  ?? ??????? ????? ???????? ?????? ??????.??Euripides. Like a tender Nymph Within the dewy caves. The Grecian mythology, like its kindred systems, abounded in personifications. Whether it be owing to soil, climate, or to an original disposition of mind and its organ, the Greeks have above all other people possessed a perception of beauty of form, and a fondness for representing it. The Nymphs of various kinds were therefore always presented to the imagination, in the perfection of female youth and beauty. Under the various appellations of Oreades, Dryades, NaÏdes, Limniades, Nereides, they dwelt in mountains, trees, springs, lakes, the sea, where, in caverns and grottos, they passed a life whose occupations resembled those of females of human race. The Wood-nymphs were the companions and attendants of the huntress goddess Artemis; the Sea-nymphs averted shipwreck from pious navigators; and the Spring- and River-nymphs poured forth fruitfulness on the earth. All of them were honoured with prayer and sacrifice; and all of them occasionally 'mingled in love' with favoured mortals. In the Homeric poems, the most ancient portion of Grecian literature, we meet the various classes of Nymphs. In the Odyssey, they are the attendants of Calypso, herself a goddess and a nymph. Of the female attendants of Circe, the potent daughter of Helios, also designated as a goddess and a nymph, it is said, They spring from fountains and from sacred groves, And holy streams that flow into the sea. Yet these nymphs are of divine nature, and when Zeus, the father of the gods, calls together his council, None of the streams, save Ocean, stayed away, Nor of the Nymphs, who dwell in beauteous groves, And springs of streams, and verdant grassy slades. The good EumÆus prays to the Nymphs to speed the return of his master, reminding them of the numerous sacrifices But at the harbour's head a long-leafed olive Grows, and near to it lies a lovely cave, Dusky and sacred to the Nymphs, whom men Call NaÏdes. In it large craters lie, And two-eared pitchers, all of stone, and there Bees build their combs. In it, too, are long looms Of stone, and there the Nymphs do weave their robes, Sea-purple, wondrous to behold. Aye-flowing Waters are there; two entrances it hath; That to the north is pervious unto men; That to the south more sacred is, and there Men enter not, but 'tis the Immortals' path. Yet though thus exalted in rank, the Homeric Nymphs frequently 'blessed the bed' of heroes; and many a warrior who fought before Troy could boast descent from a NaÏs or a Nereis. The sweet, gentle, pious, Ocean-nymphs, who in the Prometheus of Æschylus appear as the consolers and advisers of its dignified hero, seem to hold a nearly similar relation with man to the supernal gods. Beholding the misery inflicted on Prometheus by the power of Zeus, they cry,— May never the all-ruling Zeus set his rival power Against my thoughts; Nor may I ever fail The gods, with holy feasts Of sacrifices, drawing near, Beside the ceaseless stream Of father OcËan: Nor may I err in words; But this abide with me And never fade away. One of the most interesting species of Nymphs is the Dryads, or Hamadryads, those personifications of the vegetable life of plants. In the Homeric hymn to AphroditÈ, we find the following full and accurate description of them. AphroditÈ, when she informs Anchises of her pregnancy, But him, when first he sees the sun's clear light, The Nymphs shall rear, the mountain-haunting Nymphs, Deep-bosomed, who on this mountain great And holy dwell, who neither goddesses Nor women are. Their life is long; they eat Ambrosial food, and with the deathless frame The beauteous dance. With them, in the recess Of lovely caves, well-spying Argos-slayer And the Sileni mix in love. Straight pines Or oaks high-headed spring with them upon The earth man-feeding, soon as they are born; Trees fair and flourishing; on the high hills Lofty they stand; the Deathless' sacred grove Men call them, and with iron never cut. But when the fate of death is drawing near, First wither on the earth the beauteous trees, The bark around them wastes, the branches fall, And the Nymph's soul at the same moment leaves The sun's fair light. They possessed power to reward and punish these who prolonged or abridged the existence of their associate-tree. In the Argonautics of Apollonius Rhodius, Phineus thus explains to the heroes the cause of the poverty of PerÆbius:— But he was paying the penalty laid on His father's crime; for one time, cutting trees Alone among the hills, he spurned the prayer Of the Hamadryas Nymph, who, weeping sore, With earnest words besought him not to cut The trunk of an oak tree, which, with herself Coeval, had endured for many a year. But, in the pride of youth, he foolishly Cut it; and to him and to his race the Nymph Gave ever after a lot profitless. The Scholiast gives on this passage the following tale from Charon of Lampsacus: A man, named Rhoecus, happening to see an oak just ready to fall to the ground, ordered his slaves to prop it. The Nymph, who had been on the point of perishing with the tree, came to him and expressed her gratitude to him for having saved her life, and at the same time desired him Similar was the fate of the Sicilian Daphnis. |
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