Nymph

Nymph

In this 1896 painting of Hylas and the Nymphs by John William Waterhouse, Hylas is abducted by the Naiads, i.e. fresh water nymphs
Grouping	Mythological
Sub grouping	Nature spirit
Similar creatures	Mermaid, huldra, selkie, siren
Mythology	Greek mythology
Country	Greece
Habitat	Various

A nymph (Greek: νύμφη, nýmphē [nýmpʰɛː]) in Greek mythology is a minor female nature deity typically associated with a particular location or landform.

Different from other goddesses, nymphs are generally regarded as divine spirits who animate nature, and are usually depicted as beautiful, young nubile maidens who love to dance and sing; their amorous freedom sets them apart from the restricted and chaste wives and daughters of the Greek polis. They are beloved by many and dwell in mountainous regions and forests by springs or rivers; as Walter Burkert (Burkert 1985:III.3.3) remarks, "The idea that rivers are gods and springs divine nymphs is deeply rooted not only in poetry but in belief and ritual; the worship of these deities is limited only by the fact that they are inseparably identified with a specific locality." Other nymphs, always in the shape of young maidens, were part of the retinue of a god, such as Dionysus, Hermes, or Pan, or a goddess, generally the huntress Artemis.^[1] Nymphs were the frequent target of satyrs.

Etymology

Look up νύμφη in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

The Greek word νύμφη has the primary meaning of "nubile young woman; bride, young wife" and is not associated with deities in particular. It refers to young women at the peak of sexual attractiveness, contrasting with parthenos (παρθένος) "a virgin (of any age)", and generic kore (κόρη < κόρϝα) "maiden, girl". The term is used by (human) women to address each other, so Iris addressing Helen, or Eurycleia addressing Penelope as νύμφα φίλη "dear nymph" (Il. 3.130, Od. 4.743). Reduced to νύφη, the word remains the regular Modern Greek term for "bride". In Katharevousa, it is still νύμφη, as in the refrain of the Marian hymn Agni Parthene (c. 1880), χαῖρε νύμφη ἀνύμφευτε "hail, unwedded bride".^[2]

The Doric and Aeolic (Homeric) form is νύμφα. The Iliad (6.420) refers to "mountain nymphs, maidens of Zeus":

ἠδ᾽ ἐπὶ σῆμ᾽ ἔχεεν: περὶ δὲ πτελέας ἐφύτευσαν / νύμφαι ὀρεστιάδες κοῦραι Διὸς αἰγιόχοιο. [Il. 6.419f.]

"He [Achilles] heaped over him [Eetion] a barrow, and all about were elm-trees planted / by mountain-nymphs, maidens of Zeus the aegis-bearer."

The divine nymphs are called θεαὶ Νύμφαι "the nubile goddesses" in Il. 24.616. In mystical theology, the term is applied to souls seeking re-birth. The derived verb νυμφεύω means "to marry (of a woman)" (with dative), "to give in marriage (of the bride's father)" or "to marry (of the husband)" (with accusative).

The etymology of the noun νύμφη is not certain. It has been compared to Latin nubere "to wed", as derived from a word for "veil, cover", root cognate with Greek νέφος, Latin nubes ("cloud"), Greek νεφέλη, Latin nebula ("mist, vapor"), and Latin nimbus ("cloud cover"). This is not generally accepted. Beekes argues for a pre-Greek origin of the word. An alternative suggestion connects a word for "to bud, swell", from the root of German Knospe) "bud". This is informed by a gloss of Hesychius which gives "rose-bud" as a meaning of νύμφη.

Ancient Greek mythology

The Greek nymphs were spirits invariably bound to places, not unlike the Latin genius loci, and the difficulty of transferring their cult may be seen in the complicated myth that brought Arethusa to Sicily. In the works of the Greek-educated Latin poets, the nymphs gradually absorbed into their ranks the indigenous Italian divinities of springs and streams (Juturna, Egeria, Carmentis, Fontus), while the Lymphae (originally Lumpae), Italian water-goddesses, owing to the accidental similarity of their names, could be identified with the Greek Nymphae. The mythologies of classicizing Roman poets were unlikely to have affected the rites and cult of individual nymphs venerated by country people in the springs and clefts of Latium. Among the Roman literate class, their sphere of influence was restricted, and they appear almost exclusively as divinities of the watery element.

