Naiad
In Greek mythology, the Naiads are a type of female spirit, or nymph, presiding over fountains, wells, springs, streams, brooks and other bodies of fresh water.
They are distinct from river gods, who embodied rivers, and the very ancient spirits that inhabited the still waters of marshes, ponds and lagoon-lakes, such as pre-Mycenaean Lerna in the Argolis.
Naiads were associated with fresh water, as the Oceanids were with saltwater and the Nereids specifically with the Mediterranean, but because the ancient Greeks thought of the world's waters as all one system, which percolated in from the sea in deep cavernous spaces within the earth, there was some overlap. Arethusa, the nymph of a spring, could make her way through subterranean flows from the Peloponnesus to surface on the island of Sicily.
Etymology
The Greek word is Ναϊάς, plural Ναϊάδες. It derives from νάειν, "to flow", or νᾶμα, "running water". "Naiad" has several English pronunciations:,,,.Mythology
Naiads were often the object of archaic local cults, worshipped as essential to humans. Boys and girls at coming-of-age ceremonies dedicated their childish locks to the local naiad of the spring. In places like Lerna their waters' ritual cleansings were credited with magical medical properties. Animals were ritually drowned there. Oracles might be situated by ancient springs.Naiads could be dangerous: Hylas of the Argo’s crew was lost when he was taken by naiads fascinated by his beauty. The naiads were also known to exhibit jealous tendencies. Theocritus's story of naiad jealousy was that of a shepherd, Daphnis, who was the lover of Nomia or Echenais; Daphnis had on several occasions been unfaithful to Nomia and as revenge she permanently blinded him. The nymph Salmacis raped Hermaphroditus and fused with him when he tried to escape.
The water nymph associated with particular springs was known all through Europe in places with no direct connection with Greece, surviving in the Celtic wells of northwest Europe that have been rededicated to Saints, and in the medieval Melusine.
Walter Burkert points out, "When in the Iliad Zeus calls the gods into assembly on Mount Olympus, it is not only the well-known Olympians who come along, but also all the nymphs and all the rivers; Okeanos alone remains at his station", Greek hearers recognized this impossibility as the poet's hyperbole, which proclaimed the universal power of Zeus over the ancient natural world: "the worship of these deities," Burkert confirms, "is limited only by the fact that they are inseparably identified with a specific locality."
Interpretation
offered a sociopolitical reading of the common myth-type in which a mythic king is credited with marrying a naiad and founding a city: it was the newly arrived Hellenes justifying their presence. The loves and rapes of Zeus, according to Graves' readings, record the supplanting of ancient local cults by Olympian ones.So, in the back-story of the myth of Aristaeus, Hypseus, a king of the Lapiths, married Chlidanope, a naiad, who bore him Cyrene. Aristaeus had more than ordinary mortal experience with the naiads: when his bees died in Thessaly, he went to consult them. His aunt Arethusa invited him below the water's surface, where he was washed with water from a perpetual spring and given advice.
Types and individual names
| Name | Location | Relations |
| Aba | Ciconia, Thrace | presumed daughter of the river Hebros; mother of Ergiscus by Poseidon |
| Abarbarea | Tyre | ancestors of the Tyrians along with Callirrhoe and Drosera |
| Aegle | - | daughter of Zeus and Neaera, by whom Helios begot the Charites |
| Aia | Colchis | loved by the river-god Phasis. |
| Alcinoe | Mt. Lycaeus, Arcadia | one of the nurses of the god Zeus |
| Anchiroe | Arcadia | one of the nurses of the god Zeus |
| Anchiroe | Libya | wife of the Psylli tribe's first king Psyllus |
| Annaed | - | - |
| Anthedon | Boeotia | - |
| Argiope | Mt. Parnassus, Phocis | possibly the daughter of the river-god Cephissus, mother of Thamyris by Philammon |
| Argiope | Eleusis | possibly the daughter of the river-god Cephissus, mother of Cercyon by Branchus |
| Argyra | Achaea | loved by the hero Selemnus |
| Ascra | Boeotia | loved by Poseidon who bore him a son Oeoclus |
| Asterodia | Caucasus | daughter of Oceanus and Tethys; loved by the Colchian king Aeetes by whom she had a son Apsyrtus |
| Asterope | Sicily | an Oceanid; mother of Acragas by Zeus |
| Bateia | Sparta | married King Oebalus of Sparta and mother of their sons were Hippocoon, Tyndareus and Icarius |
| Bistonis | Thrace | mother of Tereus by Ares |
| Byzia | Byzantium | - |
| Callirrhoe | Tyre | ancestors of the Tyrians along with Abarbarea and Drosera |
