The meaning of the word nymphs in the dictionary-reference book myths of ancient Greece. Nymphs - the embodiment of the forces of nature from Greek legends Greek sea nymph

Sea nymph: talisman of the conquerors of the water surface

The sea nymph is a mythical creature born in stories Ancient Greece. They have always been represented in people's minds as naked beautiful maidens, mortals, but capable of becoming the mothers of true immortal heroes.

According to myths, the Oceanids and Nereids lived in the sea, each of which was a resident of an underwater castle located in the very depths of the sea and owned by their father. The Nereids lived in the so-called “inner sea”, the shores of which were inhabited by people. The Oceanids, in contrast, were inhabitants of the “external sea”, which washed the edges of the earth.

The oceanid sea nymph was the daughter of Ocean and Tethys, and many such creatures were born - three thousand. Each of them had a personal purpose, its own functions and place in the mythological system. The most famous among the oceanids are Hesione, Callirhoe, Clymene, Electra, Perseid, Lethe and Doris.

The Nereid nymph was the daughter of the god Nereus and the nymph Doris. Fifty such daughters were born from this divine union, each of them has her own name, which indicates the different states of the sea: its variability, depth, whimsicality, swiftness, and the like. The sea nymph Amphitrite gained the greatest fame, becoming the wife of the legendary Poseidon. No less famous is Thetis, the mother of Achilles. The sea nymph Galatea became the lover of Polyphemus. The names of Thalia, Nimerthea, Scylla and Glauca are often mentioned in myths.

The Nereids led an idle lifestyle: they rode on dolphins, led sea round dances that made the waves rise, held competitions with newts, and went ashore on moonlit nights. The nymph was a creature benevolent to people and helped on sea voyages to find the long-awaited shore. On a moonlit night, the Nereids came ashore and sang songs that people always mistook for the roar of the surf. The man remained grateful for such help. The most famous myth about nymphs in Greek mythology is "Victory of Perseus over Gargona Medusa." The image of this creature became the subject for paintings by Vallejo, Falero and Diefenbach.

When, in my early childhood, I was fascinated by the myths of Ancient Greece. And who doesn’t?.. And now I’ve decided to update some of their aspects in my (and maybe your) memory. Namely, to find information about the nymphs, whom artists of all centuries and movements loved so much.

Nymphs(Greek νύμφαι, “brides”, Latin nymphae) - in ancient greek mythology the personification, in the form of girls, of living elemental forces, noticed in the murmur of a stream, in the growth of trees, in the wild beauty of mountains and forests.

The world of nymphs (Greek “virgins”), the deities of nature, its life-giving and fruitful forces, personifying everything that moves and grows in nature, everything that gives life to plants, was especially extensive in the imagination of the ancient Greeks. Several types of nymphs were distinguished: nymphs of the seas, springs (oceanids, nereids, naiads), lakes and swamps (limnads), mountains (restiads), groves (alseids), trees (dryads, hamadryads) and their individual species (meliads - ash nymphs) . Valleys and islands also had their nymphs. The main nymphs were considered to be aquatic; according to ancient lexicographs, the word “nymph” means “source”.

Nymphs are very ancient deities. The most ancient nymphs are the Meliads, or Melian nymphs, born from drops of the blood of castrated Uranus. The Oceanids are the daughters of Oceanus and Tethys, the Nereids are the daughters of Nereus and the Oceanids Doris. The names of water nymphs mostly indicate one or another property or quality of the water element (catalog of oceanids in Hesiod's Theogony and Nereids there).

The nymphs lived far from Olympus, in deep, echoing caves, into whose mysterious darkness not everyone would dare to enter, but by order of Zeus they were summoned to the palace of the father of gods and people. Where the streams begin to flow, beautiful maidens bent over the newborn waters, together with them they emerged from the depths, breaking through the earth's thickness, and no one could stop their movements. Rejoicing sunlight, they sparkled as if they were dancing. The places where they came out were sacred to people; In caves and grottoes, groves and forests, sanctuaries were erected - nymphaeums, where sacrifices were made to the nymphs. Homer's description of the cave of the nymphs on Ithaca received a symbolic interpretation as the center Space Force by the philosopher Porfiry in his treatise “On the Cave of Nymphs”

The healing properties of the springs emerging from the earth, noticed by people, turned the nymphs into companions of the healer god Asclepius, into healers who healed and bestowed health. They are the owners of ancient wisdom, the secrets of life and death. In place of the Delphic oracle there was the oracle of Gaia, and then of Daphne - one of the mountain nymphs.