Greek folk religion

The ancient Greek belief in nymphs survived in many parts of the country into the early years of the twentieth century, when they were usually known as "nereids". At that time, John Cuthbert Lawson wrote: "...there is probably no nook or hamlet in all Greece where the womenfolk at least do not scrupulously take precautions against the thefts and malice of the nereids, while many a man may still be found to recount in all good faith stories of their beauty, passion and caprice.

"Nor is it a matter of faith only; more than once I have been in villages where certain Nereids were known by sight to several persons (so at least they averred); and there was a wonderful agreement among the witnesses in the description of their appearance and dress."^[3]

Nymphs tended to frequent areas distant from humans but could be encountered by lone travelers outside the village, where their music might be heard, and the traveler could spy on their dancing or bathing in a stream or pool, either during the noon heat or in the middle of the night. They might appear in a whirlwind. Such encounters could be dangerous, bringing dumbness, besotted infatuation, madness or stroke to the unfortunate human. When parents believed their child to be nereid-struck, they would pray to Saint Artemidos.^[4][5]

Modern reception

List

As H.J. Rose states, all the names for various classes of nymphs are plural feminine adjectives agreeing with the substantive nymphai, and there was no single classification that could be seen as canonical and exhaustive. Thus, the classes of nymphs tend to overlap, which complicates the task of precise classification.

Rose mentions dryads and hamadryads as nymphs of trees generally, meliai as nymphs of ash trees, and naiads as nymphs of water, but no others specifically.^[13]

The following is not the authentic Greek classification, but is intended simply as a guide:

The following is a list of groups of nymphs associated with this or that particular location. Nymphs in such groupings could belong to any of the classes mentioned above (Naiades, Oreades, and so on).

The following is a selection of names of the nymphs whose class was not specified in the source texts. For lists of Naiads, Oceanids, Dryades etc. see respective articles.

Gallery

• 
  Echo, an Oread (mountain nymph) watches Narcissus in this 1903 painting of Echo and Narcissus by John William Waterhouse.
• 
  Hylas and nymphs from a mosaic in Roman Gaul (3rd century)
• 
  Public sex between a nymph and Satyr. A sketch of Agostino Carracci.
• 
  Nymphe et satyr - Nicolas Poussin - Musée Pouchkine Moscou
• 
  Nymphe et Saty (Alexandre Cabanel) 1860
• 
  Adolf Hirémy-Hirschl, The Souls of Acheron (1898).
• 
  Naiad by Henri Fantin-Latour.
• 
  The Pleiades (1885) by Elihu Vedder.
• 
  The Cave of the Storm Nymphs by Sir Edward John Poynter
• 
  Nymphe by Gaston Bussière
• 
  Fight between Nymph and Satyr, Naples National Archaeological Museum.
• 
  A Sleeping Nymph Watched by a Shepherd by Angelica Kauffman, about 1780, (V&A Museum no. 23-1886)
• 
  The statue of a sleeping nymph in a grotto at Stourhead, England.

See also

References

Sources

• Burkert, Walter (1985). Greek Religion (1st ed.). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. ISBN 0-674-36281-0.
• Larson, Jennifer Lynn (2001). Greek Nymphs: Myth, Cult, Lore. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-514465-1.
• Lawson, John Cuthbert, Modern Greek Folklore and Ancient Greek Religion, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1910, p. 131
• Nereids
• paleothea.com homepage
• Tomkinson, John L. (2004). Haunted Greece: Nymphs, Vampires and Other Exotika (1st ed.). Athens: Anagnosis. ISBN 960-88087-0-7.
•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Nymphs". Encyclopædia Britannica. 19 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 930.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Nymphs.

• Theoi.com: Nymphs
  • Theoi Project – List of Nymphs