Many thousands of years ago, before the days of Achilles and Hector, there was an island among one of the territories of Greece. It was a small island which could not boast of any great orators or intimidate an enemy with a fearsome army, yet because of the strong currents surrounding it, the inhabitants were protected from invasion for the vicious maelstroms and powerful undertow meant that sailors dared not approach the island, nor could the natives venture out into the open sea. There was however a narrow channel of calm water at one end of the island. It was as clear as glass yet it was far too narrow for a ship to navigate, and a single swimmer would surely drown once out of sight of the shore, for there was no land for many miles across the sea. In truth it would take the fastest ship several months to find port were it to travel this distance, but even that would only have been possible if the winds were favourable all the way and provided the crew never grew weary from rowing. The strait was flanked on either side by black rocks which loomed menacingly and cast a shadow over the water. These rocks led up to a large cave made of the same black, unyielding stone and in this cave only one plant grew, mounds of a slimy and rubbery looking weed could be found protruding from its walls.
The island itself had been barren until a sailor arrived amidst the wreckage of his ship, washed up on the shore. He had been blown off course and become caught in one of the whirlpools; the rest of his crew had been killed. Relieved as the survivor was to find himself on land, he began to despair when he saw that no trees grew on the bare sand, nor were there any people who could help him. In anguish he prayed to Olympus for help and was almost at the point of ending his own life when he beheld a strange woman gliding towards him across the water. She was dazzlingly beautiful, dressed in a white gown that flowed out behind her and something about her gleamed in the sun so brightly that the sailor had to squint as he watched her. Eventually she drew close enough for the sailor to see that she was riding astride an enormous owl which promptly landed on the beach with a low hoot. "Thank you, my friend" said the woman and she kissed the owl's feathery forehead. Then from the folds of the gown she pulled a thin branch, roughly a foot long, made of Olive wood and pointed it at the owl, which shrank back to the size of an ordinary bird and then flapped up to the woman's shoulder. The poor sailor naturally thought he had finally gone mad. It was only now that he noticed that the woman was wearing a warrior's helmet, and her white bosom was covered by a golden breastplate. The sailor gave a gasp of terror and hid his eyes from her for she was Athene, the goddess of wisdom and legend foretold great misfortune for any man who looked on her divine beauty.
In truth she was not a being of heaven, but a witch of prodigious skill and sound judgement. She was one of thirteen in a family of great power and wealth and although many more witches existed, her family were the only ones as yet to discover the secrets of wandlore, secrets they guarded most jealously for fear of losing their power and their status as gods among men (indeed much of what this family knew has been lost to wand makers today and thus wizards cannot now channel their magic to produce such splendid power as this family could). She had heard the stranded sailor's pleas for help as she flew over the island and took pity on him, deciding he had suffered enough.
She told the sailor she would try to help him, but assured him that she could not calm the raging waters beyond the island, for they were in the power of her uncle with whom she often quarrelled. However she promised she would transform that empty place into a land abundant in food and life. She declared she would make him King and he and his subjects would want for nothing. Then she pointed her wand at the centre of the grey mound of sand and sent a jet of golden light from its tip. At once, lush grass began to sprout from the point the flash of light had struck, it spread like water on a flat surface over most of the expanse of dry sand. With another flick of the wand, trees burst from the ground rich in fruit and which the sailor was assured would never wither with the seasons but would remain green forever more. Then she conjured animals for the sailor to hunt, deer and bores aplenty so that he would never go hungry. Then pointing her wand at the sailor himself, she turned his ragged tunic into the finest royal cloak and conjured a wreath of golden olive leaves which fit neatly onto his head and conjured a glorious palace of gold and ivory in the centre of the island. For her final gift, she pointed the wand at the ocean and sent a rippling orb of turquoise light from the tip into the sea. The sailor rather thought he could hear singing from the ball of light, yet it was like no human voice he had ever heard. Nothing happened for a few minutes and then the sailor noticed the head and shoulders of a beautiful girl bobbing on the surface of the water. She swam closer and closer until she reached the shore and the sailor noticed that she had no feet, but a bluish-silver fish tale which began at her waist. The goddess then asked the sailor to look away which he did, though he had begun to think he was going mad again. When Athene said he could finally look, he only gaped in wonder, for the mermaid's tale had been shrunk and transformed into a pair of dainty white legs and she was dressed in a flowing gown of ice blue. She too had a wreath of olive leaves on her head, but in the centre there glittered a fine oyster pearl. "Every king needs a queen by his side," said Athene, and she watched as the queen glided forward on her knew legs with a grace unlike any she had seen before and kissed her husband's lips.
