NYMPHAI TROIADES

THE NYMPHAI TROIADES (Trojan Nymphs) were the Naiads of the rivers Skamandros (Scamander) and Simoeis in the Troad and of the springs of Mount Ida.

FAMILY OF THE TROJAN NYMPHS

PARENTS

SKAMANDROS, SIMOEIS (Quintus Smyrnaeus 11.245 & 14.17; Colluthus 1)

CLASSICAL LITERATURE QUOTES

Quintus Smyrnaeus, Fall of Troy 8. 345 ff (trans. Way) (Greek epic C4th A.D.) :
"Quaked the earth and Xanthos' [Skamandros'] murmering streams; so mightily she [Athene] shook them: terror-stricken were the souls of all the Nymphai (Nymphs) [of Skamandros' stream], adread for Priamos' (Priam's) town."

Quintus Smyrnaeus, Fall of Troy 10. 364 ff :
"Paris gave up the ghost on Ida [i.e. he died]: never Helene saw him more. Loud wailed the [Trojan] Nymphai (Nymphs) around him; for they still remembered how their nursling wont to lisp his childish prattle, compassed with their smiles. And with them mourned the neatherds light of foot, sorrowful-hearted; moaned the mountain-glens."

Quintus Smyrnaeus, Fall of Troy 10. 411 ff :
"Through mountain-gorges so she [the Naias Oinone (Naiad Oenone)] won to where wailed other [Trojan] Nymphai (Nymphs) round Alexandros' [Paris'] corpse. Roared up about him a great wall of fire . . . Sore weeping stood they round. She raised no wail, the broken-hearted, when she saw him there, but, in her mantle muffling up her face, leapt on the pyre: loud wailed that multitude. There burned she, clasping Paris. All the Nymphai marvelled, beholding her beside her lord flung down, and heart to heart spake whispering : ‘Verily evil-hearted Paris was, who left a leal true wife, and took for bride a wanton, to himself and Troy a curse. Ah fool, who recked not of the broken heart of a most virtuous wife, who more than life loved him who turned from her and loved her not!’
So in their hearts the Nymphai spake : but they twain burned on the pyre, never to hail again the dayspring. Wondering herdmen stood around . . . Oinone and Paris, now one little heap of ashes, then with wine quenched they the embers, and they laid their bones in a wide golden vase, and round them piled the earth-mound; and they set two pillars there that each from other ever turn away; for the old jealousy in the marble lives."

Quintus Smyrnaeus, Fall of Troy 11. 245 ff :
"All the Nymphai (Nymphs) were wailing, daughters born of Xanthos [Skamandros] and fair-flowing Simois [i.e. they wailed to see so many Trojans die in battle]."

Quintus Smyrnaeus, Fall of Troy 12. 444 ff :
"[Athena sends Drakones (Dragon-Serpents) to slay the Trojan seer Laokoon (Laocoon) :] Onward they [the monsters] swept with fearful-flickering tongues: shuddered the very Ketea (Monsters of the Deep) : Xanthos' and Simois' daughters moaned aloud, the River-Nymphai (Nymphs)."

Quintus Smyrnaeus, Fall of Troy 14. 71 ff :
"[The sack of Troy :] Then, when he saw that burg beloved destroyed, [the Trojan river-god] Xanthos [Skamandros], scarce drawing breath from bloody war, mourned with his Nymphai (Nymphs) for ruin fallen on Troy, mourned for the city of Priamos (Priam) blotted out . . . Xanthos' soul was utterly whelmed in grief for Ilion made a desolation; grief undying was his, immortal though he was. Mourned Simois and long-ridged Ida: all who on Ida dwelt wailed from afar the ruin of Priamos' town."

Ovid, Metamorphoses 4. 288 ff (trans. Melville) (Roman epic C1st B.C. to C1st A.D.) :
"To Mercurius [Hermes], runs the tale, and Cythereia [Aphrodite] a boy [Hermaphroditos] was born whom in Mount Ida's caves the Naides (Naiads) nurtured . . . When thrice five years had passed, the youth forsook Ida, his fostering home, his mountain haunts."

Propertius, Elegies 2. 32 (trans. Goold) (Roman elegy C1st B.C.) :
"She [Aphrodite] loved a shepherd [Ankhises (Anchises)] and amid his flocks gave herself, a goddess, to him; their armour was witnessed by the band of sister Hamadryades as well as the Sileni (Silens) and the father of the company himself [Silenos], with whom were Naiades gathering apples in the vales of Ida, catching them as they fell into their waiting hands."

Colluthus, Rape of Helen 1 ff (trans. Mair) (Greek poetry C5th to 6th A.D.) :
"Ye Nymphai Troiades (Trojan Nymphs), children of the river Xanthos [Skamandros], who oft-times leave on your father's sands the snoods that bind your tresses and the sacred toys of your hands, and array you for the dance on Ida, come hither, leaving the sounding river, and declare to me the counsel of the herdsman judge [Paris]: say whence from the hills he came, sailing the unaccustomed deep, albeit ignorant of the business of the sea; and what was the occasion of the ships that were the spring of woe, that a cowherd should stir heaven and earth together; and what was the primeval beginning of the feud, that herdsmen should deal judgement to immortals: what was the suit: whence heard he the name of the Argive Nymphe [Helene]? For ye came yourselves and beheld, beneath the three-peaked cliff of Idaian Phalakra (Idaean Phalacra), Paris sitting on his shepherd seat and the queen of the Kharites (Charites), even Aphrodite glorying."

SOURCES

GREEK

• Quintus Smyrnaeus, Fall of Troy - Greek Epic C4th A.D.
• Colluthus, The Rape of Helen - Greek Epic C5th - 6th A.D.

ROMAN

• Ovid, Metamorphoses - Latin Epic C1st B.C. - C1st A.D.
• Propertius, Elegies - Latin Elegy C1st B.C.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

A complete bibliography of the translations quoted on this page.