snake-filled hair. She was able to walk with her tentacles out of the water, and used two crabs as a form of pasties in her non-human form. Unlike most interpretations of cecaelia, where their tentacles begin at the waist, this one's tentacles began just below her hips, allowing her to regularly and successfully avoid the mermaid problem.
Modern amateur artists have also been known to post their paintings of cecaelia on online galleries, such as deviantART.com .
In Popular Media
Sea witches
Perhaps one of the most well-recognized cecaelia in modern history is Ursula the Sea Witch, from Walt Disney Pictures' "The Little Mermaid" (1989), voiced by Pat Carroll. Full figured and blue-tinged skin, Ursula uses her black-and-purple tentacle arms to dramatic effect, though in the climax of the film she's killed by Prince Eric. (Trivially, she was only animated with six tentacles compared to a real octopus's eight. However, she technically has eight limbs if you count her two human arms). She also had a very brief non-speaking cameo in one episode of (1998-1999). Her sister, the cecaelia Morgana (voiced also by Carroll), is featured in much the same role in the direct-to-DVD sequel "" (2000)- though she's thinner and more squid-like.
The character of Ursula also appears as the antagonist in Disney's Broadway musical production of The Little Mermaid (2008-present), though she's performed here by stage actress Sherie Rene Scott. A major change for the character was introduced here which wasn't seen before- that Ursula and King Triton were brother and sister (thus making Princess Ariel her niece). Ursula and Triton, at their father's deathbed, are given presents- Triton the crown and magical trident which give him command over Atlantica, and Ursula half of the ocean and the plain golden seashell necklace. (The necklace is featured in all of her animated appearances, though no explanation is given to its origins.) This enrages Ursula, and she secretly plots to take over the kingdom through the use of dark, forbidden magic. However, she's caught before she can do so, and is eternally banished from the kingdom. It is implied that she may have originally been a mermaid, and that Triton transformed her into an ugly cecaelia as punishment, but this isn't shown. This plot element was originally considered for the 1989 film, but was dropped. It is, however, vaguely hinted at in her first appearance in the film where she says that she lived in the palace, but no further explanation is given. This closer family-relations plot element is only part of the Broadway production, and isn't considered cannon in any other animated or literature in the larger franchise. However, the origin of this family link was seen in the initial script drafts for the 1989 animated film, but was eventually dropped.
One time during the "Little Mermaid"-based TV series (1992-1994)- in which she makes several appearances, again as an antagonist- Ursula's species was identified as "Octopian".
Because of a lack of common knowledge in identifying Ursula and Morgana's species (which isn't mentioned specifically in the more readily-available motion picture, subsequent direct-to-DVD movies, or any literature), cecaelia in general are now more frequently referred to as "sea witches" today due to the popularity of Disney's example in their Little Mermaid franchise. (By contrast, the unnamed Sea Witch from Hans Christian Andersen's original story of "The Little Mermaid"- first published in 1837- was vaguely described as being just an old mermaid who specialized in potions and magic; a rather minor though important character in the story compared to Disney's re-interpretation.)
Other media sightings
Here are other well-recognized sightings of cecaelia from TV, movies, and video games:
A male cecaelia is figured as a guard in the 2000 music video by Ricky Martin based on his hit song "She Bangs", which also featured a combined live-action/CGI mermaid.
A Sony advertisement
for the "PlayStation 9" (which was actually promoting the PlayStation 2) briefly features in an underwater sequence a cecaelia that turns into a giant octopus. However, instead of human arms, the cecaelia had two more tentacles attached to her shoulders in their place, for a total of 10. Although the sequence is short (barely two seconds long), the advertisement was aired thousands of times in the United States alone and was seen by millions of people.
In the 1993 Japanese-only video game Romancing SaGa 2 for the Super Famicon video game console (the Japanese version of the Super Nintendo), a male cecaelia named Subier is one of the seven major antagonists.
In the 2002 video game "Kingdom Hearts" produced by Square Enix and Disney Interactive for the PlayStation 2 platform, one of the worlds that the main characters visit is the Kingdom of Atlantica from "The Little Mermaid". Because the events of the game take place underwater in this world, some of the characters undergo a transformation. Specifically, Donald Duck becomes a cecaelia version of himself, with six small light blue tentacles replacing the lower half of his body. Also, Ursula the Sea Witch makes an appearance as one of the many lead villains throughout the game. She does return in the sequel game "Kingdom Hearts 2" (2005), but there she more closely matches her role from "The Little Mermaid".Further Information
Get more info on 'Cecaelia'.
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