The saint told her that to gain a soul she must renounce the sea. This was impossible, so she left in despair and never returned. But her tears remained and formed the gray-green pebbles that are found only on the island. Mermaids appear in the oldest legends of some of the world's most ancient cultures. The Philistines and the Babylonians of Biblical times worshipped fishtailed gods.
Mermaids appear on Phoenician and Corinthian coins.
Alexander the Great, it was said, had several adventures with beautiful sea maidens, visiting the bottom of the sea in a glass globe. In folk tradition mermaid stories are often pathetic. The mermaids are lonely, occasionally taking human form for a night to join in village fun. Sometimes a man will seize their magic cap or belt, preventing their return to the sea, often with disastrous consequences. Marriages with humans are seldom happy, although some coastal people, notably in northwestern Scotland and southeastern England, claimed they had mermaids for ancestors.