Oread

For other uses, see Oread (disambiguation).

"Oréade" redirects here. For the submarine, see French submarine Oréade.

Les Oréades (1902) by William-Adolphe Bouguereau, in Musée d'Orsay

In Greek mythology, Oreads ( /ˈɔːriˌæd,ˈɔːriəd/ ; Ancient Greek : Ὀρειάς, romanized: Oreiás) or Orestiads ( /ɔːˈrɛstiˌæd,-iəd/ ; Ὀρεστιάδες, Orestiádes) are mountain nymphs. ^[1] Myths associated the Oreads with Artemis, since the goddess, when she went out hunting, preferred mountains and rocky precipices.

The generic term "oread" itself appears to be Hellenistic (first attested in the Epitaph of Adonis (Greek : Ἐπιτάφιος Ἀδώνιδος) of Bion of Smyrna, fl.c. 100 BCE) . ^[2]

Notes

1. Hard, p. 210; Brill's New Pauly, s.v. Nymphs.
2. Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicons.v. text at Perseus project

References

• Brill's New Pauly: Encyclopaedia of the Ancient World. Antiquity, Volume 9, Mini – Obe, edited by Hubert Cancik and Helmuth Schneider, Brill, 2006. ISBN   9004122729.
• Hard, Robin, The Routledge Handbook of Greek Mythology: Based on H.J. Rose's "Handbook of Greek Mythology", London and New York, Routledge, 2004. ISBN   020344633X. doi : 10.4324/9780203446331.
• Liddell, Henry George, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon , revised and augmented throughout by Sir Henry Stuart Jones with the assistance of Roderick McKenzie, Clarendon Press Oxford, 1940. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.