Aquaman is a superhero positively steeped in mythology and magic but unlike most superheroes,
his roots his roots come from a real-life background.
From mermaids to sea gods to Atlantis itself, this is the mythology behind Aquaman.
Since his debut in 1941, Aquaman has been largely defined by his relationship to the
lost continent of Atlantis.
In the very earliest comics, Aquaman was the son of a famous underwater explorer, who gave
him the ability to speak to marine life through the secret wisdom of the abandoned kingdom.
By 1959, Aquaman was reimagined as the son of a human father and an Atlantean mother,
and was eventually named the king of Atlantis.
Now, more than anything else, the lost continent forms the backbone of Aquaman's story.
While concepts of Atlantis have evolved over the centuries, the idea originated with the
philosopher Plato some 2,400 years ago, when he described an advanced and powerful nation
that sank into the sea probably intended as a warning against hubris.
While Plato likely intended the story to be a metaphor, the concept has been taken varying
degrees of seriously since then, with some people legitimately believing in a sunken
continent lost in the North Atlantic.
Whether you believe there's anyone still living down there, however, is a whole different
question.
For a long time, the various heroes of DC Comics more or less inhabited their own little
universes until they started crossing over with each other, most notably starting with
1960's debut of the Justice League of America.
Once Aquaman and Superman were shown to clearly live in the same world, however, the question
arose: Why do the inhabitants of Atlantis in the Aquaman comics just look like people,
while the Atlanteans in Superman comics are more like mermaids?
The 1990 series The Atlantis Chronicles answers that question by explaining that Atlantis
was a continent with multiple major cities, including Poseidonis, where the human-looking
Atlanteans lived, and Tritonis, where the inhabitants were transformed by magic into
mermaids.
So Aquaman himself was from the former, while Lori Lemaris, for example, was from the latter.
This arrangement has been changed by a number of continuity reboots, but currently, humanoid
and non-humanoid Atlanteans live side by side.
Chances are extremely good that you're familiar with mermaids, as folklore traditions from
all over the world theorise the existence of half-human, half-fish creatures.
Many of these are likely to be inspired by sightings of marine animals such as seals,
manatees, and walruses.
Mostly, however, the traditional folkloric mermaid is beautiful and alluring but often
dangerous too, sometimes offering their love while luring mortals to their deaths.
They're also frequently mentioned as living for 300 years and having no souls, but that's
not usually part of the whole Aquaman thing.
Except for that one time when Aquaman's hand was a magical shape-shifting harpoon, the
weapon most associated with the lord of the seas is the trident.
While not always explicitly the case, Aquaman's main trident in his role as the true monarch
of Atlantis is usually the Trident of Poseidon.
This three-pronged spear is supposed to be the weapon of the god himself and, as such,
possesses multiple powers, including the ability to control the water of the sea, command the
weather, or even summon rainbows.
Just in case that's a thing you want to do.
In the 2011 reimagining of Aquaman's world, the trident was merely one of a set forged
by the first king of Atlantis, but nevertheless remains immensely powerful.
"I already got one of those."
The original trident of Poseidon from Greek mythology was one of the magical weapons forged
for the sons of Cronus by the Cyclopes to aid in their war against the Titans.
The trident was Poseidon's most notable attribute in art and was likely meant to resemble a
fishing spear.
Even in the original mythology, Poseidon was able to use his trident to cause earthquakes,
shatter stone, and summon and command storms at sea.
No rainbows, though.
According to Plato, the most notable thing about Atlantis was its military might but
over the centuries, the Atlanteans have come to be thought of as a civilization mighty
in both science and magic.
In fact, many believe that it was the Atlanteans' magical might that led to their downfall.
Theosophical Society founder Madame Blavatsky once claimed that:
"[Atlantis was] marked with a character of sorcery [...] The Atlanteans of the later
period were renowned for their magic powers and wickedness, their ambition and defiance
of the gods."
Many other New Age and spiritualist groups and authors have made much of the various
wizard powers of Atlantis.
The comics have been no exception either, as magic has been a major element in most
versions of the Aquaman canon, perhaps most notably in the comics of the 1990s.
In that version of events, much of Atlantis' history with magic can be traced back to Arion,
the lord high mage of Atlantis before it went underwater.
And while Aquaman's city of Poseidonis focused more on the science side of things, Tritonis
and the other Lost Cities fostered a more magic-based society.
Poseidon is probably one of the best-known Greek gods.
After all, he is the king of some three quarters of the Earth.
Beyond the sea, however, he's also the god of earthquakes, drought, and horses for some
reason.
Together with his brothers Zeus and Hades, he rules one of the three main realms of human
existence, the brothers having cast lots to see who would control what after their victory
over the Titans.
Like most Greek gods, Poseidon can be somewhat fickle in his loyalties: He helped the Trojans
build their city walls, but when they skimped on payment, he sent a sea monster to destroy
them.
He subsequently supported the Greeks during the Trojan war, but when the Greek warrior
Odysseus killed Poseidon's son Polyphemus, Poseidon
hounded him across the oceans for the better part of a decade.
The Poseidon in the Aquaman comics can be similarly unpredictable, though he's generally
portrayed as an antagonist.
