In Greek mythology, the Meliae (Μελιαι) or Meliads were the nymphs of ash trees, primarily mentioned in Hesiod’s Theogony. The ash tree that grows in the mountains of Greece is the flowering ash; many species of these trees exude a sugary substance that the ancient Greeks called méli (“honey”).
Description
Generally, they are considered ash tree nymphs, as the same Greek word indicating ash is Μελίαι, and the two nurses Ida and Adrastea (who offered food to Zeus) were also considered Meliae. This is because the word Μελί is associated with both ash tree sap and honey from bees, both of which are part of the ambrosial food. Callimachus also writes that the Meliae cared for infant Zeus on Mount Dicte on the island of Crete, where they nourished him with honey and goat’s milk from the goat Amalthea.
However, Callimachus, Nonnus of Panopolis, and Hesiod simply describe the Meliae as tree nymphs without specifying the type of tree they descend from.
It is also likely that some mythographers used the word Μελία (Melia) instead of Μελίαι (Meliai) to narrate myths or legends about the deeds of a single nymph that may not belong to the Meliae group.
Pausanias notes the existence of an oceanic Melia (thus the daughter of Oceanus and Tethys) who became the mother of Tenereus and Ismenus by Apollo. Callimachus and Hesiod write that the mother of Tenereus and Ismenus was another nymph (Melia), whom they place in Thebes and specify as a nymph of the land rather than of ash trees.
In Argive mythology, Melia was the wife of the river god Inachus and the mother of Phoroneus and Aegialeus. According to one version, she was loved by Zeus and gave birth to Io.
According to Hesiod, they were born from the blood of Uranus that fell on Gaia after his castration (thus having the same origin as the Erinyes and the Curetes). It is emphasized that they are connected to the birth of humanity, as mythology also speaks of humans being born from ash trees during the Bronze Age.
According to Apollodorus, the nymph Melia, who was the mother of Pholus by Silenus, is a Meliae, a nymph of ash trees.
They were the wives of men in the Silver Age and the mothers of those in the Bronze Age (the third generation of humanity). They nursed their children with honey and sap from ash trees and armed them with spears made from the wood of their trees (ash trees).
However, the men of the Bronze Age were too warlike, and Zeus destroyed them with the floods of the Great Flood. According to some authors, as ash wood was used to make spears, arrows, and javelins, the Meliae were goddesses of bloody battle. Callimachus mentions them alongside the Curetes when they defended infant Zeus on Mount Ida, just delivered to him by the Arcadian nymph Neda. According to another legend, they protected abandoned children under the trees.
These “nymphs called Meliae upon the earth” were engendered by Gaia when she was fertilized by the blood that flowed from the open wound of Uranus after being castrated by his son Cronus. The Giants and the Erinyes were also born from this particular fertilization. These three groups of deities could be considered a kind of siblings to Aphrodite, who, in Hesiodic texts, was born from the same crime.
However, unlike the other groups, Aphrodite did not arise from divine blood but from the foam formed from the severed divine member, which floated adrift in the sea. Hesiod does not provide the number or individual names of these three divine races, which seem to function more as a collective lineage that does not need to be defined. Some verses in the Works and Days have been interpreted as portraying the Meliae as the collective mothers of the men of the Bronze Age: “Zeus the Father made a third generation of mortals, a race of bronze, sprung from the ash trees (Meliai).” However, this interpretation has been proposed by later authors and modern scholars.
Meliae in Other Sources
The Meliae belong to a class of sisterhoods whose nature is to appear together and are invoked in the plural. Authors later than Hesiod do mention the individual names of the Erinyes and the Giants, but there is no record of the same happening with the Meliae. In mythology, there are a handful of nymphs with the individual name Melia, to whom the categorization of Meliae nymphs has been attributed, but this attribution is rarely indicated; rather, it seems like a conjecture based on onomastics.
Moreover, in the corpus of Hesiod’s work, no individual character is mentioned by the name Melia. These individual nymphs with the name Melia include the Oceanid mother of Phoroneus, two lovers of Apollo, and two lovers of Silenus. In most cases, these nymphs are explicitly described as part of the Oceanids or Naiads. In the Library of Apollodorus, it is mentioned that the centaur Pholus is the son of Silenus and Melia or a Melia nymph; the context depends on the translator, and it could even be interpreted as a nymph of Malea. The same occurs with the mother of Amicus, a nymph lover of Poseidon, whom even the commentator refers to as not knowing if Melia is her proper name or part of these nymphs; Higino, however, imagines her as the daughter of Ocean.