As a particle of nature that gives people joy, they became harites, that is, merciful, supportive and, at the same time, the embodiment of grace, charm, and beauty. With the transformation of Zeus into the supreme deity of all nature, three stood out from the “many” charites. They were declared his daughters, either from one of the Oceanids, or from Hera herself, and the epithets with which people endowed the blossoming nature turned into their names.

For a long time, streams and rivers have served as places of fortune telling. Fellow tribesmen suspected of breaking the laws were thrown there; the nymphs had to justify or condemn the person - unlike any judges, they are incorruptible and fair. There were other ways to ask the nymphs, familiar with the secrets of nature, for advice about what awaits people, because they knew how to predict the future. You could throw a tablet with some inscription into the whirlpool and see if it would sink, float on the surface, or be thrown out beyond the source. As fortunetellers, often trained in the art of fortune-telling by Apollo himself, nymphs became the mothers of fortune-tellers; thus, the nymph Chariklo was called the mother of the fortune-teller Tiresias.

The virgins could also punish those who committed a crime or did not show them due respect. They sent madness, and this punishment was more terrible than many others. But at the same time, in the incoherent cries and words of the madman, the tribesmen began to look for pieces of the wisdom that the nymphs brought from the bowels of the earth, the wisdom secret forces nature. The insane began to be seen as carriers of knowledge hidden from other people. This is how soothsayers and soothsayers appeared, enjoying the greatest respect, whose madness could be temporary, like that of the Pythia who inhaled the vapors escaping from the depths of the earth.

The ability to find those inspired movements, words and sounds to express feelings and thoughts that are inaccessible to a person in a calm state was also perceived as a kind of madness - obsession. A person, seized by this madness, could dance as frantically as the nymphs, or acquired their knowledge of life - and it seemed that he saw through the earth, acquired their sight and hearing, understood the language of plants and birds. When these abilities became more developed, they began to be attributed to the patronage of the sisters of the nymphs - the muses.

As spirits of streams and rivers, nymphs were responsible for the fertility of fields, meadows, for the abundance of bees, for the growth of herds, so that the ancient Greek, leaving the city gates, heard the voices of nymphs in the sound of streams, and in the noise of trees, and in the buzzing of bees, and even in the mooing of cows. In the works of Greek poets there are no enthusiastic descriptions of nature, characteristic of modern literature, because nature itself was not something abstract - it had the appearance of nymphs and their voices. The cult of the nymphs, which permeated all consciousness, was the cult of nature.

Nymphs are long-lived, but, unlike the gods, they are mortal. The source may dry up and the tree may dry up. Nymphs are fragile, like nature itself, and require careful attitude.

With the development of human society, its ideas about nature and its forces changed. The nymphs began to acquire individual names, in the minds of people they began to look more like beautiful naked or half-naked maidens, from whose marriages with celestial beings heroes began to be born.

Hylas and the nymphs
Waterhouse

Bouguereau
Nymphs and Satyr

The Cave of the Storm Nymphs
Sir Edward John Poynter

Nymphs listening to the Sings of Orpheus,
Charles-Francois Jalabert, 1853

Nymph
Anders Zorn, 1885

Nymphaeum
Adolphe-William Bouguereau, 1878

Nymphs
Oreads (mountains)
Dryads (trees)
Naiads (rivers)
Nereids (of the seas)
Napei (valleys)
Limoniades (meadows)

Naiads - daughters of Zeus, were nymphs of the water element and related to the Nereids. Just as Zeus is the god of clouds and rain, so they are the goddesses of the same element. According to Hesiod, the Naiads of the hills and forests are the children of Gaia. In addition to Zeus, naiads also accompany Poseidon, Dionysus, Apollo, Aphrodite, Demeter, Persephone, provide abundance, fertility and health, and patronize marriages. Naiads were considered long-lived, but not immortal.

Herbert Draper
Naiad's Pool

Naiad
Waterhouse

The Water NymphHon.
John Collier

River nymph
Frederick Lord Leighton

Nereids

Nereids are sea deities, daughters of Nereus and the oceanids of Doris. There are 50 of them (Hesiod in “Theogony” claims that there are fifty of them, but calls fifty-one by name) or 100. They live in a grotto at the bottom of the sea. Judging by their names, they are the personified properties and qualities of the sea element, since it does not harm a person, but is favorable to him and enchants him with its charm.

