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46-560: Ancient art sometimes depicted ambrosia as distributed by the nymph named Ambrosia , a nurse of Dionysus . Ambrosia is very closely related to the gods' other form of sustenance, nectar . The two terms may not have originally been distinguished; though in Homer 's poems nectar is usually the drink and ambrosia the food of the gods; it was with ambrosia that Hera "cleansed all defilement from her lovely flesh", and with ambrosia Athena prepared Penelope in her sleep, so that when she appeared for

92-470: A Roman sculpture of a nymph at a fountain above the River Danube . The report, and an accompanying poem supposedly on the fountain describing the sleeping nymph, are now generally concluded to be a fifteenth-century forgery , but the motif proved influential among artists and landscape gardeners for several centuries after, with copies seen at neoclassical gardens such as the grotto at Stourhead . All

138-619: A liquid considered a food (such as honey ). The consumption of ambrosia was typically reserved for divine beings. Upon his assumption into immortality on Olympus, Heracles is given ambrosia by Athena , while the hero Tydeus is denied the same thing when the goddess discovers him eating human brains. In one version of the myth of Tantalus , part of Tantalus' crime is that after tasting ambrosia himself, he attempts to steal some to give to other mortals. Those who consume ambrosia typically have ichor , not blood, in their veins. Both nectar and ambrosia are fragrant, and may be used as perfume : in

184-581: A stock of ivy , and then himself. Nymph A nymph ( Ancient Greek : νύμφη , romanized :  nýmphē ; Attic Greek : [nýmpʰɛː] ; sometimes spelled nymphe ) is a minor female nature deity in ancient Greek folklore . Distinct from other Greek goddesses , nymphs are generally regarded as personifications of nature; they are typically tied to a specific place, landform, or tree, and are usually depicted as maidens . Because of their association with springs, they were often seen as having healing properties; other divine powers of

230-548: A technical term in contexts of cookery, medicine, and botany. Pliny used the term in connection with different plants, as did early herbalists. Additionally, some modern ethnomycologists , such as Danny Staples , identify ambrosia with the hallucinogenic mushroom Amanita muscaria : "it was the food of the gods, their ambrosia, and nectar was the pressed sap of its juices", Staples asserts. W. H. Roscher thinks that both nectar and ambrosia were kinds of honey, in which case their power of conferring immortality would be due to

276-752: Is a geographical and historical region in Southeast Europe . Bounded by the Balkan Mountains to the north, the Aegean Sea to the south, and the Black Sea to the east, it comprises present-day southeastern Bulgaria ( Northern Thrace ), northeastern Greece ( Western Thrace ), and the European part of Turkey ( East Thrace ), roughly the Roman Province of Thrace. Lands also inhabited by ancient Thracians extended in

322-504: Is mentioned in Ovid 's Metamorphoses , in the episode of Philomela , Procne , and Tereus : Tereus, the King of Thrace, lusts after his sister-in-law, Philomela. He kidnaps her, holds her captive, rapes her, and cuts out her tongue. Philomela manages to get free, however. She and her sister, Procne, plot to get revenge, by killing her son Itys (by Tereus) and serving him to his father for dinner. At

368-665: Is not the authentic Greek classification, but is intended as a guide: The following is a list of individual nymphs or groups thereof associated with this or that particular location. Nymphs in such groups could belong to any of the classes mentioned above (Naiades, Oreades, and so on). The following is a selection of names of the nymphs whose class was not specified in the source texts. For lists of Naiads, Oceanids, Dryades etc., see respective articles. Thrace Thrace ( / θ r eɪ s / , thrayss ; Bulgarian : Тракия , romanized :  Trakiya ; Greek : Θράκη , romanized :  Thráki ; Turkish : Trakya )

414-547: The Odyssey Menelaus and his men are disguised as seals in untanned seal skins, "and the deadly smell of the seal skins vexed us sore; but the goddess saved us; she brought ambrosia and put it under our nostrils." Homer speaks of ambrosial raiment, ambrosial locks of hair, even the gods' ambrosial sandals. Among later writers, ambrosia has been so often used with generic meanings of "delightful liquid" that such late writers as Athenaeus , Paulus and Dioscurides employ it as

460-734: The Bulgarian and Greek population are Orthodox Christians , while most of the Turkish inhabitants of Thrace are Sunni Muslims . Ancient Greek mythology provides the Thracians with a mythical ancestor Thrax , the son of the war-god Ares , who was said to reside in Thrace. The Thracians appear in Homer 's Iliad as Trojan allies, led by Acamas and Peiros . Later in the Iliad , Rhesus , another Thracian king, makes an appearance. Cisseus , father-in-law to

