THE DANGEROUS BUT BEAUTIFUL NAIAD NYMPHS

The Naiads are beautiful creatures that live in fresh and crystalline water tributaries, they are women who enjoy eternal youth, they are sweet, affectionate and attentive to the calls of the gods of Olympus, however, they can be dangerous if they are in a situation that They disturb them and even make fun of them.

Naiad beautiful and dangerous nymphs

In Greek mythology the ancient word Ναϊάδες Naiádes, has the Naiads meaning or Νάιτιδες Náitides, from νάω that expresses “flow”, they were nymphs that represented fresh water or any other tributary of water, such as: fountains, wells, springs, streams and rivulets, and they were fascinated by the transparency and flow of the waters where they lived, as was the case with the Nereids, who were the sublime symbols of the rivers as well as certain legendary deities who lived in the stagnant waters of swamps, ponds and lagoons.

The naiads and nymphs and other marine deities were crafty women, but their appearance appeared to be of great beauty and charisma, but equally their spirit is deadly. Because they are creatures that are related to the delight of water, it was said that when the water evaporated, they died.

For this reason, they were not immortal, so it is important to highlight that they have a dangerous sign typical of some female creatures of the aquatic world, so it is not strange that the Greeks liked to travel in boats, and they knew how treacherous they were. They turn out to be the waters.

Homer maintains that the naiads were daughters of Zeus, while others maintain that their father was the titanic ocean, perhaps this is why they have a link with the waters. All places had their own water tributaries, and among them there were naiads, who were worshiped.

They say that it was thought that these creatures enjoyed healing gifts, especially that they provided women with help to conceive, so when a girl reached adulthood, she offered her hair to the Naiad in the springs where they were found. The sick, seeking to alleviate their illnesses, drank its waters and bathed in the springs.

But, naiads were not as generous creatures as they appeared to be. Bathing in its waters was sometimes dangerous, something that they observed as a violation and they went so far as to punish those who did it. Thus, it happened if someone dared to see them, which could drive the person to a state of madness.

Naiads were jealous, distrustful and somewhat capricious creatures, as can be seen in a story about a shepherd who was unfaithful to a naiad, and in revenge for the fact, she lost her vision and became totally blind. Also, it is told about Hylas, belonging to the crew of the Argos, who was captured by a naiad who fell madly in love with him.

However, the beautiful naiad, moved by Hylas’ admiration, takes him to the depths of its waters, where she longed for them to remain in an eternal idyll of love, sharing her beauty and happiness.

We have that the naiads are demigoddesses, who live within the crystalline and fresh waters of the legendary Greek civilizations. They are attractive and fascinating women who devote themselves carefully to their homes, and if someone decides to settle near their waters, they bless them and protect the town, as long as their residents do not mistreat them or make fun of them.

Naiads are seen as decorations in various pieces of Greek pottery and mosaics from the 4th century BC. They are found in certain hymns, calamities, and archaic poems of Greece, for example in Homer’s Odyssey and the Iliad.

Naiads are creatures that have special abilities, they are at the peak of immortality, while the waters where they live are strong, crystalline and strong, they are women who remain in eternal youth, in addition to being spectacular and beautiful ladies, cheerful and energetic. But, sadly, if the waters where they live become depleted and dry, their energy disappears with them.

Generally, temples are built in their honor where they offer offerings so that they remain in harmony and generate blessings to their waters. They are deities that have great strength in their aquatic homes, they say that the waters where these beautiful creatures live enjoy magical gifts. The water from a naiad’s home is a source of inspiration for poets and prophets, curing the sick, making crops abundant, and young girls fertile.

You should not provoke the anger of a naiad, because it discharges it into its waters, to the point of making the fluid boil with the heat of its anger, as well as generating strong floods suddenly, or causing droughts in the territories of its enemies. It is so strong that it has the power to transform the quality of its water, turning it yellow and sulfurous, or into a white and sweet tone as if it were milk.

Naiads are generally good, nurturing deities, even if they engage in drastic romances. They are charming, affectionate, sweet creatures and due to their dedication to beauty and health, they normally become nannies for the gods, and their children.

Such is the case of Dionysus, Hera, Adonis and Achilles, who were cared for by naiads in their first and delicate years of existence.

Naiads are species of a lineage of aquatic spirits from Greek culture, in the same way that they live in fresh water, oceanids live in salt water and naiads live especially in the Mediterranean.

