Hamadryas (mythology)

Hamadryas ( Greek  Ἁμάδρυας ) is a dryad of Greek mythology .

According to Pherenikos , a Greek epic of an indefinite, perhaps Hellenistic period, she was the daughter of Oreios and fathered the hamadryads with her brother Oxylos , those nymphs who live in trees and are closely connected with the fate of the tree. Her daughters, who have been handed down by name, were Karya , Kraneia , Aigeiros , Orea , Balanos , Ptelea , Ampelos and Syke . In addition, Oxylos and Hamadryas had other daughters. The name of each of these daughters was the inspiration for the Greek name of a tree species, Aigeiros for the black poplar , Ampelos for the vine , Balanos for the oak , Karya for the walnut tree ( hazel and walnut tree , possibly also for the chestnut ), Kraneia for the Cornelian cherry , Orea for the black mulberry tree or the wild olive tree , Ptelea for the mountain elm and Syke for the fig tree .

source

• Pherenikos in Athenaios, Deipnosophistai 3, 78 B

literature

• Benjamin Hederich : Thorough mythological lexicon. Gleditsch, Leipzig 1770, p. 1186 sv Hamadryas ( digitized version )
• Heinrich Wilhelm Stoll : Hamadryads . In: Wilhelm Heinrich Roscher (Hrsg.): Detailed lexicon of Greek and Roman mythology . Volume 1,2, Leipzig 1890, Sp. 1827 ( digitized version ).