Nereids and Mermaids: The sisters of Alexander the Great
Greek supernatural wondertales
This series of Greek wondertales are direct translations from collections gathered by Greek folklorists in the 19th century. They have never been translated into English. Scroll to the bottom for more about them. A new collection drops every Tuesday, and I select the theme to tie in to my long form articles that drop every Thursday. Please consider subscribing to receive these as soon as they come out and support this publication!
1. The Sisters of Alexander the Great
from Felloi Municipality, Kalavryta
When Alexander the Great had conquered the whole world, he went to the spring of the water of immortality, and filled two flasks to wash with and become immortal. When he brought them home, an officer with a grudge against him told his sisters the secret and told them to wash and drink it themselves, and to put ordinary water into the flasks. They immediately took the water and drank it and washed in it and poured the used water into the street.
There happened to be a chicken and a wild onion** in the street and they got wet with the aqua vitae; and this is why the chicken moults every year and becomes young again, and the wild onion never dries out, even if it is uprooted and hung in the air.
When Alexander the Great’s sisters had drunk and washed in the aqua vitae, they flew up into the air and became air-spirits*, and since then, they are the Nereids.* Every year they take from the village some marked girls, meaning the odd lame or one-armed one, and they make them nereids too, and put them to work for them, and so they have a large number of troops, and they sit around mountains and valleys.
The original Nereids, the sisters of Alexander the Great, don’t hurt anyone, but the marked ones, their servants, tease and take humans. When someone passes by their area at noon or midnight, the Nereids take them and hit him or knock him down and cause him a thousand ills. But if he thinks quickly and shouts “Alexander the King lives, he lives and reigns!” then his sisters come to his aid immediately and rescue him.
Anyone who is moonstruck can see them, otherwise they beat him without him seeing a thing. They often take shepherdesses from the villages and hide them away in various places, making them invisible; so they can see people coming and searching for them, but they cannot be seen. When they don’t need them any more, they send them on their way, and when they return, they tell of everything that happened, how they could see their relatives passing right by them, and how the bread given to them by the Nereids was dry and black.
* The Greek word νεράιδα does not translate to ‘fairy’ - indeed there is no such thing as a fairy in Greek folklore. I am following folklorist and classicist Margaret Alexiou in leaving it as-is, as the Nereid encompasses a different set of supernatural elemental beings that does not quite equate to those found in Western folklore.
2. King Alexander and the Nereids
From Macedonia
King Alexander was in love with a Nereid. He only saw her at night, and they talked together. That’s why the other Nereids also liked him and he became great and powerful. But at some point he angered them, and then he and his kingdom were destroyed.
But the Nereids still remember him and love him. And when a whirlwind rises, the Nereids who are inside it harm no-one, and indeed the whirlwind will calm if anyone nearby says three times: “Honey and milk! King Alexander passed by here, he lives and reigns!”
For more on Alexander and the Nereids, see the longer article on magical symbolism in folk embroidery, Part 4.
3. The Aloustines*
from Symi (written in dialect)
Nereids are also called Aloustines, because they come out in the summer, and especially in August*. They are young women, very beautiful, unearthly and dressed in white; but they have donkey’s legs. They come out at noon or midnight on nights with no moon, and they disappear by 3 at night at the latest. They dance madly, and grab men, young or old, and draw them into their dance. When the Aloustines dance they sing “Cotton or lead?”; anyone who says lead they leave alone, anyone who says cotton, they fly away with.
Whoever catches an Aloustina becomes happy. He must wait for the moment when the cock crows, when they are vanishing, and grab the one he has chosen by the hand, and hold her tight so she can’t get away. Once the cock has crowed, she remains, and follows him, and does whatever he tells her.
The old ones used to say that if you find Aloustines at noon, quickly grab one by the hair. If you catch an Aloustina, get her grinding wheat, for an Aloustina will never run out of wheat.
Τ.Ν. Symi is in the Dodecanese islands in the Southeastern Aegean just north of Rhodes. The Greek in this piece is written as it was spoken, in heavy dialect, with Αύγουστος (August) written and pronounced Άλουστος. The name Aloustines is local and derives from this dialect.
4. Mountain Nereids and Sea Nereids
from Kalamai
Nereids are not all the same; some are mountain Nereids, others are sea Nereids. The mountain Nereids are very hostile to those from the sea, and every Saturday night they come down from the mountains, and those from the sea come out on land and they fight.
If the mountain Nereids win, lucky is the mountain dweller who happens across their path, as they return to the mountains they will grant him a thousand gifts; but if they should happen on a coastal dweller, he’s in for it! The sea nereids do the same, when they win, they care for the coastal folk and persecute the mountain folk.
5a. The nine women of the arts
Palaiogratsanon, Pieria
At the top of the mountain near our village, in Xouthkais,* there is a gorge on the mountainside. From its top you can see a clearing below, with grass and flowers, but nobody can go there unless lowered down on a rope. From this clearing you can see a huge hole in the rock. It is very dark, and you can tell it is very deep, but nobody ever dared to go inside. From within, you can hear a loud humming.
