including hills, lakes, and trees. The common term ‘‘naiad’’ is related to the verbnao ̄,to
flow, and many nymph names including Callirhoe ̈(lovely flowing), Arethusa (she who
waters) and Empedo (continual) refer to the nymphs’ association with water. Civic
waterworks often incorporated sacred springs, like those of the Sithnid nymphs at
Megara, or the Clepsydra associated with the nymph Empedo at Athens, both attested
for the archaic period. Particularly in Thessaly and Magna Graecia, cities celebrated
spring nymphs as emblems of the community and portrayed them on coins. The Sicilian
city of Syracuse held an annual state festival of the spring Cyane (‘‘dark blue’’), during
which bulls were sacrificed and plunged into the waters. Similar sacrifices of immersion
are attested for river gods, and are probably Indo-European in origin.
The spring might be described as the microhabitat of the nymph; if this is the case,
the macrohabitat is the ‘‘mountain,’’oros, which need be little more than a hill
in terms of altitude. Yetoroscarries a consistent range of associations in Greek
thought. In myth and cult, it is the meeting place of gods and mortals (Hesiod
and the Muses or Anchises and Aphrodite) and a place where societal norms
undergo temporary reversal, as in Dionysiac revels (Buxton 1994:81–96). It is the
setting for many activities of economic importance, particularly the extraction of raw
materials, which must be carried out deep in the countryside and far from settle-
ments. To take Attica as an example, Mount Parnes was a source of timber and
charcoal; Pentelicon supplied marble, and Hymettus was a center of apiculture.
Hunting also took place in mountainous, forested areas. All of these activities fell
under the purview of nymphs, the resident deities in the landscape, whom Homer
(Iliad6.420) callsorestiades nymphai. One of several Attic caves of the nymphs,
endowed with two magnificent marble votive reliefs, was discovered near a quarry
on Pentelicon, and another relief dedicated to the nymphs was carved into the wall of
a quarry on Paros.
Of all the mountain-centered activities patronized by the nymphs, the most
important was the herding of sheep and goats. The archaic poet Semonides (fr. 20
West) told how shepherds sacrifice to the nymphs ‘‘and to the offspring of Maia
[Hermes], for these have kinship with the herdsmen.’’ Here we should think of
modest domestic and private offerings in contrast to institutionalized, city-sponsored
sacrifices. In theOdyssey(14.434–6) the swineherd Eumaeus sets aside a portion of his
meal for Hermes and the nymphs; such small gifts of food, flowers, or fruit are well
attested in the sources but archaeologically invisible. Hermes, Apollo, and Pan all
have important pastoral functions and often appear as partners of the nymphs in
worship contexts. In the folklore of herdsmen, nymphs possessed the power to
multiply the flocks of anyone they favored, particularly the mortals they took as
lovers. Yet many a prosperous man who angered his patroness or boasted of their
relations found himself quickly ruined. Woodcutters told similar stories about the
nymphs later known as dryads or hamadryads, whose life was bound up with the trees
they inhabited:
But when they are born, pines or high-topped oaks spring up with them upon the fruitful
earth, beautiful lush trees standing high on the lofty mountains. They call them the
sanctuaries of the immortals, and mortals never cut them with the axe. (Homeric Hymn
(5)to Aphrodite265–8)62 Jennifer Larson