Jennifer Larson

In most introductions to Greek religion, the nature deities are briefly noted as minor gods in the pantheon, overshadowed by the towering personalities and presences of the Olympian gods. Yet a quantitative analysis, were such a thing possible, would show that the vast numbers of river gods, nymphs, and other local deities accorded divine status by the Greeks made them a constant presence in daily life. Greek authors focus primarily on the city and its festivals, yet most Greeks were peasants who lived in the countryside and supported the towns through farming and herding. The experience of this majority certainly included a much closer acquaintance with the gods of the landscape than our literary sources suggest.

The category of‘‘nature deities’’ is a modern construct. All of the Greek gods were connected in one way or another with natural phenomena, so in some sense all are nature deities. Zeus was a god of rain, Poseidon of earthquakes, Artemis of wild beasts. Even deities like Athena whose panhellenic personae were focused on the cultural rather than the natural sphere could be called upon in a variety of contexts to influence natural processes, such as stopping a plague or helping to ensure good crops. A number of lesser deities, however, were nature gods in the sense that they personified specific features in the landscape or phenomena in the environment. They will be the subject of this chapter.

In terms of the audience of prospective worshipers, these deities fall into two groups. First are the innumerable gods of the rivers and springs, mountains and lakes. While myths of the river gods and nymphs occasionally became known to a panhellenic audience, their cults were geographically limited to a particular town or region. In this respect, they were like the heroes and heroines, and made a similar contribution to the self-definition of the communities who worshiped them. The second group is comprised of divine entities perceived and recognized by all: the deities representing the earth, sun, moon, sea, and winds. Among the classical Greeks, these aspects of the environment were everywhere recognized as divine, but their myths and cults remained undeveloped relative to those of the more complex Olympians and the more numerous local gods.

The nineteenth-century concept of the ‘‘vegetation god’’ does not correspond to any individual member of the Greek pantheon; instead, many Greek gods, including the nymphs, included growing things among their spheres of influence. Similarly, many gods regulated the animal world. Among these, Pan will be treated because he alone is a Master of Animals who himself partakes of animal form and nature as a regular part of his panhellenic persona.