Likewise, there are river gods who are the leaders of the strongest and most powerful rivers in Greece. They say that these gods are not exactly naiads, but they have had the opportunity to generate many of these beautiful creatures that live within the streams and fresh and crystalline springs of small sizes.

The naiads answer the other gods of Olympus, when Zeus invites a naiad to an assembly, she leaves her beloved home behind, and goes to Mount Olympus to pay attention to his decrees. In the event that a god goes to the home of a naiad to beg a favor, perhaps he will obey her request.

It is important to note that the goddess Artemis is a creature that shares the fresh nature of the naiads, especially with the infants, and always maintains a close working relationship with the naiads.

Naiad Mythology

Greek mythology says that the naiads were linked to fresh waters such as springs, rivers and any other tributary of crystalline and charming water where they felt like divine creatures, while the nereids were found in salt waters.

As we have mentioned, the Greeks maintained the belief that the waters in the world were in the same current, and that the waters of the sea were filtered through caves to the center of the earth, from where it was transformed into fresh water and ran towards the springs. The nymph Arethusa from a spring could emerge from the underground currents of the Peloponnese to rise to the surface of the island of Sicily.

Naiad what is it, in their condition as nymphs, are female creatures, who have a long-lived, but mortal existence and gifts. The existence of a naiad is associated with quantities of water, so they must live in places where it exists so that they have life and do not die.

However, Walter Burkert indicates that “when in the Iliad, Zeus summons the gods to a great meeting on Mount Olympus, it is not only the famous Olympian heroes who attend, but all creatures together with all the tributaries of water; The one who stays in his position is Oceanus.

However, some Greeks who heard about the legend maintained that this was something impossible, being an exaggeration of the poet, who promulgated the power that Zeus had over the natural and legendary universe: “the veneration of these divinities”, while Burket affirms : “is limited only by the fact that they are united and identified in a specific location.”

The lineage varies according to the legend, for example: Homer describes them as the “daughters of Zeus”, but others claim that they came from Oceanus. It is more common to maintain them as the daughters of the river god, the place where they live. Its origin, in any case, varies. The aquatic nymph is related to a special fountain that was noted throughout Europe, in territories such as Greece, subsisting in the Celtic wells of northwest Europe, which over time were dedicated to saints and in medieval times.

It is important to note that according to their myths, all famous water sources and springs have their own naiad or many naiads, who were considered sisters, in addition to having their own legend.

Generally, these creatures were worshiped in local and legendary cults, venerated as important deities who provided help for the salvation of human life and especially in cases of fertility.

The genesis of many families, such as those of Icarius, Ericthonius or Thyestes, has a naiad, it was thought that a fabulous king had married a naiad, and founded a city, while Robert Graves provides some socio-political writings: the recently Arriving Hellenes proved their presence, taking a naiad from a fountain as their beloved wife.

As told in the story of the myth of Aristaeus, where Hypseo, a king of the Lapiths, married the nymph Clidanope, who conceived Cyrene. Among the immortals, it is told of the amorous conquests and contempts of Zeus, which, according to Graves, are told of the replacement of archaic local cults with other Olympian ones.

Aristaeus had a far from normal experience with naiads, who says that when his bees died in Thessaly, he went to investigate them. Meanwhile, his aunt Arethusa invited him to go under the surface of the crystalline waters, where she was led to an eternal spring, receiving advice from him. A mortal associate had drowned, while he was sent as a messenger, in order to obtain advice and favors from the naiads for the benefit of his people.

The legend of Theocritus also tells that naiads are extremely jealous creatures, and tells about the shepherd Daphnis, who was the lover of Nomia or Equenais; Daphnis was unfaithful to the nymph on many occasions, and in revenge she made him blind eternally. Meanwhile, Salmacis asked the young Hermaphrodites for an obligatory hug, while they gave each other a strong hug and remained fused with him.

Roman interpretation and adaptation

As the story goes, Rome consumed many of the mythological symbols and legends of archaic Greece, many of them were modified and restructured to fit the needs of the political and religious world of Rome, however, the Naiad continued active and intact.

People continued to venerate their native naiads, just as Roman poets and philosophers continued to speak of nymphs in their writings, especially in Ovid’s Metamorphoses.

Modern Scriptures

The word naiad is not present in modern literature, water nymphs,…