The most famous of them were:
Amphitrite - wife of Poseidon;
Thetis is the leader of the Nereid choir, to whom Zeus and Poseidon wooed, but was given in marriage by Zeus to the mortal Peleus after receiving an unfavorable prediction from Prometheus;
Galatea is the beloved of Acidas, who was killed by the Cyclops Polyphemus in a fit of jealousy;
Nemertea (Greek νημέρτεια - truth);
Thalia - participated in the lamentation of the Nereids along with Achilles for the dead Patroclus.
The Nereids lead an idyllically calm life in the depths of the sea, having fun with the measured movements of round dances, in time with the movement of the waves; in the heat and moonlit nights they go ashore, or organize musical competitions with newts, or on the shore, together with the nymphs of the land, they dance in circles and sing songs. They were revered by coastal residents and islanders and kept the legends that were written about them. Belief in them has survived even to our time, although the Nereids of modern Greece are generally nymphs of the water element and are mixed with naiads.

Water Nymphs, 1927
Gaston Bussiere

Perseus and the Sea Nymph
Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones

Arnold Böcklin, Triton and Nereid, 1874

Sea nymph
Karl Wilhelm Diefenbach

Dryads.

Dryads (Greek tree, in particular oak) are nymphs, patroness of trees. Sometimes dryads were named after trees. The most ancient of the known nymphs are dryads, born from drops of the blood of Uranus and living in ash trees, meliads.
It was believed that dryads were inseparable from the tree with which they were associated, and people who planted and cared for trees enjoyed the special protection of tree nymphs.

"The Dryad" by Evelyn De Morgan

Hamadryads.
Hamadryads are tree nymphs who, unlike dryads, are born with the tree and die with it. The father of a certain Porabius committed a heinous crime by cutting down an oak tree, which the Hamadryad begged him to spare. Because the oak tree, the dwelling of the hamadryad, was cut down, the nymph punished the criminal and his offspring. To atone for guilt, an altar had to be erected to the nymph and sacrifices offered to her.
When Erysichthon ordered the oak tree in Demeter's grove to be cut down, blood flowed from it and the branches became pale. It was the blood of a nymph who lived in an oak tree; dying, she predicted retribution on the defiler sacred tree, giving him a feeling of insatiable hunger.
There is a well-known story of the timid hamadryad Syringa, who became a reed to avoid the embrace of the goat-footed Pan.

John William Waterhouse
The Hamadryad

Hesperides.
The Hesperides are nymphs, keepers of golden apples in the far west, living in the “Garden of the Hesperides.” They are the daughters of Nikta; option - Hesperides and Atlanta.
The Hesperides live on the edge of the world off the banks of the Ocean River and guard apples. eternal youth, which Hera received as wedding gift from Gaia. Their three (or four) sisters: Egla (Aigla, “radiance”) - the wife of Helios and the mother of Charites, according to one version, Erithia (Erythea, “red”), Hespera (“evening”, option: Hestia) and Arethusa.

Apollonius of Rhodes in “Argonautica” talks about the arrival of the Argonauts, led by Jason, in the Garden of the Hesperides, which Hercules had just left, having killed the guardian of the apples, the dragon Ladon, and frightened the nymphs to death. Seeing the arrivals, the Hesperides crumbled into dust in horror, but, heeding the requests of the Argonauts, they turned into beautiful trees and then appeared in their usual form and helped the Argonauts get drinking water at Lake Tritonia, where they carried their ship for twelve days, obeying the prophetic words of the Libyan heroines who appeared before them.
This version of the myth combines ancient werewolfism and fetishism with new feature Hesperides, associated with helping the heroes.

Garden of the Hesperides
Frederick, Lord Leighton, 1892

Hesperides
Edward Burne-Jones

Sources:
wikipedia.org
www.greekroman.ru

Nymphs(Greek “virgins”) - deities of nature, its life-giving and fruitful forces, personifying everything that moves and grows in nature, everything that gives life to plants.

Several types of nymphs were distinguished: nymphs of the seas, springs (oceanids, nereids, naiads), lakes and swamps (limnads), mountains (restiads), groves (alseids), trees (dryads, hamadryads) and their individual species (meliads - ash nymphs) . Valleys and islands also had their nymphs.

The main nymphs were considered to be aquatic; according to ancient lexicographs, the word “nymph” means “source”.