In an appearance in 1964, Poseidon kidnaps Aquaman's soon-to-be wife, Mera, and only
relinquishes her after Aquaman travels through time to conquer him.
In the 1990s, Poseidon made Aquaman fight his son Triton for the title of lord of the
sea and blinded Aquaman when he won.
The god of the sea changes his tune, however, when Aquaman rescues him from Hades at which
point he reluctantly awards Aquaman his trident.
Like so many other Greek gods, Poseidon has a whole bunch of children by lots of different
mortal women.
His most famous child, however, is probably Triton, who is the merman son of Poseidon
and his wife Amphitrite.
And Triton is a major player in the Aquaman comics, too.
In the 1990s series, Triton was the big bad of what is more or less the climactic story
of that era the same storyline that ended with Aquaman being struck blind by Poseidon
for defeating him.
Later, Poseidon resurrects his son, but feeling the contempt his father holds for him, Triton
kills Poseidon and takes his power.
Aquaman then has to travel to the realm of the dead in order to save the god of the sea
and defeat his dangerous son.
While Aquaman is most associated with his home of Atlantis, many stories feature him
leaving his native kingdom and exploring new corners of the world.
One such story began in 2002, with Aquaman being exiled from not only Atlantis but the
entire ocean and left ashore to dehydrate.
Fortunately, Aquaman is rescued by the Lady of the Lake, who gives him access to the Secret
Sea, an interdimensional reservoir of healing energy.
The Lady of the Lake not only saves his life but replaces the iconic harpoon hand of the
1990s with the less well-known magical water hand that Aquaman bore for most of the 2000s.
The Lady of the Lake is a major, yet mysterious, figure from Arthurian legend.
She is an ambiguous and shifting figure, at times benevolent and at other times dangerous,
and is most famous for giving Arthur his famous sword Excalibur.
"Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government!"
The Lady of the Lake has a similarly hard-to-grasp motivation in the Aquaman comics, which touch
on Arthurian themes surprisingly rarely for a series that is quite literally about a king
called Arthur.
In a 2019 story starting in Aquaman #43, the former king of Atlantis washes up on a small
island with no memory of who he is or how he got there.
This story, called "Unspoken Water," sees the amnesiac Aquaman living among a mysterious
and eccentric group of people who hail from many different cultures.
In the end, it turns out these people are, in fact, the Sea Gods of the World, ancient
water deities from such cultures as the Aztec, Irish, and Maori.
They had been exiled to the island of Unspoken Water for their failure to keep balance in
the world's oceans following the battle between the primordial deities Father Sea and Mother
Salt.
Since that story, these deities have remained major supporting characters in the Aquaman
series, and they're all based on real mythology.
Mother Salt, for example, is modeled on Nammu, a Babylonian sea goddess.
Her daughter Caille, usually depicted in the comic as a blue woman with horns and wings,
is based on Cailleach, a Gaelic weather goddess known as the Queen of Winter.
The other major characters include Wee, who is really Chalchiuhtlicue, an Aztec storm
and sea goddess, and Loc, also known as Tlaloc, the Aztec rain god.
Arguably Aquaman's greatest nemesis is his half-brother Orm, better known as Ocean Master.
"Rise, Atlantis!"
Since his debut in the 1960s, Ocean Master has constantly tried to usurp Arthur's throne
but in a subplot that began a few years ago, he tries his most surprising scheme yet: going
legit.
After seemingly settling down to a peaceful family life on the surface, Orm helps Mera
overthrow a pretender to the throne of Atlantis before befriending the young sea goddess Lernaea
and establishing a refuge for the homeless of Atlantis.
He names his new city Dagon, and it seems pretty likely that he is planning to use it
to stage a coup against Atlantis.
The name Dagon is an ancient one, and was even used for a one-off Aquaman villain in
the 1960s.
Dagon was said to be a Semitic fertility god usually depicted with a fish tail.
As a major god of the Philistines, he appears a number of times in the Bible, including
a story from 1 Samuel in which the Ark of the Covenant destroys a statue of him.
The ancient deity also inspired the famous H.P.
Lovecraft haunted seafloor story "Dagon."
While Atlantis is the most famous lost city to sink beneath the waves, it's far from the
only legendary city to populate world folklore.
One such place is Thule, also known as Ultima Thule a mysterious island thought to be at
the farthest northern reaches known to the ancient world.
The Greek explorer who claimed to have found it described it as a barbaric land full of
simple farmers.
Also, the sun only set once a year.
In a story from 2015, Aquaman journeys to Thule, which, rather than an Arctic island
full of farmers, turns out to be a dimension of sorcerers exiled from Atlantis following
a civil war.
Having been recently deposed from the throne of Atlantis, Aquaman encounters refugees from
Thule and subsequently has to halt an invasion from the wizard dimension.
Other legendary lost cities that have been featured in Aquaman comics include Hy-Brasil,
a lost Irish island in myth and a city of manta ray people in the comics.
There's also Thierna Na Oge, a fairy world of eternal youth in Irish legend and a land
of powerful Atlantean magicians in the comics.
Likewise, the comics have made use of the land of Mu, a theoretical sunken continent
from the Pacific.
Honestly, if anything, it kinda sounds like Aquaman needs to figure out who keeps sinking
these islands.
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