Oread

Les Oréades (1902) by William-Adolphe Bouguereau, in Musée d'Orsay

In Greek mythology, an Oread (/ˈɔːriˌæd, ˈɔːriəd/; Ancient Greek: Ὀρειάς, romanizedOreiás, stem Ὀρειάδ-, Oreiád-, Latin: Oreas/Oread-, from ὄρος, 'mountain'; French: Oréade) or Orestiad (/ɔːˈrɛstiˌæd, -iəd/; Ὀρεστιάδες, Orestiádes) is a mountain nymph. Oreads differ from each other according to their dwelling: the Idaeae were from Mount Ida, Peliades from Mount Pelion, etc. Myths associated the Oreads with Artemis, since the goddess, when she went out hunting, preferred mountains and rocky precipices.

The generic term "oread" itself appears to be Hellenistic (first attested in the Epitaph of Adonis (Greek: Ἐπιτάφιος Ἀδώνιδος) of Bion of Smyrna, fl. c. 100 BCE) .[1]

List of Oreads[edit]

The number of Oreads includes but is not limited to:

List of Oreads
Name Location Relations and Notes
Britomartis Mount Dicte, Crete daughter of Carme and Zeus[2]
Chelone Mount Khelydorea, Arcadia changed by Hermes into a tortoise[3]
Claea Mount Calathion, Messenia [4]
Cyllene Mount Cyllene, Arcadia [5]
Daphnis Mount Parnassos [6]
Echo Mount Cithaeron, Boeotia loved Narcissus[7] and loved by Pan[8]
Eidothea Mount Othrys, Malis mother of Cerambus by Eusiros[9]
The Idaeae Mount Ida, Crete [10]
• Adrasteia
Cynosura
Helike
Ida
Nomia Mount Nomia, Arcadia a friend of Callisto[11]
Oenone Mount Ida, Troad daughter of the river-god Cebren and first wife of Paris[12]
Othreis Mount Othrys, Malis mother of Meliteus by Zeus and Phager by Apollo[13]
Phigalia Phigalia, Arcadia eponym of the town of Phigalia
Pitys loved by Pan[14]
Sinoe Mount Sinoe, Arcadia nurse of Pan[15]
Sose loved by Hermes
The Sphragitides or Cithaeronides Mount Cithaeron, Boeotia [16]

Honours[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon s.v. text at Perseus project
  2. ^ Diodorus Siculus, 5.76.3
  3. ^ Servius ad Virgil, Aeneid 1.509
  4. ^ Pausanias, 3.26.11
  5. ^ Apollodorus, 3.8.1
  6. ^ Pausanias, 10.5.5
  7. ^ Aristophanes, Thesmophoriazusae 970
  8. ^ "Echo" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 8 (11th ed.). 1911. p. 884.
  9. ^ Antoninus Liberalis, 22; Ovid, Metamorphoses 7.353–356
  10. ^ Apollodorus, 1.4.5; Hyginus, De Astronomica 2.2
  11. ^ Pausanias, 8.38.0
  12. ^ Apollodorus, 3.12.6
  13. ^ Antoninus Liberalis, 13
  14. ^ Propertius, Elegies 1.18
  15. ^ Pausanias, 8.30.2
  16. ^ Plutarch, Life of Aristides 11. 3; Pausanias, 9.3.9