Harry's Note: I am pleased to announce collaboration with renowned scholar and author John L. Tomkinson.
Mr. Tomkinson is the author of many books about Greece (and other subjects) and he has agreed to provide for us, some of his insights, on this page, as well as others throughout my sites.
Please visit http://www.anagnosis.grfor more of his fascinating insights into Greek culture and history.
True lovers of Greece will be well rewarded by obtaining some of his very reasonably priced editions which are only available internationally, direct from the publisher.
His series Greece: Beyond the Guidebooks has been a source of inspiration to me personally. Major credit cards accepted.
"Belief in the nereids was perhaps the most widespread and common
of all the beliefs of the Greeks in exotica. Even today, many living people
in many parts of the country will, under appropriate circumstances, admit
to having heard or seen them.
At the beginning of the twentieth century, John Cuthbert Lawson wrote:
"As for the peasants, let them deny or avow their belief, there is
probably no nook or hamlet in all Greece where the womenfolk at least
do not scrupulously take precautions against the thefts and the malice
of the Nereids, while many a man may still be found ready to recount in
all good faith stories of their beauty and passion and caprice.
Nor is it a matter of faith only; more than once I have been in villages
where certain Nereids were known by sight to several persons (so at least
they averred); and there was a wonderful agreement among the witnesses
in the description of their appearance and dress. I myself once had a
Nereid pointed out to me by my guide, and there certainly was the semblance
of a female figure draped in white and tall beyond human stature flitting
in the dusk between the gnarled and twisted boles of an old olive-yard.
What the apparition was, I had no leisure to investigate; for my guide
with many signs of the cross and muttered invocations of the Virgin urged
my mule to perilous haste along the rough mountain-path."
The nereids are beautiful creatures in human form, usually, but not invariably,
female. The females are always dressed in white, decked with crowns and garlands
of flowers, and often wear a veil, which flutters behind them in the wind. Frequently
they are said to have exotic legs: one being that of a goat, donkey or cow.
Or their may both be human but reversed, with the toes pointing towards the
rear."
These modern Neraides are nothing less than the nymphs venerated in ancient times. "Beautiful people", usually female of marriageable age, they may be captured and held as wives as long as an article of their clothing is stolen from them and not returned. Although not usually dangerous, they entice young men and kidnap them, and can leave them dumb, insane, or fatally ill.
Extract from "Haunted Greece: Nymphs, Vampires and other Exotika"
by John L. Tomkinson http://www.anagnosis.gr/Haunted_Greece.htm
Read a story about Greek nereids. http://www.anagnosis.gr/Nereids.htm
Read more about other paranormal denizens of Greek folklore. http://www.anagnosis.gr/Exotika.htm
Illustration copyright Maria Ine.
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