Now and then, nine women of the arts come out and dance in the clearing, and then they go back in the hole, because that is their home.
Variant from Samos
5b. The Nereids in the Cave
A shepherd watching his sheep got caught in heavy rain, and was forced to go into a nearby cave for shelter. He had a piece of dry bread with him, and he also had his shotgun. As he lay in the cave, he heard lyres, and voices singing in the sweetest tones:
Three slender girls
Walking down the road alone
Suddenly he heard another voice saying “There’s another one here, with his companion,” and it seemed as if a chord broke, and as if there was a crowd of people hurrying away. He went outside the cave, and although it was still daylight, he didn’t see anyone singing or rushing off. That’s when he realised that Nereids lived in the cave, and they left when they saw a man with bread. Because they cannot tolerate bread, and that’s what they meant when they said he had “a companion.”
T.N. Politis’ collection features dozens of similar stories adapted to the environment of various Greek regions (mountain vs. coastal).
* Xouthkais is encountered in another story, as an idiomatic pronunciation of ξωτικές= pixies or elves.
6. The Lyre-player*
Traditional Cretan rendition of this story sung by Giorgos Vidakis with Ross Daly on the lyre.
Whoever wants to learn to play the lyre well goes to a lonesome crossroads at midnight, carves a circle on the ground with a black-handled knife, sits in the circle and begins to play. Soon Nereids come from all around and surround him. Their intentions are not good, for they want to crush him. But since they can’t enter the circle carved with a black-handled knife, they try everything they can to seduce him and pull him out. So they say sweet words to him, and sing beautiful songs, and dance in every way, but if he is steadfast, he hardens his heart, and unmoved, he carries on playing his lyre.
Traditional Cretan shepherd’s knives are made from ram’s horns with the blade fixed in the socket of the horn. Many are whitish; the black ones are rare and figure in many wondertales as magical implements.
“But you can’t play,” they say to him, when they see their airs and graces are in vain; “why are you bothering to play?” “This is how I learned, this is how I play,” says the lyrist. “What do you care?” “Oh, we don’t,” they say to him, “only, if you want, we can teach you how to play the lyre so well that even the stones will dance.” And they plead with him to come out of the circle. He pays no attention; and so they finally ask him just to pass them his lyre. The musician passes it to them, careful to avoid his hand or any other part of his body reaching outside the circle, for it would wither or be cut off. Then a Nereid takes the lyre, plays it artfully for a few moments, and then returns it to him in disgust saying “Take it, if you don’t believe us, then come out and then we’ll teach you.”
But the lyrist remains steadfast, he ignores them and starts playing his lyre badly again. The Nereids, seeking a way to harm him, play the same trick with the lyre several times, hoping that he will forget himself and edge his hand outside the circle. In the end, when the cock crows, so that day does not catch them, they ask him to give them something small in exchange, just so they can teach him. Then he puts the edge of his little finger outside the circle, and the Nereids cut it off immediately. But they don’t trick him, for in a few moments they teach him to play as well as they do, and then they vanish.
This is why a good lyrist, when complimented on his good technique, sometimes says “Why do you think? I learnt at the crossroads.”
T.N. This version of the Cretan legend is attributed to one I. Kondylakis, as recorded in N. Politis’ folklore collections. According to Greek scholar K. Romeos, it is an echo of the dancing of the Orphic Maenads. There are also echoes of the Hekataean Deipnon in the gathering of Nereids and other supernatural beings at the crossroads and their associations with caves; however, across the folktales, the Nereids are always associated with music. It seems that the Muses, Hekate’s spirits, and the Maenads may all echo in these tales, which are remarkably similar across regions.
Nikolaos Politis, Traditions: Studies on the Life and Language of the Greek People, Athens, Historical Publications, 1904; trans. by Sasha Chaitow © 2024
About these wondertales
In the late 19th century, Greek folklorist and philologist Nikolaos Politis systematised early folklore collection and study in Greece by recruiting teachers, doctors, and priests from around the country and asking them to record the wondertales told in their region, complete with regional dialect. He wanted all possible expressions of traditional folk life: oral tradition (songs, proverbs, blessings, narratives etc), descriptions of social organisation, everyday life (clothing, food, household), professional life (agricultural, animal husbandry, seafaring), religious life, justice, folk philosophy and medicine, magic and superstitions, folk art, dance, and music.
He gathered these artefacts of Greek folk life and applied ethnographic and comparative methods of his day to their study. Politis published comparative studies in relation to other Balkan nations as well as to the myths and histories of antiquity. Though his methods were relatively simplistic and are now outdated, his collections form a valuable corpus of records and have been exhaustively studied by later scholars as the field in Greece became more sophisticated.
In this series of snippets, I aim to translate a handful of his most interesting or amusing stories since they have never been translated into other languages. They are presented as-is, with minimum commentary where it is needed for context. Many of these deserve commentary and analysis; this will form the topics of longer-form article in due course.
Read more about why they’re called wondertales in the first section of my article here.
Very interesting, as always! I love these folk tales, but unfortunately no one in my Greek family is much into storytelling, so my children only know ones from me from the north of Europe. I will tell them some of the ones I am reading on here!