Iara (mythology)

Iara, also spelled Uiara, Yara or Hiara (Portuguese pronunciation: [iˈjaɾɐ], [iˈaɾɐ], [ˈjaɾɐ], [wiˈjaɾɐ], [ujˈjaɾɐ]) or Mãe das Águas ([ˈmɐ̃j dɐz ˈaɡwɐs], "mother of the waters"), is a figure from Brazilian mythology based on Tupi and Guaraní mythology. Depending on the oral tradition and the context of the story,^[1] she can be seen either as a water nymph, a siren, or a beautiful mermaid that lives in the Amazon River.

She has many forms; in her mermaid form, she is called Nyai Blorong.^[2]

Etymology

Iara is from the vocabulary of Tupi–Guarani languages, and in Old Tupi yîara consists of y "water" + îara "lord, lady", hence "water queen",^[3]^[5] and likewise in Nheengatu it breaks down into iiyara ií "water" + îara "lord; lady".^[6]

Physical description

Her physical traits such as her hair color vary according to regional oral tradition.^[7] In the tale of the youth Jaguarari, the Yara has "green hair and pink skin" according to a variant,^[8], though a more complicated description is found in Arinos's standard text, where she has hair the color of the flowers of the pau d'arco tree (Handroanthus spp.)^[a] and pink skin like the plumage of the pt:colhereira bird.^[13]

In other versions, she has flowing black hair and brown eyes,^[7] and Leandro Tocantins [pt] has professed he prefers the version where Yara is depicted more like a cabocla (suggesting copper tone skin), with long black hair and almond-shaped eyes.^[10]

As for her pink color, a connection has been made between the Iara and the boto or the pink river dolphin.^[14] She may thus have a tail similar to the dolphin, 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.^{[citation needed]}

Legends

Seductress

She would lure the men with her sweet voice,^[7] and the seduced men are taken to her home at the bottom of the river, to be drowned.^[7]^[15] 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.^{[citation needed]} Iara is immortal, but many of her lovers age and die, so she is condemned to live most of eternity alone.^{[citation needed]}

In Arinos's tale, the youth named Jaguarari (var. Jaraguari), the son of the chieftain of the Manaus people, becomes enthralled so he visits the Yara at the waterfall point of Taruman (var. Tarumã) after nightfall, and 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 her. One day, the boy and the Yara are witnessed together by the villagers, but after that, the boy is seen no more.^[16]^[8]

According to some folkloric accounts, those who survive end up going crazy^[19] or survive with teeth marks on their neck.^[20]^{[better source needed]}

Warrior-maiden

According to Brazilian folklore, Iara was a beautiful warrior-woman,^[7] a young indigenous woman who developed admirable skills in warwfare in a patriarchal tribe, gaining admiration of the whole tribe and respect from her father,^[21] the chief of the tribe, but aroused the envy of her brothers who decided to murder her^[7] during the night. The legend says Iara knew how to defend herself from her brothers' attacks and accidentally killed them.^[22] 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.^[7] 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.

Origin theories

It has been claimed until the 18th century, there was no Iara legend about the seductive river mermaid, but such legend grew out of the indigenous myth about the monstrous river merman known as Ipupiara ("freshwater monster"^[b]).^[15]

The legend of the Iara was one of the usual explanations for the disappearance of those who ventured alone into the jungle.

Parallels

The Mãe-d'água (Mother of the Water, also styled Mãe das Águas) is a supernatural being of the rivers and lakes, held to be the equivalent of the Iara of the Amazon.^[23]^[24]

The belief in Yoruba religion of the African immigrant influenced orisha, Iemanjá has been conflated with the Iara.^[7]^[24] The lore of boto river dolphin sometimes transforming into human women is likened to Iara or Iemanjá.^[25]^[24]

The are other comparable metamorphosing and seducing beings besides the boto in Brazilian lore, such as Cobra Norato [pt] and Cobra Grande.^[26]

The Iara is also similar to several other folkloric female figures from other regions of Latin America such as the Colombian La Patasola and the Tunda. 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.^{[citation needed]}

Adaptations

Andrew Lang wrote an adaptation of the legend of Yara in The Brown Fairy Book.^[27]

American naturalist Herbert Huntingdon Smith recorded a version of the legend of Yara, which he titled Oiará, The Water-Maidens.^[28]

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' Wonder Girl comic book starring the future Brazilian Wonder Woman, Yara Flor, Iara was a great Brazilian warrior who was later transformed into a mermaid-like divine being as the protector of the sacred waters. It was she who bestowed on Yara Flor her characteristic weapon of power, the Golden Boleadoras.^[29]

Iara appears in AdventureQuest Worlds. 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 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.

Explanatory notes

^ yellow or white to pink, it is not clear.
^ [ipupiˈaɾɐ] in Portuguese phonological rules; by that [Pre-Pombaline] time, most Brazilians still spoke línguas gerais.