Nymphs, with rare exceptions, are very strong physically, difficult to vulnerable, have excellent hearing and vision, extraordinary speed and excellent memory, surpassing in this regard not only people, but also many Guardians and Carriers.

The Hellenes believed that some nymphs were immortal, like the gods, while others died, just like people. For example, it was believed that a dryad lives as long as the tree itself, which it protects.

The inhabitants of Ancient Greece, or Hellas, imagined these mythical creatures in the form of beautiful, gentle girls. They believed that there were tree nymphs - dryads; nymphs of the valleys - napei; nymphs of meadows - limnades; nymphs of mountains and grottoes - oreads; nymphs of springs, rivers and lakes - naiads (they are also called mermaids); and even oceanids - as you might guess, nymphs of the oceans.

They also believed that nymphs knew the future and could predict it. There was such a common way of fortune telling: in torrent(where nymphs live, of course!) threw signs with various texts; that sign that will not sink or be washed ashore says the truth.

The ancient Greeks had such a unique, as we would now say, investigative experiment. If a person was suspected of having committed a crime, but it was not possible to prove it, he was thrown into the river. If the suspect surfaced, no one had any doubt about his innocence - of course, it was the naiads, knowing that he was innocent, who helped him!

Sacrifices were even made to the nymphs - wine and milk, goats and calves.

It was believed that the springs near which the nymphs live have healing properties. Therefore, the ancient Greek god of healing Asclepius appeared surrounded by these beautiful creatures.

Along with them appeared the god Bacchus, who was responsible for feasts, wine and other carnal pleasures; these nymphs were called bacchantes.

Although the nymphs lived lower than Olympus, inhabited by the gods, by order of the most important god Zeus, they appeared in his divine palace.

This image and concept - the nymph - have firmly entered European and Russian culture. A charming girl can be called a nymph; a portrait of a beautiful woman can be painted in the form of a nymph...

Peter Paul Rubens - Diana and the Nymphs Caught by the Fauns

Light and playful, beautiful fairy-tale creatures - nymphs. This is how the ancient Greeks saw them. Their home is all nature: mountains, forests, rivers, fields. Everything breathes, seethes, swirls thanks to their restless efforts. They are in every whisper of the wind and murmur of the stream - the divine spirits of Mother Earth.

Who are nymphs?

Nymph is translated from Greek as maiden, bride. The parents of the nymphs are considered to be the thunder god Zeus and Gaia (Earth). In ancient times, people treated nature very carefully, considering it alive in all its manifestations and forms. Nymphs are ancient Greek lower deities who patronize the source of nature in which they settled. At the initial stage, the spirits did not have names, but some of them had a strong influence on the lives of gods and people that became famous. Basically, nymphs were named after the halo of their habitat.

What does a nymph look like?

The nymph is a child of nature who does not tolerate fuss and crowded places. People knew where nymphs lived, but few mortals saw with their own eyes what the maidens of nature look like, and there was a belief: to see a frolicking nymph to the common man you could go blind, and if she was naked at the same time, then inevitable death awaited. Fairytale nymphs are very gentle and fragile creatures. The appearance of the nymphs is described in the sources of ancient Greek mythology:

• young half-naked or naked beauties;
• long flowing hair of different shades, in which flowers, shells or tree branches are woven;
• skin white, pink or greenish;
• enchantresses who enchant people with their gaze and gentle iridescent laughter.

What types of nymphs are there?

The ancient Greeks associated the beautiful maidens of nature with their habitat and activities. What kind of nymphs are there:

1. Nereids - sea maidens.
2. Oceanids are oceanic spirits.
3. Limnades are nymphs of swamps and lakes.
4. Naiads are divas of rivers and springs.
5. Oreads, Orestiades and Agrostins are nymphs of mountains and gorges.
6. Nanen, Napei - maidens of the valleys.
7. Alseids - nymphs of groves.
8. Dryads, Hamadryads - tree girls.
9. Hyades - rain spirits

Forest nymphs

The forest lives its own secret life and in the minds of ancient people, strong and mighty centuries-old trees, especially oaks and ash trees, which stood out from all the others, were a container beautiful soul dryads. The forest nymph is closely connected with the life of her tree, and if the dryad can choose another tree after its death, then the hamadryads (lower nymphs) died along with the destroyed tree. In Ancient Greece, cutting down a centuries-old tree was considered blasphemy and was punishable by death. According to legend, the forest nymph Orsinoe gave birth to the goat-footed Pan from Hermes, who became a god for the Greeks wildlife and shepherding.

