Thalassophobia

Jesus comforts his disciples on the Sea of Galilee by saying, “It is I; do not be afraid.” But is that what he really said?

Deep, dark and deadly.

That’s what many people think of the ocean, which is why so many scary movies are set there. Perhaps you’ve seen films such as The Meg, Leviathan, Underwater, Deep Blue Sea, Ghost Ship, Open Water, The Deep, or the granddaddy of them all: Jaws.

The tagline for Jaws says it all: “You’ll never go in the water again.”

Humans have been terrified of the big blue sea for thousands of years. “Myths about deep-sea monsters can be found in ancient cultures from all across the globe,” reports The Washington Post, and “the term for fear of the ocean is thalassophobia.” It comes from the Greek: thalasso, “sea,” and phobia, “fear.”

Fear of the sea is not irrational, but rather primal, according to marine researchers. Just last year, according to The Washington Post, “a dorsal fin popped up at Navarre Beach near Pensacola, Fla., prompting a chaotic scramble amid screams of, ‘Get out...