"No amount of thanks I can give thee will suffice!" said the King with tears of gratitude in his eyes. The goddess asked for no treasure in payment but did ask that forever more the island worship her as their patron, requesting they build a sanctuary to her, more fine than their own palace and that their first born daughter should be made her priestess. She warned the king that if the sanctuary were defiled in anyway she would bring such misfortune upon them that he would wish he had died a starving sailor on a barren island then she disapparated, leaving the king and queen alone.
More than twenty years went by and the king's island flourished. In this time many more sailors had been washed upon the shore in the wreckage of ships, some bringing treasure and the wealth of many different lands. The king and queen were the kindest rulers you could imagine and took care of the new arrivals, the queen called her sisters from the sea, praying to Athene to transform them as she had been transformed, so as to make wives for the men. The wealth they brought with them was all given to the goddess, for the enchantments she had cast on the island meant that there was an abundant supply of food for everyone which never ran out and due to the violent waters trade was impossible. The sanctuary was the most splendid sight of all. The King had hewn tools from the rocks and wood from the trees and had built it in a corner of the palace. It was of gold and adorned with the wealth of the world, for the king kept nothing for himself and only had the simplest furniture in the palace. His wife and children didn't object, because of course they knew the story of how the sailor had become King. As promised, the King's eldest daughter was given to the goddess and became her priestess. This child was in fact a witch; though of course since she did not know that a wand would allow her to use her power properly she could only perform the most basic feats of magic. She did however demonstrate a strange power early in her youth, for she could converse with the green snakes that slithered around the temple just as her mother had been able to talk to fish while still a mermaid, though puzzlingly none of the other mer-children demonstrated the same ability nor did they possess magic. She was the most beautiful of all the young girls on the island though rather vain, and the noblemen (the first few sailors to have arrived on the island after the king) argued that she should be wed to their sons. The king of course, refused all offers for his daughter was promised forever to serve their patron goddess.
One night however, the son of one of the refused nobles broke into the palace, (for of course the king had no guards on an island which did not need protecting and where everyone was in his debt for saving their lives), and found the sanctuary. The princess was asleep on one of the satin cushions at the foot of Athene's statue. He had never understood why everyone revered the king so, nor could he fathom why he couldn't have the girl he wanted as his wife. So he approached the sleeping maid and violated her, then and there. The king and queen heard their daughter's scream and ran to the sanctuary where they saw her cowering and bruised beneath the young man, who bore a bestial happiness which cruelly twisted his face. The King, in a fit of rage ran at the youth and strangled him to death.
Athene's owl heard the King's screams of mingled anguish and rage for he had been enchanted by the witch to hear the prayers of her subjects and alert her should they need answering. He promptly told his mistress, who soon appeared in the sanctuary in a towering temper. Her fury was terrible to behold as she stood over the dead youth and her defiled priestess. Then she turned to the King and thundered "Did I not tell you what would happen if my sanctuary was defiled? You and the entire island will pay dearly for this treachery!"
The King and Queen begged her for forgiveness but she would not hear of it, she cast a spell, conjuring a glass sphere around the princess and sent it into the air to hover over the island, swearing they would never see each other again. Then she pointed her wand at the heavens and, using skills she learned from her father, she brought lightning crashing down upon the palace, setting it alight and sealing the exits so that the king and queen could not escape. The she conjured an enormous wall of water which swept the whole island away, killing everyone while the princess watched from the sphere. She heard the screams of the men and the cries of the children and it filled her heart with black hatred. She saw the other mermaids swimming away from where the island had been, for Athene had taken pity on all but her mother and transformed them back into their original state and her hatred only grew. The island was no more save the top of one tree on which Athene and her owl perched. She pointed the wand at the owl and it grew large enough for her to ride. She leapt onto it just as a wave covered the tree on which she'd perched and the owl soared up to the glass sphere. The poor girl cowered in the fury of the goddess, who pointed her wand at her. As punishment the goddess made the princess so ugly that no man would ever want her again, she aged rapidly, becoming a stooped hag, her face covered with liver spots and broken veins. "I will not kill you like the others, your blood is worthless and filthy like a swamp full of putrid mud" the goddess spat contemptuously at the disfigured girl. Finally she sent the sphere flying towards the cave of black stone at the end of the calm channel, where the strange rubbery weed grew. Here the priestess would live for ever more, with only her own thoughts and hatred for company.