Apart from Hesiodic texts, two authorities explicitly tell us about the Meliae nymphs, and they were none other than the nurses of Zeus. According to the Hymn to Zeus by Callimachus, the Meliae of Mount Dicte helped care for the little god shortly after his birth. The author names them individually as Adrastea, Amalthea, and Panacris (whom he refers to as a bee), but he mentions earlier Neda, Philyra, and Styx, who are Oceanid nymphs. Apollodorus clearly relies on Callimachus’s text in one of his passages, and in his version, he says that the nymphs Ida (suggesting an eponymous nymph) and Adrastea, daughters of a certain Melisseus, nourished the infant with the milk of Amalthea.
In ancient Greek religion, the nymph (in ancient Greek, νύμφη, nymphē, ‘maiden’, ‘bride’) was a deity associated with nature. Divine powers of the forests, mountains, waters, and springs, of the trees, but also of regions, cities, or states, nymphs were immortal beings, although sometimes considered mortal in later times, but nonetheless with long lives.
The nature of the Nymphs corresponds to the realm of the divine power of Αἰδώς (Modesty), hence to the reserve and wonder in the face of what is immaculate and therefore silent. They were: Oreads, mountain nymphs; Nereids, sea nymphs; Naiads, spring nymphs; and Dryads, tree nymphs. Companions of the goddess Artemis, herself referred to as Αἰδώς, they are characterized, like the goddess, by unparalleled beauty.
When the god Pan plays the divine flute, echoing the harmony of primordial silence, the Nymphs dance, wandering on the mountains and singing melodiously. The Nymphs are the powers of a river, a sea, or a lake, and even when their divine power resides on land, their connection with water remains foundational.
Always in the form of maidens, they often formed part of the retinue of a god, such as Dionysus, Hermes, or Pan, or of a goddess, usually the huntress Artemis. Greek mythology includes many nymphs, whose appearance as beautiful, eternally young maidens attracted many mortal men and heroes.
There is a wide variety of myths about them; these stories often associate them with satyrs, of whom they were frequent targets, giving rise to the modern term for the nymphomania sexual tendency.
Nymphs in a Cave, by Gaston Bussière (1924).
Etymology
Nymphs are personifications of creativity and nurturing activities of nature, most often identified with the life-giving flow of watercourses following floods:
“The idea that rivers are gods and nymphs their associated divinities is deeply rooted, not only in poetry but also in common belief and rituals; the worship of these deities is limited only by the fact that they remain inseparably identified with a specific locality.”
Observation by Walter Burkert
The Greek word νύμφη (nýmphe, “maiden”) has the same root as the Latin verb nubere, “to take a husband” (from which our “nubile” derives). Other scholars relate the word (and also Latin nubere and German Knospe) to a root expressing the idea of “swelling” (according to Hesychius of Alexandria, one of the meanings of νύμφη is “rosebud”).
Myth
In the Greek conception, nymphs are beautiful and slender young girls, with graceful movements, heads adorned with flowers, and light, fluttering garments, rarely naked. They are benefactors and make nature fertile. They protect engaged couples who bathe in their springs, inspire humans, and some of them, especially the Naiads, are healers of ailments and wounds. Lovers of both gods and common mortals, nymphs sing happily in their consecrated place. Many demigods and heroes were born from their unions with mortals. In theory, they could also mate with deities, and in such cases, immortal children would be born.
Among the most famous nymphs, one can mention Echo, the nymph of Mount Helicon; Hera took away her ability to speak, so Echo could only repeat the last words spoken by others. Another famous, mortal nymph was Eurydice, the wife of Orpheus (related to Orphism).
The nymph Calypso, mentioned in the Odyssey, is well-known; she detained Odysseus for seven years on the island of Ogygia. In Roman mythology, the nymph Egeria was the secret adviser to King Numa Pompilius.
Also remembered are the Naiads who abducted the young Argonaut Hylas. Greek nymphs were later assimilated into the Roman deities of fountains, springs, and rivers.
Genealogy and Classification
The nymphs, whose number is incalculable, are classified into three main categories: terrestrial nymphs, aquatic nymphs, and celestial nymphs, a division already present in Homer and the oldest poets. As the mythologist Herbert Jennings Rose asserts, all the names for the various classes of nymphs are feminine plural adjectives agreeing with the noun nymphai, and there was no single type of classification that could be seen as canonical and exhaustive.