506-687: The Greek War of Independence . With the Congress of Berlin in 1878, Northern Thrace was incorporated into the semi-autonomous Ottoman province of Eastern Rumelia , which united with Bulgaria in 1885. The rest of Thrace was divided among Bulgaria , Turkey and Greece at the beginning of the 20th century, following the Balkan Wars , World War I and the Greco-Turkish War . In Summer 1934, up to 10,000 Jews were maltreated, bereaved, and then forced to quit

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552-640: The Hellespont which abuts Thrace, during the invasion of the Persian Empire itself. The Thracians recorded no collective name for themselves; terms such as Thrace and Thracians were assigned by the Greeks. Divided into separate tribes, the Thracians did not form any lasting political organizations until the founding of the Odrysian state in the 4th century BC. Like Illyrians , the locally ruled Thracian tribes of

598-715: The Oceanids (ocean nymphs), the Oreads (mountain nymphs), and the Epimeliads (apple tree and flock nymphs). Other nymphs included the Hesperides (evening nymphs), the Hyades (rain nymphs), and the Pleiades (companions of Artemis ). Nymphs featured in classic works of art , literature , and mythology . They are often attendants of goddesses and frequently occur in myths with a love motif, being

644-581: The Thracians , a region which "had no definite boundaries" and to which other regions (like Macedonia and even Scythia ) were added. In one ancient Greek source, the very Earth is divided into "Asia, Libya, Europa and Thracia". As the Greeks gained knowledge of world geography, "Thrace" came to designate the area bordered by the Danube on the north, by the Euxine Sea (Black Sea) on the east, by northern Macedonia in

690-545: The Archaic period through the Greek colonisation and was completed by the end of Roman antiquity. As regards the competition between the Greek and Latin language, the very high rate of Greek inscriptions in Thrace extending south of Haemus Mountains proves the complete language Hellenization of this region. The boundaries between the Greek and Latin speaking Thrace are placed just above the northern foothills of Haemus Mountains. During

736-597: The Roman citizenship to all the free inhabitants of the Roman Empire. During the same period (in the 1st-2nd century AD), a remarkable presence of Thracians is testified by the inscriptions outside the borders (extra fines) both in the Greek territory and in all the Roman provinces, especially in the provinces of Eastern Roman Empire. By the mid-5th century, as the Western Roman Empire began to crumble, Thracia fell from

782-560: The Romans", which was the name traditionally given by Turkic societies to the Byzantine Empire and Orthodox Christians . In Greek mythology, Thrace is named after the heroine and sorceress Thrace , who was the daughter of Oceanus and Parthenope, and sister of Europa . The historical boundaries of Thrace have varied. The ancient Greeks employed the term "Thrace" to refer to all of the territory which lay north of Thessaly inhabited by

828-541: The Romans, Thrace also lost its independence and became tributary to Rome. Towards the end of the 1st century BC Thrace lost its status as a client kingdom as the Romans began to directly appoint their kings. This situation lasted until 46 AD, when the Romans finally turned Thrace into a Roman province (Romana provincia Thracia). During the Roman domination, within the geographical borders of ancient Thrace, there were two separate Roman provinces, namely Thrace ("provincia Thracia") and Lower Moesia ("Moesia inferior"). Later, in

874-537: The Saint Artemidos. Nymphs are often depicted in classic works across art, literature, mythology, and fiction. They are often associated with the medieval romances or Renaissance literature of the elusive fairies or elves . A motif that entered European art during the Renaissance was the idea of a statue of a nymph sleeping in a grotto or spring. This motif supposedly came from an Italian report of

920-467: The Sanskrit अमृत ( amṛta ) as both words denote a drink or food that gods use to achieve immortality. The two words appear to be derived from the same Indo-European form * ṇ-mṛ-tós , "un-dying" ( n- : negative prefix from which the prefix a- in both Greek and Sanskrit are derived; mṛ : zero grade of * mer- , "to die"; and -to- : adjectival suffix). A semantically similar etymology exists for nectar ,

966-635: The Thracian (northern) side of the Hellespont, which formed part of the contingent led by Asius . Ancient Thrace was home to numerous other tribes, such as the Edones , Bisaltae , Cicones , and Bistones in addition to the tribe that Homer specifically calls the "Thracians". Greek mythology is replete with Thracian kings, including Diomedes , Tereus , Lycurgus , Phineus , Tegyrius , Eumolpus , Polymnestor , Poltys , and Oeagrus (father of Orpheus ). Thrace

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1012-525: The Trojan elder Antenor , is also given as a Thracian king. Homeric Thrace was vaguely defined, and stretched from the River Axios in the west to the Hellespont and Black Sea in the east. The Catalogue of Ships mentions three separate contingents from Thrace: Thracians led by Acamas and Peiros, from Aenus ; Cicones led by Euphemus , from southern Thrace, near Ismaros ; and from the city of Sestus , on

