Hamadryad
| Greek deities series |
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|---|---|
| Primordial deities | |
| Titans and Olympians | |
| Aquatic deities | |
| Chthonic deities | |
| Personified concepts | |
| Other deities | |
| Nymphs | |
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Hamadryads (Greek: Ἁμαδρυάδες, Hamadryádes) are Greek mythological beings that live in trees. They are a particular type of dryad, which in turn are a particular type of nymph. Hamadryads are born bonded to a particular tree. Some believe that hamadryads are the actual tree, while normal dryads are simply the entities, or spirits, of the trees. If the tree died, the hamadryad associated with it died as well. For that reason, dryads and the gods punished any mortals who harmed trees. The Deipnosophistae of Athenaeus lists eight Hamadryads, the daughters of Oxylus and Hamadryas:
- Karya (Walnut or Hazelnut)
- Balanos (Oak)
- Kraneia (Dogwood)
- Morea (Mulberry)
- Aigeiros (Black Poplar)
- Ptelea (Elm)
- Ampelos (Vines, especially Vitis)
- Syke (Fig)
Their mother, Hamadryas, is immortalized in the name of two genera, that of the Cracker butterfly, of the northernmost monkey in Asia Minor, the Hamadryas baboon. The Cracker Butterfly is more arboreal than most butterflies, as it commonly camouflages itself on trees. It feeds not on nectar but on sap, rotting fruit and dung. The Hamadryas baboon however is one of the least arboreal monkeys but it was the most common monkey in Hellenic lands.
Hamadryad is referenced as a whole in Edgar Allan Poe's poem, "Sonnet To Science." Hamadryad is referenced in Anthony Ashley Cooper's (The Third Earl of Shaftesbury)Characteristics (1714: Treatise 4 Part 3 Section 1).
[edit] References
- The Deipnosophists, or, Banquet of the Learned of Athenaeus presented online by the University of Wisconsin Digital Collections Center
