
"Listen to the silence of the forest "
E twinning project 2016-17
"Forest and mythology"
This book was created by Ann Magkiosi


Forest and wood Nymphs
The Nymphs were female figures of divine origin, young in age, who lived in the wild nature, walking around in the mountains, escorting Artemis and playing with her. They were all beautiful, but Artemis stood out with her beauty among them. They sang and danced along with Pan in the meadows and slopes, usually near the springs, praising with their sweet voices of the Olympian Gods and especially the father of Pan, Hermes. Venus and Charities also danced with them.

Sometimes God Apollo leads their dancing himself. The nymphs were something between gods and mortals, not actual goddesses.
They were not immortal, but lived for a long time, eating ambrosia. They usually were related with gods.
Τhere was a perception that they were daughters of Zeus. Others, that they were daughters of rivers: either the ocean or the river Acheloos, or daughters of local rivers.Through the vivify strength of water nymphs spread in the mountains and in the forests and were associated with the nature.

The Nymphs were worshiped as elements of springs, rivers and water in general.
The importance of water as a life force and fertility is great and vital in a Mediterranean country such as Greece.
Water is the source of life and helps to develop and refreshes every living organism.That is why the concept of the Nymphs has widened even further: they came to find the spirits of vegetation, to symbolize the orgiastic power of nature.
And as the water nourishes everything, so the nymphs were considered as food of plants, animals and humans.


Without water there was either vegetation or fertility. By then the spirit of the water nymphs spread at the mountains and forests and it was related with vegetation.
The Nymphs were very happy when it was raining because the rain nourished the trees and shed tears when the trees lost their leaves.
In fact it was nothing more than the anthropomorphic idea of rustling of tree leaves and water that sounds in mountains, streams, caves, springs and ravines which interrupt the peace and quiet of nature.They were the soul and the life of tree.


Nymphs were three types:
1) Naiads, Nymphs of the rivers, springs and fountains
2) Oreads, inhabiting in the mountains, where there were springs
3) Dryades or Amadryades Nymphs of Solitaire trees and meadows and they were the same as the Meliaes.
The Nymphs lived in caves, which were near water or in it, below the surface of rivers.
Naiads lived close to springs but when the springs dried up, the Naiads died too. Inside the caves, they were enjoying the pleasures of love with Hermes or Silenus.

The same thing happened with the Hamadryad-whose name means "tree and woman simultaneously".
When the life of the Nymph began, pines, firs and oaks were starting to grow and when the time had come of Nymph to die, first died the tree inside the Earth.
These trees were huge and lived for many years, while mortals were forbidden to touch them with an axe.
The reason was that they were considered sacred trees and sacred forests that formed, were places dedicated to the gods. For Naiads, especially, there are a lot of myths concerning their love adventures.


According to the tradition, the nymphs were known nannies of many important gods or heroes.
They also were responsible for their upbringing, when they were very young.
They breastfed them and were the replacement of their mothers.
First one who was raised by them was Zeus in Crete. Then follow Hera, Persephone, Hermes(son of a Nymph Maia) Pan and Dionysus.
Aphrodite had trusted to the nymphs of the Trojan Mount Ida, Aeneas, her son.


Mercure(Hermes) was also son of Nymph Maia.
Many of them were also considered mothers of mortal sages, seers and doctors like Chariklo of Tiresias and Koronis, the mother of Asclepius.
To the Naiads were attributed various abilities:
they said that could make the water a source of healing, so mortals often offered sacrifices to them.
For Naiads, especially, there are a lot of myths concerning their love adventures.

Myth of Apollo and Daphne
Equally famous were the stories about the love between Apollo and Nymphs and especially the story of Daphne.
God besieged her with great persistence, without success, but when the right opportunity was given to him, he began to chase her and when he was ready to get her, Daphne desperately begged her mother, Gaia, to help her. Then, literally, the earth opened and drowned Daphne and in her place grew a plant named Daphne.

Myth of Hylas
When the Argonauts stopped at Mysia, Hylas, Herakles’ best friend, went to get water.
Hylas went to a spring at Askanios in eastern Mysia. When Hylas approached the spring, a Mysian Nymph named Dryope, who had already spotted and fallen immediately in love with him, gave him a kiss and with one arm seized him by the elbow with the other and abducting him.
Heracles and Polyphemus searched extensively for their friend, but they never found him. Dryope made him her lover (in some versions her husband).

Myth of Echo and Narcissus
Echo was a beautiful nymph who helped Zeus love consorting with the Nymphs, engaging Hera in long-winded conversations with her pleasant chatter, giving the time to Zeus to evade her.
When Hera realized the plot of Echo , cursed her to be able to repeat only the last words that another person just said.
After being cursed, she went for a walk in the forest and came across with Narcissus and fell in love with him.
As Echo was cursed by Hera only to be able to repeat


words that had been said by someone else, she could not speak to Narcissus. So ,she followed him.
Narcissus came across a lake and there he fell in love with his own image and unable to move,after a long time died there and changed into a narcissus flower.
Then Echo wasted away, hiding in the forests and eventually died, leaving only her voice behind, which sounds as repeating words of others.
Gods of compassion transformed Echo into a rock, which retained the status of repetition of the last syllable of any voice that reaches the rock.
This is the myth also of the flower of Narcissus .


Artemis
Artemis was the goddess of chastity, virginity, the hunt, the moon, and the natural environment.
She has a special place among the goddesses of Olympus. She was the daughter of Zeusand Leto, twin sister of Apolo.
She was born on the island of Ortygia (Delos), where Leto had found shelter after being hunted by the lawful wife of Zeus,Hera. As soon as Artemis was born, she helped her mother give birth to her twin brother, thereby becoming the protector of childbirth and labour. She rejected marriage and love.

That is why she was not married and stayed forever virgin, but she also never fell in love.
The men who fell in love with her or saw her naked, were punished hard by the goddess.
She was also the protector of all virginsand the goddess of the moon.
Her symbols were the moon, the arc and the deer.
Artemis also called Diana
She was devoted to hunting and nature.
She was the protector of nature and the hunt, both wild and tame animals were under her protection and
she also protected the agriculture and animal herding.

Artemis appeared in a number of myths.
In the myth of Actaeon, he was a hunting companion
of Artemis at some point, he saw the goddess naked bathing in a spring and tried to rape her.
As a punishment, Artemis transformed him into a stag and his hounds killed him.
In the myth of Orion,Orion was also a hunting companion of Artemis and the only person to have won her heart. However, he was accidentally killed either by the goddess or by a scorpion which was sent by Gaea.

In another myth, Callisto was daughter of King Lycaon and very beautiful.Because she was one of the followers of Artemis , she had remained a virgin.
Zeus, however, changing his form to resemble Artemis managed to seduce and rape her, impregnating her.
When Artemis learnt it, kicked her away. Callisto, pregnant by the father of the gods, wandered alone in the forests of Arcadia and gave birth to her son, the Arcas, under a plane tree.
When Hera, wife of Zeus, learnt it, decided to revenge transforming Callisto into a bear.
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"Listen to the silence of the forest "
E twinning project 2016-17
"Forest and mythology"
This book was created by Ann Magkiosi


Forest and wood Nymphs
The Nymphs were female figures of divine origin, young in age, who lived in the wild nature, walking around in the mountains, escorting Artemis and playing with her. They were all beautiful, but Artemis stood out with her beauty among them. They sang and danced along with Pan in the meadows and slopes, usually near the springs, praising with their sweet voices of the Olympian Gods and especially the father of Pan, Hermes. Venus and Charities also danced with them.

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