Archedemus and Pantalces were not representative of the average Greek, but individuals whose extraordinary piety led them to devote their lives to maintaining intense relationships with specific gods. Yet most classical Greeks would have been familiar with the worship of nymphs at cave shrines, often in company with Pan or other deities concerned with rural life. Although most of these sanctuaries are not archaeologically visible until the late archaic and classical periods, the concept is already well developed in the Odyssey, which describes one such sacred cave in Ithaca:
At the head of the harbor is a long-leafed olive tree, and near it is a pleasant, shadowy cave sacred to the nymphs called naiads. In it are stone mixing bowls and jars and there too the bees store honey. And in the cave are long looms of stone, where the nymphs weave sea-purple cloth, a wonder to see, and there are ever-flowing springs. There are two doors: that toward the north wind is the way down for humans, but that toward the south wind is holy indeed. Men do not enter by that way, but it is the path of the immortals. (Odyssey 13.102-12)
Created by nature yet analogous in many ways to human dwellings, caves of the nymphs often contain formations suggestive of furniture: beds, looms, and household vessels or bathing pools. The numerous cave shrines of Attica have been most thoroughly investigated, but others are known in Thessaly, Crete, the Ionian islands, Magna Graecia, and elsewhere. The few examples securely dated to the archaic period include Saftulis cave near Sicyon, where unique examples of archaic painting on wood were discovered in 1934. Visitors in the sixth century hung pinakes or painted tablets in the cave to commemorate their gifts to the nymphs. One well-preserved pinax shows a family preparing to sacrifice a sheep at a low altar; another has a triad of women, probably the nymphs. The terracottas of pregnant women found at this cave, while not standard offerings to the nymphs, are consistent with the general Greek belief that nymphs aided in childbirth (Euripides, Electra 626), the nurture of the young, and girls’ transition to adulthood at the time of their wedding. Many girls brought dolls and other toys to the nymphs when they entered adulthood, and the nymphs were among the goddesses who might receive formal prenuptial offerings. The word nymphe means ‘‘bride,’’ and the nymphs were always pictured as beautiful women, the divine models for mortal brides.
The offerings at Saftulis cave began in the seventh century and included valuable metal objects such as bronze vases and jewelry. Such lavish gifts, contrasting with the simple, perishable offerings typical of rustic shrines, suggest that the cave attracted visitors from the city of Sicyon or even Corinth. Yet Saftulis cave is not mentioned by Greek writers and was probably a strictly local cult. In contrast, the Corycian cave of the nymphs and Pan at Delphi was famous because of its location in a panhellenic sanctuary and contained an unusual volume of cult-related deposits. Pilgrims to Delphi brought hundreds of seashells from the Corinthian gulf as gifts for the nymphs. The cave was also a center of divination, with astragaloi or ‘‘knucklebones’’ from sheep and goats, which were cast like dice. This form of fortune-telling was associated with Hermes, whose relationship with the Corycian nymphs is mentioned in the Homeric Hymn (4) to Hermes (552-65).
In addition to the cave shrine, the nymphs were worshiped in other contexts, for which Homer also supplies models. At the spring sanctuary outside the town of Ithaca, a fountain and altar are encircled by a grove of poplars, and everyone who passes greets the nymphs ( Odyssey 17.205-11). All evidence suggests that the nymphs were first and foremost spring deities, but they came to personify many aspects of the landscape, including hills, lakes, and trees. The common term ‘‘naiad’’ is related to the verb naO, to flow, and many nymph names including Callirhoe (lovely flowing), Arethusa (she who waters) and Empedo (continual) refer to the nymphs’ association with water. Civic waterworks often incorporated sacred springs, like those of the Sithnid nymphs at Megara, or the Clepsydra associated with the nymph Empedo at Athens, both attested for the archaic period. Particularly in Thessaly and Magna Graecia, cities celebrated spring nymphs as emblems of the community and portrayed them on coins. The Sicilian city of Syracuse held an annual state festival of the spring Cyane (‘‘dark blue’’), during which bulls were sacrificed and plunged into the waters. Similar sacrifices of immersion are attested for river gods, and are probably Indo-European in origin.
The spring might be described as the microhabitat of the nymph; if this is the case, the macrohabitat is the ‘‘mountain,’’ oros, which need be little more than a hill in terms of altitude. Yet oros carries a consistent range of associations in Greek thought. In myth and cult, it is the meeting place of gods and mortals (Hesiod and the Muses or Anchises and Aphrodite) and a place where societal norms undergo temporary reversal, as in Dionysiac revels (Buxton 1994:81-96). It is the setting for many activities of economic importance, particularly the extraction of raw materials, which must be carried out deep in the countryside and far from settlements. To take Attica as an example, Mount Parnes was a source of timber and charcoal; Pentelicon supplied marble, and Hymettus was a center of apiculture. Hunting also took place in mountainous, forested areas. All of these activities fell under the purview of nymphs, the resident deities in the landscape, whom Homer (Iliad 6.420) calls orestiades nymphai. One of several Attic caves of the nymphs, endowed with two magnificent marble votive reliefs, was discovered near a quarry on Pentelicon, and another relief dedicated to the nymphs was carved into the wall of a quarry on Paros.
Of all the mountain-centered activities patronized by the nymphs, the most important was the herding of sheep and goats. The archaic poet Semonides (fr. 20 West) told how shepherds sacrifice to the nymphs ‘‘and to the offspring of Maia [Hermes], for these have kinship with the herdsmen.’’ Here we should think of modest domestic and private offerings in contrast to institutionalized, city-sponsored sacrifices. In the Odyssey (14.434-6) the swineherd Eumaeus sets aside a portion of his meal for Hermes and the nymphs; such small gifts of food, flowers, or fruit are well attested in the sources but archaeologically invisible. Hermes, Apollo, and Pan all have important pastoral functions and often appear as partners of the nymphs in worship contexts. In the folklore of herdsmen, nymphs possessed the power to multiply the flocks of anyone they favored, particularly the mortals they took as lovers. Yet many a prosperous man who angered his patroness or boasted of their relations found himself quickly ruined. Woodcutters told similar stories about the nymphs later known as dryads or hamadryads, whose life was bound up with the trees they inhabited:
But when they are born, pines or high-topped oaks spring up with them upon the fruitful earth, beautiful lush trees standing high on the lofty mountains. They call them the sanctuaries of the immortals, and mortals never cut them with the axe. (Homeric Hymn (5) to Aphrodite 265-8)
Nymphs were worshiped as individuals or as pluralities, usually shown in Greek art as triads. Three recurrent themes appear in the lore of the nymphs throughout the Greek world: first, the nymphs are present in the landscape; they are connected with water supplies and the rural pursuits of the herdsman and beekeeper. They are also associated with procurement of raw materials from the land: timber, stone, and ores. Second, nymphs have to do with rites of passage and the social dimension of the nymphe: as bride, in addition to the general nurture of the young. Third, as the daughters and consorts of the local rivers, or the mothers and wives of primordial heroes, nymphs are ubiquitous in narratives of founding and colonization, the stories through which Greek communities established their claims and affective ties to the land.
World History
