Nymph

A nymph (Greek: νύμφη, nymphē) in Greek mythology is a minor female nature deity typically associated with a particular location or landform. There are 5 different types of nymphs, Celestial Nymphs, Sea Nymphs, Land Nymphs, Wood Nymphs and Underworld Nymphs. Different from 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 believed to dwell in mountains and groves, by springs and rivers, and also in trees and in valleys and cool grottoes. Although they would never die of old age nor illness, and could give birth to fully immortal children if mated to a god, they themselves were not necessarily immortal, and could be beholden to death in various forms. Charybdis and Scylla were once nymphs.

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. Nymphs were the frequent target of satyrs. They are frequently associated with the superior divinities: the huntress Artemis; the prophetic Apollo; the reveller and god of wine, Dionysus; and rustic gods such as Pan and Hermes.

Read more about Nymph:  Etymology, Adaptations, In Modern Greek Folklore, Modern Sexual Connotations, Classification

Famous quotes containing the word nymph:

    A hidden strength
    Which if Heav’n gave it, may be term’d her own:
    ‘Tis chastity, my brother, chastity:
    She that has that, is clad in compleat steel,
    And like a quiver’d Nymph with Arrows keen
    May trace huge Forests, and unharbour’d Heaths,
    Infamous Hills, and sandy perilous wildes,
    Where through the sacred rayes of Chastity,
    No savage fierce, Bandite, or mountaneer
    Will dare to soyl her Virgin purity,
    John Milton (1608–1674)

    Whether the nymph shall break Diana’s law,
    Or some frail china jarreceive a flaw,
    Or stain her honour, or her new brocade,
    Alexander Pope (1688–1744)

    Thus intranc’d they did lie,
    Till Alexis did try
    To recover new breath, that again he might die:
    Then often they died; but the more they did so,
    The nymph died more quick, and the shepherd more slow.
    John Dryden (1631–1700)