NYMPHS

(Yunanca köken — orijinale bakınız.) Female beings, in Grecian Mythology, partaking of the nature of gods and men. They peopled all the regions of earth and water, and were variously designated, according to the places of their abode. Thus, the Naiades inhabited the streams, the Oreiades the mountains, the Dryades the woods, the Hamadryades trees, with which they were born and died. They are represented as very beautiful; they constituted the attendants of various of the higher female divinities, especially Diana, and were also considered as having been the nurses of many of the gods, as Jupiter and Pan. See Naiads, Nereids. [s. 854]