Dryads

A dryad is a tree nymph or tree spirit in Greek mythology. Drys signifies "oak" in Greek. Dryads were originally considered the nymphs of oak trees specifically, but the term has evolved towards tree nymphs in general. Often their life force was connected to the three in which they resided and they were usually found in sacred groves of the gods. They were considered to be very shy creatures except around the goddess Artemis, who was known to be a friend to most nymphs.
==Types==
===Daphnaie===
The Daphnaie were nymphs of the laurel trees.
===Epimelides===
The Maliades, Meliades, or Epimelides were nymphs of apple and other fruit trees and the protectors of sheep. The Greek word melas, from which their name derives, means both apple and sheep. The Hesperides, the guardians of the golden apples, were regarded as this type of dryad.
===Hamadryads===
Dryads, like all nymphs, were supernaturally long-lived and tied to their homes, but some were a step beyond most nymphs. These were the hamadryads who were an integral part of their trees, such that if the tree died, the hamadryad associated with it also died. For these reasons, dryads and the Greek gods punished any mortal who harmed trees without first appeasing the tree nymphs.
===Meliae===
The dryads of the ash tree were called the Meliae. They tended to the infant Zeus in Rhea's Cretan cave. Gaia gave birth to the Meliae after being made fertile by the blood of castrated Uranus. The Caryatids were associated with walnut trees.
==Names==
Some of the individual dryads or hamadryads are:
*Atlanteia and Phoebe, two of the many wives or concubines of Danaus
*Chrysopeleia
*Dryope
*Erato
*Eurydice
*Tithorea
==In popular culture==
*John Keats addresses the nightingale as "light-winged Dryad of the trees", in his "Ode to a Nightingale".
*In the poetry of Donald Davidson, they illustrate the themes of tradition and the importance of the past to the present.
*In Lev Grossman's The Magicians Trilogy, the character Julia becomes a dryad after having had her shade removed during her rape at the hands of Reynard the Fox.
*The fantasy novels of Thomas Burnett Swann frequently feature dryads, along with other mythological creatures, usually endangered by the advent of more "advanced" civilizations. Swann's story "The Dryad tree" is set in contemporary Florida and features a woman's reaction to the knowledge that her new husband's garden contains a tree possessed by a jealous dryad.
==See also==
*Oreads
*Ghillie Dhu
*Kodama
*Green spirit
*Elf
*Querquetulanae
*Rådande
*Salabhanjika
*Mavka
Category:Dryads
Category:Nymphs