She did indeed live there for many years. A miserable existence it was, she had nothing to eat and her hunger only made her hatred for humanity intensify. Eventually, when she was almost at the point of death she cried out to heaven for help. And a goddess answered her prayers, but it was not Athene. This witch was still beautiful, but her beauty was darker, almost malicious somehow. She wore a gown of purplish grey and her hair and wand were black as ebony. This was Eris, who lived with Athene and her family on Olympus. She used her magic to bring strife and chaos and was only permitted to leave the palace when Zeus sought retribution for those who had displeased him. On this occasion she had snuck away without the rest of her family noticing and gone to visit the hag who lived in the cave. She apparated into the cave and stood on thin ledge where the hag perched, for the water ran deep and right through the cave. Eris knew that the hag would do anything to be the young and beautiful princess she had been before and also knew that she had witchcraft in her blood. She was excited at the use to which the unfortunate witch could be put and the discord she could create. So she offered to teach the hag some magical secrets and conjured a cauldron for her so she could practice her witchcraft. To this she added a set of phials, a stirring rod and a thin dagger which glowed an eerie scarlet in the dark cave. Finally she told the witch that she could leave her cave by eating the grey rubbery plants growing out of the stone. They would permit her to breathe under the water from which she could get food. This she did and dived gladly into the water. Her feet had become webbed and so had her hands and gills formed in her neck. She swam down to the bottom and found herself floating above a stretch of bare sand. The bones of shipwrecked men lay half submerged in the sand and many water snakes and toads swam through hoping to eat the remnants of the flesh. The snakes whispered to the witch and she grew to regard them as her pets, "My beautiful little chickensssssss!" she would croon as their fat yellow bodies slithered through her gnarled fingers. The snakes warned her not to swim into the forest of polyps that stood at the edge of the sand, for they would grab at her with their fingers and strangle her to death. She and Eris (who also ate the "Gillyweed" as the witch called it, from time to time) used their magic to assemble the discarded bones into a house for her and set the cauldron in the middle.
The witch practiced for many more years and became the most accomplished potionmaker Eris had ever seen. At last she pronounced her apprentice ready to learn the most difficult lesson; a potion which would reverse Athene's spell but would make the hag more beautiful than she had ever been before. "You will need to gather the essence of beauty, hair and tongue of mermaids to make it work", Eris told her, "but they must give it to you willingly. Send the snakes abroad with tales of a clever Sea-witch who can help mermaids fulfil their desires and they will come to you".
This the hag did and finally a group of mermaids came to her. The witch recognised them as the wives of men who had lived on her island. They too were filled with hatred like her and yearned for a means to kill all sailors who crossed their paths.
"I will make you a potion." said the witch "and if you each take a sip it will make your voices so ethereally beautiful that any sailor who hears your song will want nothing but to find you and love you. If you sit on a specific outcrop of rocks not far from here and sing, the sailors will not notice the danger and their ships will be broken up. Then you can have your way with the humans as you please."
The mermaids all thought this was a good idea and begged her to make the potion immediately.
"I shall," she said. "But you must give me something in payment for I must mix my own blood into the potion."
"Anything!" the mermaids cried.
"I desire your beautiful figures, for you will not need them when your voices are so heavenly." The mermaids agreed and the witch began to throw evil smelling substances into the cauldron, which sent spiralling clouds of putrid steam into the water above. Then she took the glittering, scarlet knife Eris had given her and scratched her breast with it. Some blood dripped into the cauldron, turning the potion a dark red. Then she bottled it and gave it to one of the mermaids. "Go up to the surface and each take a sip," she croaked. "Once you've drunk it the essence of your beauty will float down into my cauldron and in return your voices will become the most seductive and deadly to any man on land or sea."
The mermaids thanked her and swam up to the surface of the ocean. They drank the potion which burned like white hot flame. Their voices did indeed become so intoxicating that no man could ignore it. However, true to her word, the witch's potion had come with a price. The mermaids' beautiful features were distorted and became cruel and frightening. Their hair grew matted and their bodies contorted and became like great ugly birds. They used their tales to leap out of the water just in time as they shrank into skeletal talons. They flew to the dangerous rocks and lived there forever more as the Sirens. The essence of their beauty floated back down to the witch's cauldron. She bottled it and hid it in the cave above her house.
Though her snakes swam everywhere in search of a mermaid's voice they found nothing. Then one evening they slithered eagerly up to the Sea Witch and reported that a new mermaid was on her way, the youngest daughter of the Sea King himself longing to become human. They said she had swum a long way for she was desperate to marry a human prince. Sure enough the young mermaid appeared.
