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NYMPHS
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NYMPHS , in See also:Greek See also:mythology, the generic name of a large number of See also:female divinities of inferior See also:rank, personifications of the creative and fostering activities of nature. The word is possibly connected with the See also:root of i44 os, nubes (" See also:cloud "), and originally meant " veiled," referring to the See also:custom of a See also:bride being led veiled from her See also:home to that of the See also:husband: hence, a married woman, and, in See also:general, one of marriageable See also:age. Others refer the word (and also See also:Lat. nubere and the Ger. Knospe) to a root expressing the See also:idea of " swelling " (according to See also:Hesychius, one of the meanings of vbµebr/ is " See also:rose-bud "). The home of the nymphs is on mountains and in groves, by springs and See also:rivers, in valleys and cool grottoes. They are frequently associated with the See also:superior divinities, the huntress See also:Artemis, the prophetic See also:Apollo, the reveller and See also:god of trees See also:Dionysus, and with rustic gods such as See also:Pan and See also:Hermes (as the god of shepherds).
The nymphs were distinguished according to the different See also:spheres of nature with which they were connected. See also:Sea nymphs were Oceanids or Nereids, daughters of See also:Oceanus or See also:Nereus. Naiades (from Gr. vaecv, flow, cf. vaµa, " stream ") presided over springs, rivers and lakes. Oreades (opos, See also:mountain) were nymphs of mountains and grottoes, one of the most famous of whom was See also:Echo. Napaeae (vanrf), dell) and Alseides (awos, See also: The Greek nymphs, after the introduction of their cult into See also:Latium, gradually absorbed into their ranks the indigenous See also:Italian divinities of springs and streams (See also:Juturna, See also:Egeria, Carmentis, Fons), while the Lymphae (originally Lumpae), Italian See also:water-goddesses, owing to the accidental similarity of name, were identified with the Greek Nymphae. Among the See also:Romans their See also:sphere of See also:influence was restricted, and they appear almost exclusively as divinities of the watery See also:element. F. G. Ballentine, " Some Phases of the Cult of the Nymphs " in Harvard Studies in Classical See also:Philology, xv. (1904). O The sixteenth See also:letter of the Phoenician and See also:early Greek alphabets, the fifteenth in See also:English and the fourteenth in Latin. Between N and 0 the Phoenician and the Ionic Greek See also:alphabet have a sibilant—in Greek =x. The Western Greek alphabet had a different See also:symbol, X, for the See also:sound of x and placed it at the end, as did its descendant the Latin alphabet. The See also:original See also:form of o was a more or less roughly formed circle. The Aramaic . and See also:Hebrew Y, which seem so different, arise from a circle See also:left open at the See also:top, 0, a form which can be traced in Aramaic from the 5th or 6th See also:century B.c. In the Greek alphabets the circle appears sometimes with a dot in the centre, but in many cases it is doubtful whether this See also:mark is, intentional, or is only the result of fixing a See also:sharp point there while describing the circle. Sometimes 0 is See also:lozenge-shaped Q and rarely (in See also:Arcadia and See also:Elis) rectangular ^. In many varieties of the Greek alphabet this symbol was used, as it always was in Latin, for the See also:long as well as the See also:short o-sound and also for the long vowel (in the Ionic alphabet written on) which arose from contraction of two vowels or the loss of a consonant (S?laoiire=S Xbe-re, ofKovs = oiKOVs). As early as the 8th century Ionic Greek had invented a See also:separate symbol for the long o-sound, viz. S2. This when borrowed by other dialects showed at first some variety of usage, though practically none in form. As this was placed at the end of the See also:ordinary (not the See also:numeral) Greek alphabet, " See also:alpha and omega " has become a proverbial phrase for first and last. The Greeks themselves, however, did not See also:call S2 omega (See also:great o) nor did they call 0 omicron (little o), though these names are given even in See also:modern Greek grammars. The former was called simply o and the latter u (ov, pronounced as oo in See also:moon). The Hebrew and probably the Phoenician name for 0 was See also:Ain (Ayin), and in the Semitic alphabet, which does not indicate vowels, the symbol stood for a " voiced glottal stop " and also for a " voiced velar spirant " (Zimmern). The most important feature of this vowel is the rounding of the lips in its See also:production, which, according to its degree, modifies the nature of the vowel considerably, as can be observed in the See also:pronunciation of the increasingly rounded See also:series saw, no, who. In See also:Attic Greek 0 and S2 were not really a pair, for o + o became not co but ov, o being a See also:close and co an open sound. In Latin the converse was more nearly true. Though short o changed in the Latin of the last age of the See also:Roman See also:republic to a in unaccented syllables always (except after u whether vowel or consonant), and sometimes also in accented syllables, this was not equally true of vulgar Latin, as is shown by the See also:Romance See also:languages. In English also the short and the long o are of different qualities, the short in words like not, got being in Sweet's phonetic terminology a See also:low-back-wide-See also:round, the long in words like no a See also:mid-back-wide-round. The long vowel becomes more rounded as it is being pronounced, so that it ends in a u-sound, though this is not so noticeable in weak syllables like the final syllable of follow. The so-called modified o is a rounded e-sound found in several varieties. The sound heard in words like the See also:German Glitter is, according to Sweet, a low-front-wide-round, while Jespersen regards it as not low but See also:middle. A mid-front-narrow-round vowel is found short in See also:French words like peu, long in See also:jenne and in endings like that of honteuse. The Norse sound written cis. is of the same nature. (P. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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