| Ceto | - | an Oceanid; she bore Helios a daughter, Astris |
| Chesias | Samos | loved by the river god Imbrasis |
| Charybdis | - | daughter of Poseidon and Gaia |
| Chlidanope | possibly Thessaly | wife of Hypseus and mother Cyrene |
| Cleide | Naxos | one of the nurses of the god Dionysus |
| Cleomede | Paeonia | daughter of the river god Axius; she was the wife of Paeon |
| Clonia | Boeotia | consort of Hyrieus and by him became the mother of Nycteus and Lycus |
| Cnossia | Crete | mother of Xenodamos by Menelaus when he visited the island |
| Coronis | Naxos | one of the nurses of the god Dionysus |
| Cretheis | Smyrna, Ionia | mother of Homer by the river god Meles |
| Creusa | Thessaly | daughter of Gaia; she bore Hypseus and Stilbe to the river god Peneus |
| Cyanea | Miletus, Caria | daughter of the river Meander; wife of king Miletos and mother by him of Caunus and Byblis |
| Danais | Elis | she was loved by the Pisan king Pelops by whom she became the mother of his bastard son, Chrysippus |
| Daphne | Arcadia or Laconia | daughter of the river god Ladon or of king Amyclas; loved by the god Apollo |
| Daulis | Boeotia | daughter of the river-god Cephisus |
| Dercetis | Boeotia | mother of Alatreus by Laphitaon |
| Diogeneia | Attica | daughter of the river-god Cephisus; the wife of the Athenian lord Phrasimos and mother by him of Praxithea |
| Drosera | Tyre | ancestors of the Tyrians along with Abarbarea and Callirhoe |
| Echenais | Sicily | blinded his unfaithful lover Daphnis |
| Eupheme | Boeotia | nurse of the Muses; mother of Crotus by Pan |
| Evadne | Argolis | daughter of Strymon and Neaera, wife of Argus, mother of Ecbasus, Peiras, Epidaurus and Criasus |
| Glauce | Arcadia | one of the nurses of Zeus |
| Harmonia | Acmonia, Phrygia | mother of the Amazons by Ares |
| Hippe | Argolis | - |
| Lara | Rome | daughter of the river Almo; mother of the Lares by Mercury |
| Lilaea | Phocis | daughter of the local river-god Cephisus |
| Liriope | Phocis | bore a son Narcissus to the river-god Cephisus |
| Lotis | Dryopia/ Doris | escape from the embraces of Priapus was metamorphosed into a tree |
| Melia | Argolis | an Oceanid; mother, by Inachus, of Phoroneus and Aegialeus |
| Melia | Boeotia | an Oceanid; mother, by Apollo, of Tenerus and Ismenus |
| Melia | Bithynia | mother, by Poseidon, of Mygdon and Amycus, kings of Bebryces |
| Melia | Bithynia | she was the mother by Silenus of Dolion |
| Melia | Ceos | mother, by Apollo, of Ceos |
| Melite | Corcyra | daughter of the river god Aegaeus and mother of Hyllus by Heracles |
| Methone | Pieria | mother of Oeagrus by Pierus |
| Midea | Boeotia | mother of Aspledon by Poseidon |
| Minthe | Elis | daughter of Cocytus; loved by the god Hades but as punishment her boasts was transformed by Persephone or Demeter into a mint-plant |
| Nacole | Phrygia | eponym of Nacoleia |
| Nais | Laconia | wife of Silenus |
| Neaera | Thrace | wife of the river-god Strymon, and mother of Evadne |
| Neaera | Lydia | mother of Dresaeus by Theiodamas |
| Neis | - | mother of Aetolus by Endymion |
| Nicaea | Bithynia | daughter of the river-god Sangarius and Cybele. By the god of wine, Dionysus, she mothered Telete |
| Nomia | Arcadia | companion of Callisto |
| Nonacris | Arcadia | wife of Lycaon and the mother of Callisto |
| Ocyrhoe | Colchis | mother of Phasis by Helios |
| Orseis | Thessaly | mother of Dorus, Aeolus and Xuthus by Hellen |
| Ortygia | Lycia | nurse of Apollo |
| Paria | Paros | mother of Eurymedon, Nephalion, Chryses and Philolaus by Minos |
| Periboea | Laconia | wife of Icarius, mother of Penelope, Perilaus, Aletes, Damasippus, Imeusimus and Thoas |
| Pero | Sicyon | mother of Asopus by Poseidon |
| Philia | Naxos | one of the nurses of the god Dionysus |
| Phrixa | Arcadia | one of the nurses of Zeus |
| Pitane | Laconia | daughter of the river god Eurotas, became by Poseidon the mother of Evadne |
| Praxithea | Athens | married Erichthonius of Athens and by him had a son named Pandion I |
| Pronoe | Lycia | mother of Aegialus by Caunus |
| Rhodope | Thrace | mother of Hebros by Haemus and of Cicon by Apollo |
| Samia | Samos | wife of Ancaeus |
| Sparta | Sparta | daughter of the river god Eurotas; mother of Amyclas and Eurydice by Lacedaemon |
| Syllis | Sicyon | mother of Zeuxippus by Apollo |
| Thronia | Thrace | mother of Abderus by Poseidon |
| Tiasa | Sparta | daughter of the river god Eurotas |
Place names
- St. Charles Avenue in New Orleans was formerly known as Nyades Street, and is parallel to Dryades Street.
- Naiad Lake in Antarctica is named after the nymphs.
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