1058-619: The area suffered a Mongol raid from the Golden Horde , led by Nogai Khan , and between 1305 and 1307 was raided by the Catalan company . In 1352, the Ottoman Turks conducted their first incursion into the region subduing it completely within a matter of two decades and ruled it for five centuries in general peace. In 1821, several parts of Thrace, such as Lavara , Maroneia , Sozopolis , Aenos , Callipolis , and Samothraki rebelled during

1104-569: The authority of Rome and into the hands of Germanic tribal rulers. With the fall of the Western Roman Empire, Thracia turned into a battleground territory for the better part of the next 1,000 years. The surviving eastern portion of the Roman Empire in the Balkans, later known as the Byzantine Empire , retained control over Thrace until the 7th century when the northern half of the entire region

1150-539: The beverage of the gods (Greek: νέκταρ néktar ) presumed to be a compound of the PIE roots *nek- , "death", and -*tar , "overcoming". Lycurgus, king of Thrace, forbade the cult of Dionysus , whom he drove from Thrace , and attacked the gods' entourage when they celebrated the god. Among them was Ambrosia, who turned herself into a grapevine to hide from his wrath. Dionysus, enraged by the king's actions, drove him mad. In his fit of insanity he killed his son, whom he mistook for

1196-483: The end of the myth, all three turn into birds – Procne into a swallow , Philomela into a nightingale , and Tereus into a hoopoe . The city of Dicaea in Thrace was named after the son of Poseidon , Dicaeus . Indigenous Thracians were divided into numerous tribes. The first to take greater control of Thrace, in part or whole, were the Achaemenian Persians in the late 6th century BC . The region

1242-508: The etymology of the noun nýmphē remains uncertain. The Doric and Aeolic ( Homeric ) form is nýmphā ( νύμφα ). Modern usage more often applies to young women, contrasting with parthenos ( παρθένος ) "a virgin (of any age)", and generically as kore ( κόρη < κόρϝα ) "maiden, girl". The term is sometimes used by women to address each other and remains the regular Modern Greek term for " bride ". Nymphs were sometimes beloved by many and dwelt in specific areas related to

1288-574: The final time before her suitors, the effects of years had been stripped away, and they were inflamed with passion at the sight of her. On the other hand, in Alcman , nectar is the food, and in Sappho and Anaxandrides , ambrosia is the drink. A character in Aristophanes ' Knights says, "I dreamed the goddess poured ambrosia over your head—out of a ladle." Both descriptions could be correct, as ambrosia could be

1334-446: The imperial period many Thracians – particularly members of the local aristocracy of the cities – had been granted the right of the Roman citizenship (civitas Romana) with all its privileges. Epigraphic evidence show a large increase in such naturalizations in the times of Trajan and Hadrian, while in 212 AD the emperor Caracalla granted, with his well-known decree ( constitutio Antoniniana ),

1380-470: The lovers of heroes and other deities. Desirable and promiscuous, nymphs can rarely be fully domesticated, being often aggressive to their mortal affairs. Since the Middle Ages , nymphs have been sometimes popularly associated or even confused with fairies . The Greek word nýmphē has the primary meaning of "young woman; bride, young wife" but is not usually associated with deities in particular. Yet

1426-624: The modern geographical region. In its early period, the Roman province of Thrace was of this extent, but after the administrative reforms of the late 3rd century, Thracia's much reduced territory became the six small provinces which constituted the Diocese of Thrace . The medieval Byzantine theme of Thrace contained only what today is East Thrace . The largest cities of Thrace are: Istanbul , Plovdiv , Çorlu , Tekirdağ , Burgas , Edirne , Stara Zagora , Sliven , Yambol , Haskovo , Komotini , Alexandroupoli , Xanthi , and Kırklareli . Most of

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1472-563: The mountainous regions maintained a warrior tradition, while the tribes based in the plains were purportedly more peaceable. Recently discovered funeral mounds in Bulgaria suggest that Thracian kings did rule regions of Thrace with distinct Thracian national identity. During this period, a subculture of celibate ascetics called the Ctistae lived in Thrace, where they served as philosophers, priests, and prophets. Sections of Thrace particularly in

1518-442: The names for various classes of nymphs have plural feminine adjectives, most agreeing with the substantive numbers and groups of nymphai. There is no single adopted classification that could be seen as canonical and exhaustive. Some classes of nymphs tend to overlap, which complicates the task of precise classification. e.g. dryads and hamadryads as nymphs of trees generally, meliai as nymphs of ash trees . The following

1564-458: The natural environment: e.g. mountainous regions; forests; springs. Other nymphs were part of the retinue of a god (such as Dionysus , Hermes , or Pan ) or of a goddess (generally the huntress Artemis ). The Greek nymphs were also spirits invariably bound to places, not unlike the Latin genius loci , and sometimes this produced complicated myths like the cult of Arethusa to Sicily. In some of

