Greek Mythology >> Nymphs >> Naiads >> Naiads of Pieria (Naiades Pieriai)

NAIADES PIERIAI

Greek Name

Νυμφαι Πιεριαι
Ναιαδες Πιεριαι

Transliteration

Nymphai Pieriai
Naiades Pieriai

Latin Spelling

Nymphae Pieriae
Naïdes Periae

Translation

Nymphs of Pieria
Naiads of Pieria

THE NAIADES PIERIAI were the Naiad-nymphs of the springs and streams of Mount Pieros in Pieria (northern Greece). They were companions of Eurydike (Eurydice), the wife of Orpheus.

They Pierian Naiades were surely related to the Leibrethrides, nymphs of a sacred fountain of the Mousai (Muses).

PARENTS

Presumably daughters of the local River BAPHYRAS

CLASSICAL LITERATURE QUOTES

Ovid, Metamorphoses 10. 8 ff (trans. Melville) (Roman epic C1st B.C. to C1st A.D.) :
"The new-wed bride [Eurydice wife of Orpheus], roaming with her gay [Thracian] Naides (Naiads) through the grass, fell dying when a serpent struck her heel."

Ovid, Metamorphoses 11. 47 ff :
"All wept and mourned for [the dead bard] Orpheus; forest trees cast down their leaves, tonsured in grief, and Flumina (Rivers) too, men say, were swollen with their tears, and Naides (Naiads) wore, and Dryades too, their mourning robes of black and hair dishevelled." [N.B. Ovid here locates the site of the death of Orpheus as the river Hebros in central Thrake rather than the usual Pieria.]