Aeacus’ liaison with a Nereid, Psamathe, while her sister Thetis, not from
choice but by Zeus’ ordinance, was joined to Peleus in holy matrimony. She
did not stay with him, however, after giving birth to Achilles. Such couplings
are never stable.^23
The cult of the Greek Nymphs, together with the name, spread to Italy at an
early date, and their mythology and ideology were happily absorbed by the
Roman poets. We must be cautious, therefore, in using Latin documents as
evidence for native Italian conceptions. There were certainly individual god-
desses of springs such as Numa’s lover Egeria, to whom pregnant women
sacrificed for an easy delivery (Festus p. 67. 25 L.), and Iuturna, stagnis quae
fluminibusque sonoris praesidet (Virg. Aen. 12. 139 f.). Egeria is associated
with the group called the Camenae, identified by poets with the Greek Muses
but in reality the divinities of a spring, meadow, and grove below the Mons
Caelius. Here we seem to have genuine Italic nymphs.
Another name is Silvanae, the feminine plural corresponding to Silvanus,
god of the forest. Most of the dedications to them, however, come not from
Italy but from Pannonia,^24 and they may represent Illyrian rather than Italian
nymphs.
AlbanianAncient Illyrian religion is perhaps one of the underlying sources from which
Albanian legend and folklore have drawn nourishment. Albania harbours
several classes of nymph-like being. There are the Jashte ̄shme, who live in
the wooded mountains; they abduct children, who must then dance with
them by night until they drop dead. There are mountain nymphs, Peris or
Zânas, paradigms of beauty but dangerous creatures; they sing and dance
round springs by night. There are the Shtojzvalet, male and female sprites of
mountain, wood, and meadow, who have sometimes been known to marry
mortals. There are also sea nymphs, and one of these too married a young
man.^25
(^23) Cf. Lawson (as n. 19), 134, ‘The marriage of men with Nereids not only forms the theme
of many folk-stories current in Greece, but in the more remote districts is still regarded as a
credible occurrence. Even at the present day the traveller may hear of families in whose ancestry
of more or less remote date is numbered a Nereid. A Thessalian peasant whom I once met
claimed a Nereid-grandmother, and little as his looks warranted the assumption of any grace
or beauty in so near an ancestor –– he happened to have a squint –– his claim appeared to be
admitted by his fellow-villagers, and a certain prestige attached to him.’
(^24) Keune, RE iiiA. 116 f.
(^25) For all this I am dependent on Lambertz (1973), 479, 481 f., 493 f., 497, 500, 508 f.
288 7. Nymphs and Gnomes