1610-452: The north to modern-day Northern Bulgaria and Romania and to the west into Macedonia . The word Thrace , from ancient Greek Thrake (Θρᾴκη), referred originally to the Thracians (ancient Greek Thrakes Θρᾷκες), an ancient people inhabiting Southeast Europe. The name Europe (ancient Greek Εὐρώπη), also at first referred to this region, before that term expanded to include its modern sense . The region could have been named after

1656-712: The nymphs included divination and shapeshifting . Nymphs, like other goddesses, were immortal except for the Hamadryads , whose lives were bound to a specific tree. Nymphs are divided into various broad subgroups based on their habitat, such as the Meliae ( ash tree nymphs), the Dryads ( oak tree nymphs), the Alseids ( grove nymphs), the Naiads ( spring nymphs), the Nereids (sea nymphs),

1702-548: The principal river there, Hebros , possibly from the Indo-European arg "white river" (the opposite of Vardar , meaning "black river"), According to an alternative theory, Hebros means "goat" in Thracian . According to Stephanus of Byzantium , long before the ancient Greeks started referring to the region as Thrace , it was known as Aria (Αρια) and Perki (Περκη). In Turkey, it is commonly referred to as Rumeli , "Land of

1748-531: The rites and cults of individual nymphs venerated by country people in the springs and clefts of Latium . Among the Roman literate class, their sphere of influence was restricted and they appear almost exclusively as divinities of the watery element. The ancient Greek belief in nymphs survived in many parts of the country into the early years of the twentieth century when they were usually known as " nereids ". Nymphs often tended to frequent areas distant from humans but could be encountered by lone travelers outside

1794-521: The south started to become hellenized before the Peloponnesian War as Athenian and Ionian colonies were set up in Thrace before the war. Spartan and other Doric colonists followed them after the war. The special interest of Athens to Thrace is underlined by the numerous finds of Athenian silverware in Thracian tombs. In 168 BC, after the Third Macedonian war and the subjugation of Macedonia to

1840-643: The south, and by Illyria to the west. This largely coincided with the Thracian Odrysian kingdom , whose borders varied over time. After the Macedonian conquest, this region's former border with Macedonia was shifted from the Struma River to the Mesta River . This usage lasted until the Roman conquest. Henceforth, (classical) Thrace referred only to the tract of land largely covering the same extent of space as

1886-473: The supposed healing and cleansing powers of honey, and because fermented honey ( mead ) preceded wine as an entheogen in the Aegean world; on some Minoan seals, goddesses were represented with bee faces (compare Merope and Melissa ). The concept of an immortality drink is attested in at least two ancient Indo-European languages: Greek and Sanskrit . The Greek ἀμβροσία ( ambrosia ) is semantically linked to

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1932-547: The times of Diocletian, the two provinces were joined and formed the so-called "Dioecesis Thracia". The establishment of Roman colonies and mostly several Greek cities, as was Nicopolis, Topeiros, Traianoupolis, Plotinoupolis, and Hadrianoupolis resulted from the Roman Empire's urbanization. The Roman provincial policy in Thrace favored mainly not the Romanization but the Hellenization of the country, which had started as early as

1978-409: The village, where their music might be heard, and the traveler could spy on their dancing or bathing in a stream or pool, either during the noon heat or in the middle of the night. They might appear in a whirlwind. Such encounters could be dangerous, bringing dumbness, besotted infatuation, madness or stroke to the unfortunate man. When parents believed their child to be nereid-struck, they would pray to

2024-600: The works of the Greek-educated Latin poets , the nymphs gradually absorbed into their ranks the indigenous Italian divinities of springs and streams ( Juturna , Egeria , Carmentis , Fontus ) while the Lymphae (originally Lumpae), Italian water goddesses, owing to the accidental similarity of their names, could be identified with the Greek Nymphae. The classical mythologies of the Roman poets were unlikely to have affected

2070-675: Was incorporated into the First Bulgarian Empire and the remainder was reorganized in the Thracian theme . The Empire regained the lost regions in the late 10th century until the Bulgarians regained control of the northern half at the end of the 12th century. Throughout the 13th century and the first half of the 14th century, the region was changing in the hands of the Bulgarian and the Byzantine Empire (excluding Constantinople). In 1265

2116-809: Was incorporated into their empire as the Satrapy of Skudra , after the Scythian campaign of Darius the Great . Thracian soldiers were used in Persian armies and are depicted in carvings of the Persepolis and Naqsh-e Rostam . Persians' presence in Thracia lasted for more than a century, ending with the conquests in the 4th century BC by Alexander the Great of Macedon , who divided the vast realm between his generals. Notably, Thracian troops are known to have accompanied Alexander when he crossed

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