Origin of the Fairy Trope II. - Greece and the Nymphs

The journey into one of the most important recent tropes continues with some mediterranean islands we now call Greece, and their version of the fairies: the Nymphs. As I did my research on the topic, I already came to some conclusions about these ancient and diverse creatures, so I plan a wrap-up post at the end of this series. 

Although nymphs were only associated with fairies in the medieval times and onward, when classical literature and mythology became fashionable again, I think they are at least closly related. So even if greek nymphs seems a side track, they’re worth a post, so here we go!

In ancient greek folklore the nymphs were minor nature deities and exclusively female – unlike fairies of other cultures and later times where they could be both male and female. They were described as beautiful and fair creatures, even the world nymph’s primary meaning is „young women” and „bride”. Every nypmh was bound to a special place, like a tree, a spring or a mountain, but honestly, every landscape can have their own nymph.

They can be classified into five different types.

Celestial nymphs are associated with stars, mountains and clouds, so anything close to the sky. Maia, the mother of the Greek god Hermes, for example, dwelled on Mount Cyllene while Taygete, the mother of Lacedaemon lived in the Taigetos Mountains, as her name suggests. Interestingly, celestial nymphs are the ones who had affairs with higher tier greek gods like Zeus and Poseidon. 

The myths also talk about land nymphs who lives in meadows, valleys and grottos. Dryads are a form of land nymphs associated with trees and forests, but there are separate nymphs for ivy, flowers and ash trees. The latter, named the Meliae were born from the drops of blood that fell on Gaia when Cronos castrated Uranus. Yupp. That keeps coming back in Greek mythology, so get used to it.

Water nypms are the most populated kind with Nereids (the fifty daughters of Nereus and Doris), Oceanids (the daughters of Oceanus and Thetys), but they could also inhabit fountains, fresh waters, rivers and lankes and even wetlands. 

The Underworld also had its nymphs, associated with Hades. One of them was said to be his lover, another his daughter, but the river Styx also had its own nypmh. If you ask me, Underworld fairies is a subtrope that isn’t widespread enough. I mean, how cool is that? 

The last type of nymphs was associated with music and dancing, like the Bacchans, the servants of Dionysus (or Bacchus in Roman mythology), bringing an undending celebration to wherever they went. To be honest, a perpetual and mandatory party is as much a curse as a blessing, so this could make a great dark fantasy story with maddening Bacchans creating revelries that last until everyone danced to death. Just imagine.

There are lot, I mean A LOT of stories featuring them in Greek mythology, from the bigger epic tales to the smaller ones. In one story, a group of nymphs were transformet into frogs by Zeus, while another tells about one nymph turned into a tree by Dionysus. There are also more than a hundred of them who have names and stories, as if they were real people. I could imagine this being the first unofficial fandom, where the true nymph fans heard about all of them.

This also reminds me of ancient cultures and religions, when people believed in the spirits of nature more than higher gods. Ancient Greeks also prayed to nymphs or left little sacrifices to those living nearby to get their favor. They were closer to them, and they believed these minor deities had more impact to their everyday lives. If I was a greek farmer, I would also try to please the naiad living in the spring nearby, where I get the freshwater from. When we wrote about religion and how religion work in peoples minds, we already mentioned that people created deities to pray to in order to earn their favor and have some impact on the otherwise terrifying forces of nature. You can’t find a better intermediary for that than nymphs. 

Another theory (a more interesting take) claims that nymphs were the remaining inhabitants of a neolithic culture that thrived in Europe before the Indo-Europeans came to the continent and conquered it. While the Indo-Europeans were shepherds and farmers, the people living there most likely still gathered and hunted, therefore they lived in harmony with nature and had a much closer relationship with it. This theory about fairies being a previous, more nature-centered culture will pop up again in other cultures, so just keep it in mind until then.

I hope you all got some inspiration. (Give me those Underworld fairies and crazy goth Bacchan party-demons! – Darr)

See you soon with another version!

Cheers,

Lory