Moonbeams dipping into the Sea by Evelyn De Morgan (19th-20th century, oil on canvas)

In the aftermath of a shipwreck, an exhausted survivor struggles towards the safety of the shore. He clings to an algae-clad rock without the strength to pull himself from the dark waters that surge and ebb around him. The treacherous currents and undertows threaten to pull him under the waves and almost all his strength is gone. At this moment of crisis, he is surprised by the beautiful vision of a young girl sitting on the rock above him with pearly-white skin and with lips parted in song. Her passive expression is enigmatic and whether she will help him or harm him we cannot know but we can be sure that he is spellbound by her pale beauty and magic song. Her abalone-shell harp and pearl hair decoration identify her as one of the sirens – ancient beguiling enchantresses of the ocean who lured mariners to their doom with their seductive song. The lower part of her legs, splashed by the spray of the sea, are magically transformed into the glistening fish scales and fins of a mermaid. Her hair is the auburn hue that in the nineteenth century became a potent symbol of the femme fatale. But she is not the vicious predatory sea-creature painted in continental Europe by the likes of Arnold Bocklin, Franz von Stuck or Gustave Moreau. She appears innocent of the harm her singing has caused and continues to pluck at the strings of her harp and gaze down at the drowning sailor below, as curious of him as he is of her.

A Mermaid by John William Waterhouse (1900)

‘Echo and Narcissus’ (detail) by John William Waterhouse, c. 1903.

Herbert James Draper, The Lament for Icarus (1898) (detail)

Friday night Xena x Callisto from my patreon

Normally you'd be right about gay fanart of media from the 90s but just this once it's actually like this.

never forget when saruman literally told gandalf "you've been smoking too much weed bro"

Saruman, later that day: I HAVE LOST A FRIEND TO "SOCIAL JUSTICE"

In Frozen (2013), Anna sings about how she is so alone, despite having dozens of servants that work in the castle daily. This is because royalty don’t see staff as people, but more like a kind of mobile furniture. She would rather talk to paintings than to speak with Kai, her lifelong valet.