#daphnaie

Legends and myths about trees

Legendary tree deities (4)

Daphnaie - one of four types of dryads (Ref)

In Greek mythology, the Daphnaie are the nymphs of the laurel trees.

Like the other Dryads, they are the spirits of the trees and spend most of their time sleeping behind the bark. They only come out to dance when the coast is clear.

The name Daphne, in Greek, means "laurel. They are named after Daphne ('Laurel'), one of the naiads who was plagued with unwanted sexual advances until she cried to Gaia for help. The Earth Mother took pity on her and turned Daphne into a laurel tree. The naiads are a type of female spirit, or nymph, presiding over fountains, wells, springs, streams, brooks and other bodies of fresh water.

The story of Daphne is traditionally connected with the bay laurel.

木にまつわる伝説・神話

伝説の樹木の神々 (4)

ダプネー 〜 ギリシャ神話の中の木の精霊たち、4種類のドリュアデス（参照）のうちの一種

ギリシャ神話では、ダプネーは月桂樹の精霊たちである。

他のドリュアデスと同様、木の精霊であり、ほとんどの時間を樹皮の内側で眠っている。海岸が澄んでいるときだけ、踊りに出てくる。

ダフネという名前は、ギリシャ語で「月桂樹」を意味する。ナイアスの一人であるダフネ(‘ローレル’)は、ガイアに助けを求めるまで、望まぬ性的誘惑に悩まされていた。母なる大地は彼女を憐れみ、ダフネを月桂樹に変えてしまったことから、この名前が付けられた。(ナイアスとは、噴水、井戸、泉、小川、その他の淡水域を司る女性の精霊、ニンフの一種である)。

Dryads are tree nymphs in Greek mythology. In Greek dryssignifies 'oak,' from an Indo-European root *derew(o)- 'tree' or 'wood'. Thus dryads are specifically the nymphs of oak trees, though the term has come to be used for all tree nymphs in general. "Such deities are very much overshadowed by the divine figures defined through poetry and cult," Walter Burkert remarked of Greek nature deities (Burkert 1986, p174). Normally considered to be very shy creatures, except around the goddess Artemis who was known to be a friend to most nymphs.

The dryads of ash trees were called the Meliai. The ash-tree sisters tended the infant Zeus in Rhea's Cretan cave. Rhea gave birth to the Meliai after being made fertile by the blood of castrated Ouranos. They were also sometimes associated with fruit trees.

Dryads, like all nymphs, were supernaturally long-lived and tied to their homes, but some were a step beyond most nymphs. These were the hamadryads who were an integral part of their trees, such that if the tree died, the hamadryad associated with it died as well. For these reasons, dryads and the Greek gods punished any mortals who harmed trees without first propitiating the tree-nymphs.