Nymphs

This was a general name for a cla of inferior female deities who were attendants of the gods. Some of them presided over springs, fountains, wells, woods, and the sea. They are spoken of as land-nymphs or Naiads, and sea-nymphs or Nereids, though the former are a ociated also with fountains and rivers. The Dryads were forest-nymphs, and the Hamadryads were nymphs who lived among the oak-trees—the oak being always specially venerated by the ancients. The mountain-nymphs were called Oreads. “With flower-inwoven tre es torn, The nymphs in twilight shade Of tangled thickets mourn.” Milton.