Thus, the classes of nymphs tend to partially overlap, complicating the task of precise classification. Rose speaks of dryads and hamadryads as tree nymphs in general, meliae as nymphs of ash trees, and naiads as water nymphs, but he does not add any others in particular. The Melian nymphs were daughters of Uranus, and their myths are linked to major deities such as Artemis, Apollo, Poseidon, Demeter, Dionysus, Pan, Hermes, or minor deities like Fontus.
Depending on the natural environment in which they live, they are specifically distinguished:
Epigeae: terrestrial nymphs:
Agrostine, of the fields
Aloniadi, ravines, cliffs, deep valleys.
Oreades, of the mountains
Napee, valleys and meadows
Auloniadi, river valleys and mountain pastures
Limniades, meadow nymphs
Coricides
Alseids, small trees and woods
Anthuse, of flowers
Hamadryads, trees. They were tied to a specific tree
Dryads, each of which lived in an oak tree or in any case in a plant
Meliades, ash trees
Epimelids, protectors of apple and sheep trees
Ileori, fir and other conifers
Daphnaie, of the laurel tree
Egeiro, in the black poplar
Ampelo, in the vine
Balans, in the oak
Caria, in walnut, hazelnut or chestnut
Craneia, in dogwood or cherry
Morea, in the mulberry tree
Ptelea, in the elm
Siche, in the fig tree
Querquetulanae, of the oak groves
Driope, of the Maidenhair plant
Pleiades, poplars
Hydriads: Aquatic nymphs:
(Oceanine, sea and river currents. They are proper goddesses, sisters of the Potamoi)
Aliades, of the coasts
Psamides
Nereids (daughters of an oceanina, of the sea
Naiads, freshwater springs
Eleades, of the marshes
Avernali, Lake Avernus and the infernal rivers
Ithaches, naiads in the sacred caves of Ithaca
Mysias, naiads of Lake Askanios in Bithynia. They were responsible for the kidnapping of Ila
Ortigia, naiad or naiads of the springs of the Island of Ortigia, near Syracuse
Potamides, of rivers
Limniades, lakes and ponds
Creneids and Pegee, of the springs (fountain, well and spring)
Pharmacy, nymph of a poisonous spring in Attica and playmate of Orizia
Camene, archaic nymphs of the springs
Pegasids, nymphs of natural wells, connected to Pegasus
Deliads, daughters of Inopus, god of the river of the same name on the island of Delos
Spercheids, daughters of the river Spercheus, in Thessaly
Celestial Nymphs:
Aurae, of the breeze
Hesperides or “Western Nymphs”: they guard the garden of the Hesperides at an unspecified point in the extreme western limits of the world
Pleiades; Daughters of Pleion
Hyades, stars, constellations, rain, woods, springs, and swamps
Nephele, of the clouds
Alcinoids
Clouds, cloud nymphs
Other Nymphs:
Lamps, nymphs of the underworld, companions of Hecate.
Tiades, companions of Dionysus, also called Maenads or Bacchae by Hesiod.
Care, nurturing babies.
Cirtonians, local nymphs of the town of Cyrtones, Boeotia
Hyperboreae, nymphs of archery: Hecaerge, representing distance; Losso, representing the trajectory; UPI, representing the intention
Mint, nymph of the passage to the underworld, on the mountain of the same name
Offerings and Sacrifices
The rituals of offering to the nymphs included sacrifices of lambs and kids, but predominantly these offerings consisted of milk, oil, honey, fruits, and rustic offerings.
Modern Sexual Connotations
Due to the representation of mythological nymphs as females who mate with men or women of their own will and are completely outside male control, the term is often used for women perceived to behave in a similar manner (for example, the title of the 1956 Perry Mason detective novel “The Case of the Negligent Nymph” by Erle Stanley Gardner is derived from this meaning of the word).
The term nymphomania was created by modern psychology to refer to a “desire to engage in human sexual behavior at a level significant enough to be considered clinically meaningful,” with a nymphomaniac being a person suffering from such a disorder. Due to the widespread use of the term among laypeople (often abbreviated to nympho) and the associated stereotypes, professionals nowadays prefer the term hypersexuality, which can refer to both males and females alike.
The word nymphet is used to identify a sexually precocious girl. The term became famous in Vladimir Nabokov’s novel Lolita. The main character, Humbert Humbert, uses the term many times, usually in reference to the title character, a barely thirteen-year-old girl he is strongly infatuated with.
