Old Man of the Sea
E135972
Old Man of the Sea is a parasitic, mythical figure from the Sinbad tales in One Thousand and One Nights who clings to a victim’s shoulders and forces them to carry him endlessly.
All labels observed (1)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Old Man of the Sea canonical | 4 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T1199960 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Old Man of the Sea Context triple: [Sinbad the Sailor, encounters, Old Man of the Sea]
-
A.
Fishermen at Sea
Fishermen at Sea is an early Romantic-era oil painting by J. M. W. Turner that dramatically depicts small fishing boats battling the moonlit waves of a turbulent sea.
-
B.
Under the Sea-Wind
Under the Sea-Wind is a 1941 nature book by marine biologist Rachel Carson that vividly portrays the lives of sea creatures through lyrical, scientifically informed narrative.
-
C.
The Toll of the Sea
The Toll of the Sea is a 1922 silent drama film, one of the earliest Hollywood movies shot in Technicolor, featuring Anna May Wong in her first leading role.
-
D.
The Sea
The Sea is a painting by British artist L. S. Lowry, known for its minimalist seascape composition and characteristic muted palette.
-
E.
The Pearl of Orr's Island
The Pearl of Orr's Island is a 19th-century novel set in coastal Maine that explores themes of morality, community, and Christian faith through the lives of its seafaring characters.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Old Man of the Sea Target entity description: Old Man of the Sea is a parasitic, mythical figure from the Sinbad tales in One Thousand and One Nights who clings to a victim’s shoulders and forces them to carry him endlessly.
-
A.
Fishermen at Sea
Fishermen at Sea is an early Romantic-era oil painting by J. M. W. Turner that dramatically depicts small fishing boats battling the moonlit waves of a turbulent sea.
-
B.
Under the Sea-Wind
Under the Sea-Wind is a 1941 nature book by marine biologist Rachel Carson that vividly portrays the lives of sea creatures through lyrical, scientifically informed narrative.
-
C.
The Toll of the Sea
The Toll of the Sea is a 1922 silent drama film, one of the earliest Hollywood movies shot in Technicolor, featuring Anna May Wong in her first leading role.
-
D.
The Sea
The Sea is a painting by British artist L. S. Lowry, known for its minimalist seascape composition and characteristic muted palette.
-
E.
The Pearl of Orr's Island
The Pearl of Orr's Island is a 19th-century novel set in coastal Maine that explores themes of morality, community, and Christian faith through the lives of its seafaring characters.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (40)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
literary character
ⓘ
mythical figure ⓘ parasitic being ⓘ |
| adaptedIn | various retellings of Sinbad stories ⓘ |
| alignment | malevolent ⓘ |
| appearsIn |
One Thousand and One Nights
ⓘ
linked to:
The Arabian Nights
Sinbad the Sailor ⓘ |
| associatedWith |
islands
ⓘ
sea voyages ⓘ |
| behavior |
manipulative
ⓘ
parasitic ⓘ |
| culture | Arabic literature ⓘ |
| defeatedBy |
Sinbad
ⓘ
linked to:
Sinbad the Sailor
|
| defeatMethod |
being killed by Sinbad while intoxicated
ⓘ
getting drunk on wine ⓘ |
| firstEncounterLocation | an island visited by Sinbad ⓘ |
| forcesAction | carrying him continuously ⓘ |
| genre | fantasy ⓘ |
| influenced | later literary metaphors for economic or social burdens ⓘ |
| languageOfOrigin | Arabic ⓘ |
| medium |
folklore
ⓘ
oral tradition ⓘ |
| methodOfControl |
locking his legs around the victim’s neck
ⓘ
refusing to dismount from the victim’s shoulders ⓘ |
| motif |
inescapable rider
ⓘ
parasitic hitchhiker ⓘ |
| narrativeTradition | frame tale of One Thousand and One Nights ⓘ |
| notableFor |
clinging to a victim’s shoulders
ⓘ
forcing victims to carry him endlessly ⓘ |
| originatesFrom | Middle Eastern folklore ⓘ |
| physicalForm | old man ⓘ |
| relatedConcept | metaphor for a heavy burden ⓘ |
| relatedWork | The Seven Voyages of Sinbad the Sailor ⓘ |
| requires | a host to carry him ⓘ |
| roleInStory | antagonist ⓘ |
| symbolizes |
burdensome obligations
ⓘ
inescapable burden ⓘ parasitic dependence ⓘ |
| threatTo | travelers ⓘ |
| victim |
Sinbad
ⓘ
linked to:
Sinbad the Sailor
|
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Old Man of the Sea Description of subject: Old Man of the Sea is a parasitic, mythical figure from the Sinbad tales in One Thousand and One Nights who clings to a victim’s shoulders and forces them to carry him endlessly.
Referenced by (4)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
subject linked to:
Proteus from Greek mythology