The Greek word is Ναϊάς Naiás, pronounced na͜a.i.ás, plural Ναϊάδες Naiades, (na͜a.i.ád.es) It derives from νάειν (náein), "to flow", or νᾶμα (nãma), "running water". "Naiad" has several English pronunciations.. ˈneɪæd neɪəd, naɪæd, naɪəd.
In Greek mythology, the Naiads (Ancient Greek: Ναϊάδες) were a type of water nymph (female spirit) who presided over fountains, wells, springs, streams, brooks and other bodies of fresh water. They are distinct from river gods, who embodied rivers, and the very ancient spirits that inhabited the still waters of marshes, ponds and lagoon-lakes, such as pre-Mycenaean Lerna in the Argolid.
Naiads were associated with fresh water, as the (Oceanids) were with saltwater and the Nereids specifically with the Mediterranean, but because the Greeks thought of the world's waters as all one system, which percolated in from the sea in deep cavernous spaces within the earth, there was some overlap. Arethusa, the nymph of a spring, could make her way through subterranean flows from the Peloponnesus, to surface on the island of Sicily.
It is considered a bad omen to capture a naiad
They were often the object of archaic local cults, worshiped as essential to humans. Boys and girls at coming-of-age ceremonies dedicated their childish locks to the local naiad of the spring. In places like Lerna their waters' ritual cleansing were credited with magical medical properties. Animals were ritually drowned there. Oracles might be situated by ancient springs.
Naiads could also be dangerous, Hylas of the Argo's crew was lost when he was taken by naiads fascinated by his beauty...
The naiads were also known to exhibit jealous tendencies. Theocritus' story of naiad jealousy was that of a shepherd, Daphnis, who was the lover of Nomia or Echenais; Daphnis had on several occasions been unfaithful to Nomia and as revenge she permanently blinded him. Salmacis forced the youth Hermaphroditus into a carnal embrace and, when he sought to get away, fused with him. The water nymph associated with particular springs was known all through Europe in places with no direct connection with Greece, surviving in the Celtic wells of northwest Europe that have been rededicated to Saints, and in the medieval Melusine.
Walter Burkert points out, "When in the Iliad Zeus calls the gods into assembly on Mount Olympus, it is not only the well-known Olympians who come along, but also all the nymphs and all the rivers; Okeanos alone remains at his station hearers recognized this impossibility as the poet's hyperbole, which proclaimed the universal power of Zeus over the ancient natural world: "the worship of these deities," Burkert confirms, "is limited only by the fact that they are inseparably identified with a specific locality.
In another legend a mythic king is credited with marrying a naiad and founding a city: it was the newly arrived Hellenes justifying their presence. The loves and rapes of Zeus, according to Graves' readings, record the supplanting of ancient local cults by Olympian ones (Graves 1955, passim). Fountain of the Naiads, Piazza della Repubblica, Rome, Italy So, in the back-story of the myth of Aristaeus, Hypseus, a king of the Lapiths, married Chlidanope, a naiad, who bore him Cyrene.
Aristaeus had more than ordinary mortal experience with the naiads: when his bees died in Thessaly, he went to consult them. His aunt Arethusa invited him below the water's surface, where he was washed with water from a perpetual spring and given advice.
St. Charles Avenue in New Orleans was formerly known as Nyades Street, and is parallel to Dryades Street.
Types of Naiad
Crinaeae (fountains)
Eleionomae (marshes)
Limnades or Limnatides (lakes)
Pegaeae (springs)
Potameides (rivers)
Diferent kinds of Nymph
Alseid
Auloniad
Aurai
Crinaeae
Dryads
Eleionomae
Hamadryads
Hesperides
Limnades
Lampads
Meliae.
Naiads
Napaeae
Nereids
Oceanids
Oreads
Pegaeae
Pegasides
Pleiades
Potamides
Other Water Types
Camenae
The Lady of the Lake
Melusine
Mermaid
Nix
Ondine
Rusalka
Siren
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