Dryad

For other uses, see Dryad (disambiguation).
Dryad
The Dryad by Evelyn De Morgan.
Grouping Legendary creature
Similar creatures Nymph, elf
Country Greece

A dryad (/ˈdr.æd/; Greek: Δρυάδες, sing.: Δρυάς) is a tree nymph, or tree spirit, in Greek mythology. In Greek drys signifies "oak." Thus, dryads are specifically the nymphs of oak trees, though the term has come to be used for all tree nymphs in general.[1] "Such deities are very much overshadowed by the divine figures defined through poetry and cult," Walter Burkert remarked of Greek nature deities.[2] They were normally considered to be very shy creatures, except around the goddess Artemis, who was known to be a friend to most nymphs.

Meliai

The dryads of ash trees were called the Meliai.[1] The ash-tree sisters tended the infant Zeus in Rhea's Cretan cave. Gaea gave birth to the Meliai after being made fertile by the blood of castrated Uranus. Nymphs associated with apple trees were the Epimeliad, and those associated with walnut-trees were the Caryatids.[1]

Hamadryad

Main article: Hamadryad

Dryads, like all nymphs, were supernaturally long-lived and tied to their homes, but some were a step beyond most nymphs. These were the hamadryads who were an integral part of their trees, such that if the tree died, the hamadryad associated with it died as well. For these reasons, dryads and the Greek gods punished any mortals who harmed trees without first propitiating the tree-nymphs.

Names

Some of the individual dryads or hamadryads are:

In the arts and culture

Dryad and Boar sculpture by the Bromsgrove Guild

See also

References

Citations

  1. 1 2 3 Graves, ch. 86.2; p. 289
  2. Burkert (1986), p174
  3. Bibliotheca 2. 1. 5
  4. Tzetzes on Lycophron, 480
  5. Ovid, Metamorphoses 9.330 ff
  6. Antoninus Liberalis, Metamorphoses 32
  7. Pausanias, Description of Greece, 8. 4. 2
  8. Pausanias, Description of Greece 8. 39. 3
  9. Propertius, Elegies 1. 18
  10. Nonnus, Dionysiaca 2. 92 ff :
  11. Pausanias, Description of Greece 10. 32. 9
  12. J. Simpson, E. Weiner (eds), ed. (1989). "Dryad". Oxford English Dictionary (2nd ed.). Oxford: Clarendon Press. ISBN 0-19-861186-2.
  13. Martha E. Cook (1979). "Dryads and Flappers". The Southern Literary Journal (University of North Carolina Press) 12 (1): 18–26. JSTOR 20077624.
  14. Britzolakis, Christina (2000). Sylvia Plath and the theatre of mourning. Oxford English Monographs. Oxford University Press. pp. 85–86. ISBN 0-19-818373-9.
  15. Norman Donaldson, "Oliver Onions", in E.F. Bleiler, ed. Supernatural Fiction Writers. New York: Scribner's, 1985. pp.505-512. ISBN 0684178087

Bibliography

External links

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