Dryad

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
For other uses, see Dryad (disambiguation).
Dryad
Dryad11.jpg
The Dryad by Evelyn De Morgan.
GroupingLegendary creature
CountryGreece

A dryad (/ˈdraɪ.æd/; Greek: Δρυάδες, sing.: Δρυάς) is a tree nymph or tree spirit in Greek mythology. Drys signifies "oak" in Greek, and dryads are specifically the nymphs of oak trees, but the term has come to be used for tree nymphs in general,[1] or human-tree hybrids in fantasy. They were normally considered to be very shy creatures except around the goddess Artemis, who was known to be a friend to most nymphs.

Types[]

Greek deities
series
Nymphs
  • v
  • t

Daphnaie[]

Main article: Daphnaie

These were nymphs of the laurel trees.

Epimelides[]

Main article: Epimeliad

The Maliades, Meliades or Epimelides were nymphs of apple and other fruit trees and the protectors of sheep. The Greek word melas—from which their name derives—means both apple and sheep. Hesperides, the guardians of the golden apples were regarded as these type of dryad.

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. (associated with Oak trees)

Meliae[]

Main article: Meliae

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

Names[]

Some of the individual dryads or hamadryads are:

In popular culture[]

La dernière dryade (The Last Dryad) by Gabriel Guay, 1898.
  • Dryads are mentioned in Milton's Paradise Lost, in the works of Coleridge, in Thackeray's novel The Virginians,[9] and in Ezra Pound's Pisan Cantos, Canto LXXXIII. Keats addresses the nightingale as "light-winged Dryad of the trees", in his "Ode to a Nightingale". In the poetry of Donald Davidson they illustrate the themes of tradition and the importance of the past to the present.[10] The poet Sylvia Plath uses them to symbolize nature in her poetry in "On the Difficulty of Conjuring up a Dryad" and "On the Plethora of Dryads".[11]
  • The story "Dear Dryad" (1924) by Oliver Onions features a dryad influencing several romantic couples through history.[12]
  • In Lev Grossman's The Magicians Trilogy, the character Julia becomes a dryad after having had her shade removed during her rape at the hands of Reynard the Fox. Her transformation accelerates when she visits Fillory in the company of the novel's other principals, and is complete when she and Quentin Coldwater visit Fillory's underworld.[13]
  • Dryads appear in The Chronicles of Narnia book series by C. S. Lewis.
  • In the 2005 CG animated film Barbie: Fairytopia, there is a character named Dahlia who is a dryad.
  • In the 1940 short story "The Hardwood Pile" by L. Sprague de Camp, the antagonist is a sphendamniad, a dryad-like spirit whose tree has been made into lumber.
  • The fantasy novels of Thomas Burnett Swann frequently feature dryads, along with other mythological creatures, usually endangered by the advent of more "advanced" civilisations. Swann's story "The Dryad-tree" is set in contemporary Florida and features a woman's reaction to the knowledge that her new husband's garden contains a tree possessed by a jealous dryad. The story was adapted as a short film in 2017.[14]
  • In Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos, Frozen Throne, and Reforged, dryads are playable night elf characters.
  • Dryads are mentioned in Sword of Destiny from Andrzej Sapkowski's The Witcher books.
  • Dryad Lake in Antarctica is named after the nymphs.[15]
  • The Dryad is a NPC in the 2d sandbox adventure game Terraria.
  • Dryads are featured in the trading card game Magic: the Gathering as a creature subtype on the plane of Theros.
  • In the 1497 book Hortus Sanitatis,[16] Drius Sanitatis. Drius Sanitatis (Latin) : 一個健康的小精靈 (Chinese) Yīgè jiànkāng de xiǎo jīnglíng (A healthy elf) A sanus Dryadalis, recipes are given in a reagent books for what appears to be a "dryad" culture.[clarification needed]
  • Dryad's Saddle is a mushroom found in North America, Australia, Asia, and Europe on dead trees, logs and stumps, so named because dryads could conceivably sit or ride on them. [17]

See also[]

References[]

Citations

  1. ^ a b c Graves, ch. 86.2; p. 289
  2. ^ Bibliotheca 2. 1. 5
  3. ^ Tzetzes on Lycophron, 480
  4. ^ Ovid, Metamorphoses 9.330 ff
  5. ^ Antoninus Liberalis, Metamorphoses 32
  6. ^ Pausanias, Description of Greece, 8. 4. 2
  7. ^ Ovid, Fasti 4.222
  8. ^ Pausanias, Description of Greece 10. 32. 9
  9. ^ J. Simpson; E. Weiner, eds. (1989). "Dryad". Oxford English Dictionary (2nd ed.). Oxford: Clarendon Press. ISBN 0-19-861186-2.
  10. ^ Martha E. Cook (1979). "Dryads and Flappers". The Southern Literary Journal. University of North Carolina Press. 12 (1): 18–26. JSTOR 20077624.
  11. ^ Britzolakis, Christina (2000). Sylvia Plath and the theatre of mourning. Oxford English Monographs. Oxford University Press. pp. 85–86. ISBN 0-19-818373-9.
  12. ^ Norman Donaldson, "Oliver Onions", in E. F. Bleiler, ed. Supernatural Fiction Writers. New York: Scribner's, 1985. pp.505-512. ISBN 0684178087
  13. ^ Lev Grossman, The Magician King. New York: Viking, 2011. pp.343-357. ISBN 978067002231-1
  14. ^ "The Dryad Tree (2017) - IMDb". IMDb. Retrieved 25 August 2018.
  15. ^ Dryad Lake. SCAR Composite Gazetteer of Antarctica
  16. ^ [1] HORTUS SANITATIS vel Tractatus de herbis et plantis, de animalibus omnibus et de lapidibus
  17. ^ https://www.mushroomdiary.co.uk/2011/06/dryads-saddle-bracket-fungus/

Bibliography

  • Graves, Robert (1955). Greek Myths. London: Penguin. ISBN 0-14-001026-2.
  • Burkert, Walter, 1985. Greek Religion (Cambridge: Harvard University Press).

External links[]

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