Nymph of rivers and lakes

The river nymph is a capricious and gentle creature. Naiads settle in streams, small rivers and springs, and do not live in standing water. Fragile creatures that can die if the source dries up or is dammed. People who revered water element, they tried in every possible way to appease the maidens of the water, for this they built sanctuaries and nymphaeas (complexes with fountains). Bread, vessels with milk, cheeses were left along the banks of rivers and lakes, and animals were sacrificed. The naiad Syringa, fleeing the advances of her master, turned into a reed, but God cut it down and made a beautiful pipe that delighted the ear.

Sea nymph

The sea nymph in the paintings of ancient artists is depicted with a sea shell at her bosom. The Nereids are the daughters of the god Nereus, revered by the Greeks, who is the patron of sea travelers and the nymph Doris. By different sources, there were from 50 to 100 of them. The personification of the calm sea element - the Nereids lead a measured life, dance in circles at the bottom of the sea, at night they can come to the surface of the earth and sing and dance along with the nymphs of the land. Famous sea nymphs:

1. Galatea - her story of unhappy love is sung by the poet Philoxenus in the work “Cyclops”. Nereid fell in love with Akidas, the son of the nymph Semitis, but the Cyclops Polyphemus, also deeply in love with Galatea, angrily tore off a rock from the volcano of Etna and crushed the unfortunate man. The saddened nymph turned the blood of her lover into the Akid River.
2. Amphitrite is the wife of the ruler of the seas, Poseidon. She was revered by the Greeks on a par with her husband and was depicted with him in a chariot drawn by tritons.
3. Panopea is a sea diva whom sailors turned to during severe storms to gain patronage and protection.

Heavenly nymphs

Nymphs are all the beauty of nature, inspired by people. The heavenly maidens of the Pleiades are the daughters of the Titan Atlas and the oceanid nymph Pleione. Initially, they served the goddess of hunting Artemis and accompanied her on her trips. In a later period, the ancient Greeks transformed them into celestial nymphs. Their names, forever imprinted in the name of the constellation Pleiades:

• Mayan;
• Sterope;
• Electra;
• Taygeta;
• Alcyone;
• Keleno;
• Merope.

There are various myths about the transformation of sisters:

1. The Pleiades, saddened by the fate of Atlas to hold the entire sky on himself, decided to commit suicide in order to be close to his beloved father.
2. Atlas, who took part in the battle against the gods, was defeated and, as punishment, was forever condemned to support the entire weight of the heavenly vault. In the titan's absence, the hunter Orion began to pursue and harass his daughters. The Pleiades turned to the gods for help, and Zeus took pity on them, turning them into seven doves on the condition that they would bring him a heavenly drink - ambrosia.
3. Another myth tells that from the persecution of Orion, Zeus helped the Pleiades - he turned them into a constellation, and Orion was punished by turning into the constellation Orion, in the guise of which he pursues the Pleiades, but will never overtake them.

Nymphs of the mountains

Mountains, grottoes, gorges and caves are home to another kind of nymphs - Orestiads or Oreads. Mountain divas are depicted sitting in thought on the rocks, patronizing miners and shepherds. A well-known representative of the Oreads is the beautiful nymph Echo, who, according to legend, was cursed by the mistress of Olympus -. Zeus's wife accused Echo of distracting Hera while her husband was having fun and cheating on her with the nymphs. Hera deprived the oread of her voice, and she could not speak first, but only echo the last sounds of the words of those who spoke.

Nymphs - mythology

The lower deities of the nymphs are not immortal, unlike the gods, but their life expectancy can reach up to 7000 years, which in the human mind looks like immortality. In mythology, beautiful maidens of nature, although lower in rank than the gods, still collaborate with them, exert their influence on them and participate in divine feasts and councils. In unions between nymphs and gods, heroes, new gods and mythological entities are born. The Greeks endowed nymphs with various:

• fair (not always) arbiters of destinies;
• patroness of shepherds and livestock;
• having the power to endow people with the gift of foresight and poetry;
• predicted the future;
• healed wounds;
• sent madness, blindness or rabies to those who are cruel to nature.