Citations

^ "Article on the city of Olinda". Archived from the original on 2012-03-27. Retrieved 2011-07-16.
^ Robson, Stuart. The Kraton, KITLV Press 2003, Leiden, ISBN 90-6718-131-5, p. 77
^ Wahba, Liliana Liviano (2024). "4 Sao Paulo and th Cultural Complexes of the City: Seeing Through Graffiti". In Singer, Thomas (ed.). Cultural Complexes of Latin America: Voices of the South. Routledge. p. 768. ISBN 978-1-003-40082-0.
^ Bueno, Francisco da Silveira [in Portuguese] (1984). "Iara, Yg". Vocabulário tupi-guarani, português (in Portuguese) (3 ed.). São Paulo: Brasilivros Editora e Distribuidora. p. 141, 504.
^ Tupi yg "agoa", iara/yara/yára "senhor, senhora, don, dona".^[4]
^ Avila, Marcel Twardowsky (2021). Proposta de dicionário nheengatu-português [Nheengatu–Portuguese dictionary proposal] (in Portuguese). São Paulo: USP. p. 316. doi:10.11606/T.8.2021.tde-10012022-201925.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h Diana, Daniela. "Lenda da Iara: Folclore" [Legend of the Iara: folkklore] (in Portuguese). Retrieved 2025-01-29.
^ ^a ^b "The Legend of the Yara"^[17] apud Elswit (2015).^[18] where the youth is called "Jaraguari".
^ Arinos (1917), p. 58.
^ ^a ^b Tocantins, Leandro [in Portuguese] (1963). Santa Maria de Belém Do Gräo Pará: Instantes E Evocacöes la Cidade (in Portuguese). Rio de Janeiro: Editôra Civilizacäo Brasileira. p. 322.
^ Arinos (1948), p. 365.
^ Wiersema, John H.; León, Blanca (2016). "Lecythis". World Economic Plants: A Standard Reference (2 ed.). CRC Press. p. 394. ISBN 9781466576810.
^ "..suas faces tiraram o rosado das pennas da colhereira e das flores da sapucaia"^[9]^[10]Here cohherira or colhereiro is "spoonbill", thus loosely translated as "Her face is pink like a flamingo's feathers and the flower of the coconut tree".^[11] The original Portuguese text gives "the flower of sapucaia", perhaps the purple flowers of the monkey pot Lecythis pisonis, whose fruits are called castanhas "chestnuts" in Portuguese, though L. minor is called coco de mono^[12] (in Venezuela).
^ Burgeile, Odete (2004). "A Influência Do Português Do Brasil No Inglês Barbadiano e Granadino De Porto Velho". In Fernández, Mauro; Fernández-Veiga, Nancy Vázquez; Buell, Paul D. (eds.). Los criollos de base ibérica: ACBLPE 2003. Iberoamericana. p. 257. ISBN 9788484891628.
^ ^a ^b Souza, Licia Soares de (2011). "A Baía de Todos os Santos em Mar Morto". In Caroso, Carlos; Tavares, Fátima; Pereira, Cláudio (eds.). Baía de todos os santos: aspectos humanos (in Portuguese). SciELO – EDUFBA. p. 562. doi:10.7476/9788523211622. ISBN 9788523211622. JSTOR 10.7476/9788523211622.24.
^ Arinos (1917), pp. 55–59; Arinos (1948), pp. 363–366
^ Dorson, Mercedes; Wilmot, Jeanne, eds. (1997). "The Legend of the Yara". Tales from the Rain Forest. Hopewell, NJ: Ecoo Books. pp. 46–55. ISBN 9780880015677.
^ Elswit, Sharon Barcan (2015). The Latin American Story Finder: A Guide to 470 Tales from Mexico, Central America and South America, Listing Subjects and Sources. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland. p. 212. ISBN 9780786478958.
^ "Conto popular do folclore brasileiro - Lenda da Iara (Popular tale of Brazilian folklore - Legend of Iara)" (in Portuguese).
^ BANE, Teresa (7 July 2010). Encyclopedia of Vampire Mythology. McFaland & Company, Inc. ISBN 9780786444526.
^ "Iara (Mermaid Iara)" (in Portuguese).
^ "Lenda da Iara (Legend of Iara)" (in Portuguese).
^ Proença, Manuel Cavalcanti [in Portuguese] (1978). "Mãe-d'água". Roteiro de Macunaíma (5 ed.). Rio de Janeiro: Civilização Brasileira. p. 276.
^ ^a ^b ^c Slater, Candace (2012). "4. Stories and Beliefs about Dolphins as Supernatural Beings". The Dance of the Dolphin: Transformation and Disenchantment in the Amazonian Imagination. University of Chicago Press. p. 101–102 and n24. ISBN 9780226924892.
^ Santos, Vivaldo (2000). "Rhine Maidens". In Balderston, Daniel; Gonzalez, Mike; López, Ana M. (eds.). Encyclopedia of Contemporary Latin American and Caribbean Cultures: A-D. Vol. 1. Routledge. p. 22. ISBN 9780415131889.
^ asconcelos da Silva, Anazildo V; Ramalho, Christina (2007). História da epopéia brasileira: teoria, crítica e percurso (in Portuguese). Vol. 1. São Paulo: Editora Garamond. p. 291. ISBN 9788576171256.
^ Lang, Andrew. The Brown Fairy Book. London; New York : Longmans, Green. 1904. pp. 88-99.
^ Smith, Herbert Huntington. Brazil, the Amazons and the coast. New York: C. Scribner's Sons. 1879. p. 572.
^ Jones, Joëlle. Wonder Girl (Volume 3) #2. DC Comics. 2021.

Bibliography

Arinos, Afonso, ed. (1917). "A Yara" (PDF). Lendas e tradiçiões brsilieras. Saõ Paulo: Typographia Levi. p. 55–59.
- Arinos, Afonso, ed. (1948). "The Yara". Lendas e tradiçiões brsilieras. Translated by Harriet de Onís. New York: A.A. Knopf. p. 363–366.