"I know exactly what you want, it is very stupid of you but you will get your wish and it will bring you nothing but misfortune my beautiful princess!" she smiled with relish at the fear in the mermaid's eyes. "You want to get rid of your fish tale and have two stumps to walk on instead so that a prince will fall in love with you and you can win him and an immortal soul." The mermaid nodded. "I will make you a potion which you must drink before the sun rises while sitting on a beach, and then your tail will shrink and divide into what men call the loveliest pair of legs." At these words the mermaid's eyes glinted but the witch went on. "But it will be painful!" she said. "It will feel as if you have been run through with a two edged sword when you drink it and though you will walk with an unprecedented grace, every step you take will be as painful as if you are treading on daggers which are drawing blood. If you are willing to suffer all this I will help you."
"I am willing," said the foolish little mermaid.
"But remember" the witch replied, "once you've taken a human form you can never become a mermaid again and if the prince does not forsake his father and mother for you and have the priest join your hands together as man and wife you will never receive an immortal soul! The morning after he's married to another your heart will break and you will become nothing but foam on the sea."
"I am still willing" said the mermaid earnestly.
"But I demand payment!" snapped the witch "and it is not a small thing that I want from you, you have the most beautiful voice of all those in the depths of the sea, and you hope to be able to charm the prince with it. However you must give me your voice in return for my potion which I must mix with my own blood."
"But if you take my voice, what will I have left to tell him of my love?" asked the mermaid.
"Your beautiful figure!" said the witch; "don't underestimate the importance of body language! Your graceful carriage and your eloquent eyes will be enough and with them you can surely charm a man's heart! Have you lost your courage? Put out your tongue so I can cut it out in payment, then I will give you the magic draught."
The mermaid considered for a moment and then put out her tongue. Quick as a flash the witch cut it off with the scarlet knife and hid it in the cave. Then she made the potion and gave it to the mermaid to drink and watched her swim away, now quite dumb. All she needed now was the hair and the witch would become more beautiful than she had been before.
Sooner than she expected five mermaids came swimming through the polyps towards her house. They were the other daughters of the Sea King. They had seen their sister suffering in human form and begged for a way to reverse the transformation. The witch cackled maniacally. This was better that she could have imagined! She offered her bargain to the eldest of the sisters; she would tell them how to turn her back (information she'd withheld from the youngest to make sure she was truly willing), if they cut off their beautiful hair in return. The sisters agreed, for of course their hair would grow back in due time, just as lovely as before.
"Very well," said the witch and she sheered their lovely locks off. "If you take this glittering knife and give it to your sister, all she must do is stab the prince through the heart with it. When his blood drops on to her dainty feet they will grow back into a fish tale and she will be a mermaid again. But you must hurry, my pets tell me that the prince married another princess yesterday and at sunrise your sister will die!"
With that she gave the knife to the eldest sisters and watched them swim hurriedly away.
Now the witch had all the ingredients she needed, she called Eris once more. The goddess apparated into the cave, saw the bottles containing the hair, the essence of beauty and the tongue and smiled wickedly. She swallowed some Gillyweed and held her breath as her gills appeared. Then she dropped gracefully into the water and swam down to the house of bones.
"Well done!" she said, "now I will show you how to assemble these ingredients into a spell that will restore your beauty and make it even more dazzling than before."
After many hours of working the magic was ready. The Sea Witch bade goodbye to the snakes of whom she'd grown quite fond and swam quickly away from the island as fast as she could, for her dose of Gillyweed would soon ware off. Eris swam by her side instructing her where to go and at long last the witch found dry land in a distant country. She clawed her way up to the seashore and drank the potion she and Eris had brewed, while Eris watched for approaching muggles.
The beauty, voice and, hair of a mermaid combined to make the hag the most beautiful woman any man had ever seen. Her hair became long, shining and dark as night, her face grew pale but flawless and her lips became a succulent peach colour, her figure reverted back to that of a young woman and her fingers were no longer gnarled but slender and delicate. She ran to the water's edge and was so gleeful she cast a spell causing a small amount of the water to rise and be transfigured into a mirror with which she could look on herself always and here it sing her praises every time she asked. It was at this point that a King rode past and saw her. He was entranced by her beauty and immediately made her an offer of marriage which she accepted.
As a parting gift Eris gave her a crimson apple which she must save until she needed it most. She told the witch all she had to do was wish and the apple would make it so but it would only work once and none of the Olympian family had the magic to undo it, not even herself. Privately she grew excited for she knew the kind of chaos a magic apple could cause. Then she furthered the enchantment the witch had cast on the mirror so that it would tell the truth and nothing else, for she knew this would be the witch's downfall in the end. The witch went with the King who was a widow and married him, becoming, Queen and stepmother to his only daughter; Snow White.