In the Arts
Iconography in Visual Arts
In visual arts, nymphs are usually depicted as beautiful maidens, generally nude and crowned with flowers. Water nymphs, in particular, are shown holding jars or pitchers on their heads (see, for example, Ingres’s “The Source”). Famous works of art from antiquity include some statues by Praxiteles, a marble group by Arkesilaos, and reliefs executed by various masters.
Francesco Albani: Venus with nymphs and cupids
Jacob Jordaens: Nymphs at the Fountain of Love
Jacob Jordaens: Nymphs and Cupid in Sleep
Lucas Cranach the Elder: Lies of a nymph
Peter Paul Rubens: Diana and her nymphs surprised by a Faun
Rembrandt: Diana’s Bath and Actaeon and Callisto
Arnold Böcklin: The Play of the Naiads (and many other images)
Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot: Dance of the Nymphs
Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot: A nymph plays with Cupid
Wilhelm Neumann Torborg: Faun and Nymph (1890)
Édouard Manet: Surprised by the Nymph (1861)
Auguste Rodin: Faun and Nymph (1886)
Titian: Nymph and Shepherd (1570)
Henryk Siemiradzki: The play of the Naiads (1880)
Paul Aichele: Nymph (1891)
Music
The French composer Jean-Philippe Rameau composed the opera “Platée” in 1745, a musical comedy. The innocence of a nymph is used by Jupiter to make his wife Juno jealous.
The French composer Claude Debussy composed the piece “Syrinx” for flute in 1913. The short piece refers to the legend of Pan and Syrinx; the nymph escapes the advances of the lustful god and transforms into a reed that plays in the wind.
Pan then invents the musical instrument that bears his name.
The Finnish composer Jean Sibelius composed the orchestral tone poem in 1894, Op. 15, “Skogsrået” (The Nymph Wood).
“Rusalka” by Antonín Dvořák is the most successful opera by the composer. The libretto dates back to popular Slavic myths about Rusalki (water spirits, mermaids) and is similar to the German tale “Undine” by Friedrich de la Motte Fouqué and Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tale titled “The Little Mermaid.”
The Italian composer Claudio Monteverdi composed in 1614 “Lagrime d’amante al Sepolcro del Amata,” the funeral lament of the shepherd Glaucus in front of the tomb of his beloved nymph Corinna.
Literature
The figure of the nymph appears countless times, especially during the Renaissance and Romanticism.
In his novel “Lolita” (Nabokov), Vladimir Nabokov invents the terms “nymphet” and “Lolita” (term) to indicate a type of precocious and sexually attractive young girl.
Fantasy
In Licia Troisi’s books, nymphs are beautiful girls made of water. They have pure eyes and very long hair. In the Legends of the Emerged World, it is revealed that their blood is immune to the disease, which affects other peoples of the world.
In the novels of the Chronicles of Narnia, nymphs are nature deities: they are graceful and slender; inhabitants of springs (Naiads) and trees (Dryads and Hamadryads); they are the daughters of gods and goddesses; they serve Aslan. In the book, there are also girls associated with nymphs who are actually female creatures of the forests (like treewomen).
In Geronimo Stilton’s books, there are Forest Nymphs: Alena, one of the protagonists in his books, is the first Forest Nymph to become a Knight of the Silver Rose.
They can also be represented as elements of nature, made of water, air, and light. In “Paranormalcy,” a book by Kiersten White, Evie’s boyfriend’s mother is the equivalent of a nymph: she resides in a lake, is made only of water, and practices magic.
In Rick Riordan’s books—the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series and later, the Heroes of Olympus series—there are several appearances of nymphs, often interacting and assisting the main characters. There are forest nymphs, water nymphs, and even air nymphs. Notable is, for example, the dryad Juniper, the girlfriend of the satyr Grover. She is described as entirely green, including her eyes, which have streaks—veins—of chlorophyll. Many of them are shy and end up transforming into plants (each different depending on the nymph) to hide.
Another example is a nymph who is part of the Hesperides, the mythological daughters of Atlas. This is Zoe Nightshade.
In the animated series Winx Club, Bloom’s sister, Daphne, is the Supreme Nymph of the nine nymphs of Magix, all-powerful fairies who control the Magical Dimension. Guardian of the Dragon Flame until her sister’s birth. She lost her body due to the Three Ancient Witches, who cursed her Sirenix power. Later, her sister, Bloom, broke the curse, restoring her life. Another Nymph of Magix is Politea, who transforms into a monster due to the Three Ancient Witches after abandoning Daphne. She will later disappear when the Trix drain her Sirenix power.
