The Neraides

The tale

The Neraides of modern Greek belief take their name from the ancient Nereids, but are the heirs of all the nymphs of springs, rivers and hills. They are lovely women in white who dance on threshing floors and in meadows, and whoever sees them may be struck dumb, lamed or carried off. A man who seized a Neraida's scarf could make her his wife, but she would flee if she ever got it back. Folk healers treated those thought to be struck by them with offerings left at springs.

When they are met

• At noon and midnight, the hours they were said to be about
• The Drimes, the first days of August, when bathing and washing were avoided
• Near springs, wells, caves and old plane trees

Staying on their good side

• Honey, sweets or bread left by a spring
• A cake of honey and milk left at a crossroads, as some villagers did for healing
• Politeness: they were called by kind names, never mocked

Honouring them, or keeping safe

1. Speak of them respectfully as the Good Ladies, as villagers did.
2. Leave springs and wild places clean and undisturbed.
3. Enjoy their stories as part of living tradition, not as a reason for fear.

What their tales teach

• Understanding living Greek folk belief
• Respect for springs and wild places
• The link between ancient nymphs and later folklore

Symbols

• white robes
• spring
• scarf or kerchief
• threshing floor

Sources

• J. C. Lawson, Modern Greek Folklore and Ancient Greek Religion (1910)
• Charles Stewart, Demons and the Devil: Moral Imagination in Modern Greek Culture (1991)

More Greek folklore

• The Nymphs The spirits of spring, tree and mountain
• Medusa The Gorgon whose gaze turns flesh to stone
• Circe The enchantress of the island of Aeaea
• The Sirens The singers of the deadly shore
• Satyrs The wild revellers of Dionysus
• Kallikantzaroi The goblins of the Twelve Days
• Vrykolakas The restless dead of Greek villages
• The Lamia of folk tales The glutton ogress of Greek tales