Nymphs in Slavic mythology

The Slavic nymph in Russian folklore is a mermaid, waterwort or vilia. These ancient spirits of nature, unlike the ancient Greek nymphs, are not entirely friendly and are often openly hostile to people. During their lifetime, the virgins experienced a bitter fate: they were ruined by men, they died prematurely before their wedding. were associated among the Slavs with the cult of fertility, and there was a holiday of Rusalia, it was believed that on these days mermaids and waterworts danced in circles - it was impossible to work in the field, since in anger they could trample all the crops.

Nymph in Greek mythology

The nymphs of Ancient Greece had a huge influence on the gods, sometimes they replaced their mothers, others became wives and the gods listened to their opinion - you can’t argue with nature. The nymphs of water sources were considered the most important, and this is understandable - water is the source of life. Nymphs, famous and depicted in Greek mythology:

1. Kinosura - became the nurse of Zeus, who hid with her on Mount Crete during the persecution of his father Kronos. Zeus, feeling a sense of gratitude, placed her in the sky in the form of the constellation Ursa Minor.
2. Daphne - the myth about Apollo and the nymph Daphne is one of the most popular and beloved by the Greeks. The luminous god Apollo mocked Eros with his bow and arrows, for which he decided to teach him a lesson and struck him with an arrow of love for the mountain maiden Daphne, and struck her heart with an arrow of rejection. Apollo, burning with emotion, began to pursue the nymph, and Daphne prayed to Mother Gaia to change her appearance - this is how a laurel tree appeared. The God of Light, in memory of his beloved, proclaimed the laurel his sacred tree. On the statues of ancient sculptors there is a laurel wreath, one of the attributes of Apollo.
3. Dodon nymphs (hyades) - raised and nurtured the god of winemaking and all vegetation, Dionysus. In gratitude, Dionysus asked the sorceress Medea to make them forever young. In another version, Zeus placed them in the sky in the form of the open star cluster Hyades. In modern Greece, it is still generally accepted that as soon as the Hyades cluster becomes visible, this is the beginning of the rainy season.

They believed in many deities and other mysterious characters, as history tells us. Before they had a definite pantheon of gods, they worshiped creatures, according to their assumption, who lived in forests, waters and mountains. In particular, a nymph is, according to the Greeks, everything that personifies what moves and grows in nature and gives life to plants and animals, be it a river, sea, grove or tree. The image of these creatures is very romantic and gentle. Let's get to know these mysterious inhabitants land.

What are they?

In general, a nymph is the guardian of a particular natural object. So, for example, naiads are the spirits of springs and streams, as well as the patroness of everything that lives in water. In another way, the guardian of the waters was called “mermaid nymph.” Dryads are their arboreal representatives, who were born and died along with the tree. Each cluster of trees had its own forest nymph. Islands, valleys and mountains had their guardians.

Where do they live?

Beautiful nymphs, as the ancient Greeks believed, live in dark caves where streams begin their path. The places where they appeared were sacred to people; sanctuaries were erected near them, where sacrifices were made to these creatures. In addition, these springs had beneficial, healing qualities, which is why the nymphs were credited with the role of companions of the god Asclepius, who was endowed with the ability to heal people.

Why are they remarkable?

The nymph is a great fortuneteller. This is what people thought in ancient times. Their abodes, namely rivers and streams, were favorite places for fortune telling. Those wishing to throw signs with marks into the stormy water stream, and it was believed that the advice marked on the piece of wood that would not drown or be thrown out of the water was a sign from the nymphs. In addition, in ancient times there was a custom according to which a person accused of committing a certain crime was thrown into the river and further events were observed. If the subject swam out, it means he was innocent, and the nymphs acquitted him. If a person drowned, this meant that the river goddesses had carried out their fair judgment on them. In addition, given that the nymph is the patroness of nature, she was responsible for the fertility of her territory, be it a field, meadow or tree.

Are they goddesses?

Nymphs are spirits of nature. They, unlike the gods, are mortal. When a tree dies or a stream dries up, the nymph dies too. They are fragile and delicate, just like their mother nature. Therefore, it was believed that a great punishment awaits the one who desecrates a river or pollutes a forest or cuts down a tree.

Are their names known?

Initially, the nymphs did not have names. They were considered beautiful impersonal spirits. But over time, some of them stood out, were given names, and they became associated with beautiful maidens. In addition, they were closely associated with the gods, and then even humanized. Sometimes the names of the nymphs were adopted from the names of rivers and springs, whose patrons they were. The most famous of them are Syringa, Daphne, Calypso and Echo. You can learn more about them from the myths of ancient Hellas.