Below is the full Quizmo quiz devoted to the theme "Mermaids": each question, its four options, the correct answer highlighted and, where available, its source. A chance to brush up on your general knowledge and then test what you know.
▶ Play today's quizIn Disney's 1989 animated film, what is the name of the mermaid heroine?
Source: Ariel was named after an airy spirit in Shakespeare's The Tempest, fitting for a girl who dreams of leaving the sea.
A classic mermaid is traditionally depicted as half-woman and half-what?
Source: The fish tail is so iconic we forget mermaids' mythic cousins were sometimes shown with serpent or even horse halves.
A male counterpart to a mermaid is most commonly called a what?
Source: 'Merman' simply swaps the maid for a man, though sea gods like Triton get all the mythological glory.
Which global coffee chain features a twin-tailed mermaid in its logo?
Source: Starbucks' logo is a siren, a twin-tailed mermaid chosen to lure customers in like the sailors of legend.
Which gentle sea mammal is widely believed to have inspired sailors' mermaid sightings?
Source: Columbus reported three 'mermaids' in 1493, almost certainly manatees, grumbling they were 'not half as beautiful as they are painted.'
In Greek mythology, what were the creatures that lured sailors to their doom with bewitching songs?
Source: The sirens' song was so deadly that Odysseus had himself tied to the mast just to hear it and survive.
The world-famous Little Mermaid bronze statue overlooks the harbour of which city?
Source: Copenhagen's tiny 1913 statue honours Hans Christian Andersen and is among the world's most photographed, and most vandalised, sculptures.
Competitive 'mermaid' swimmers propel themselves with a single large fin called a what?
Source: A monofin binds both feet into one blade, letting mermaiders undulate through the water exactly like a dolphin.
In which 1984 film does Tom Hanks fall in love with a mermaid?
Source: Splash made Daryl Hannah a star and helped popularise the name 'Madison', which her mermaid picks off a New York street sign.
A 'mermaid's purse' found on the beach is actually the egg case of which animal?
Source: Those leathery black pouches are shark, skate or ray egg cases, empty nurseries rather than lost handbags.
Mermaids play a major role in which 'Pirates of the Caribbean' film?
Source: In On Stranger Tides, a swarm of mermaids ambushes Blackbeard's crew during the hunt for the Fountain of Youth.
The powerful water spirit Mami Wata is venerated across which continent and its diaspora?
Source: Mami Wata, often shown as a mermaid holding a snake, is honoured across West, Central and Southern Africa and the Americas.
Selkies, mythical beings who shed a sealskin to walk on land, come from the folklore of which region?
Source: In Scottish and Irish lore, hiding a selkie's sealskin traps her on land until she finds it and slips back into the sea.
Weeki Wachee Springs, home to live underwater mermaid shows since 1947, lies in which US state?
Source: Florida's performers secretly breathe from hidden air hoses and smile through it, sustaining one of America's oldest roadside attractions.
Showman P.T. Barnum exhibited a notorious stitched-together hoax mermaid named after which island nation?
Source: The 'Feejee Mermaid' was a monkey's torso sewn onto a fish tail, and paying crowds flocked to see it anyway.
Manatees and dugongs belong to which animal order, whose name nods to mythical sea maidens?
Source: Sirenia is literally named after the sirens, because biologists couldn't resist the centuries-old mermaid connection.
In their earliest Greek depictions, sirens were portrayed as women fused with which animal?
Source: Sirens began as bird-women; only later did artists swap feathers for fish tails, blurring them with mermaids.
In sailors' lore, spotting a mermaid at sea was most often taken as an omen of what?
Source: Far from lucky, a mermaid sighting was dreaded as a warning of storms, shipwreck and drowning ahead.
Japanese legend holds that eating the flesh of a mermaid-like 'Ningyo' grants what?
Source: The nun Yao Bikuni supposedly ate Ningyo flesh and lived 800 years, making immortality feel more like a curse than a gift.
Atargatis, often called the very first mermaid goddess, was worshipped in which ancient land?
Source: Ancient Syria's Atargatis dove into a lake out of grief and emerged part-fish, a mermaid millennia before Ariel.