Dryads - Spirits of the Forest

Dryads
Dryads & Oreides were the beautiful Nymphs of the trees, groves, woods and mountain forests. They

were the ladies of the Oaks, Pines Poplar and Ash trees. Also the Apple and Laurel trees. These  dryades would spring up from the earth at their birth, their lives would be very closely tied to each and every tree that was born in the times of the Greek Gods. While these Dryads Nymphs were alive the tree that they were connected to would flourish, and bloom with no disease or fire. but when the tree did passed away, So did the beauty Nymph. This is how it was in the days of the Greek gods and their Beautiful Dryads Nymphs. 
There are many different kinds of Nymphs In Greek Mythology. In that time period, many of them were water, lake, rivers, marsh, ponds fountains, waterfalls, earth, fire, blue nymphs, wood, underworld and even air Nymphs.
 Dryads Nymphs are just as beautiful and cunning as those above.  The Dryads Nymphs are the

beautiful ladies of the forest and woods who live in their trees and there around them. They are born in their tree and will died with their tree, but there is so much more to these ancient deities than meets the eye.
For one there are several classes of the Dryads with a particular type of tree.
I will give you a couple of examples of these amazing ancient deities that roamed our earth centuries ago.
1) The Meliai were the Nymphs of the ash-trees. They sprang up from Gaia the Earth she was impregnated by the blood of the castrated Ouranos. The men of the Silver Age married these Nymphas - [in the time before women were created and from them all of mankind was descended]. 

2) The Oreiades were the Nymphs of the mountain conifers. The first of these were offspring of the five Daktyloi and the five Hekaterides. Note: These are the descendants of the elder Oreiades and their brothers the Satyroi's. 
Also, The old forests of the ancient Greece were primarily found high in the mountains since the majority of the lowlands forest had been cleared for farming. It was, therefore, natural for the Greeks to think of the Dryades as mountain dwelling at the time.
3) The Hamadryades were the Nymphs of the Oak and the Poplar Trees. These were usually associated with riverside trees and sacred groves.  (most of the most beautiful of all Nymphs were found in these places.)

4)The Maliades, Meliades, or Epimelides were Nymphs of the Apple and other fruit trees. They were also protectors of the sheep.
5)The Daphnaie were the Nymphs of the Laurel trees. 
Dryads Nymphs~
The Greek gods put them into these different groups-  1) Nymphs of mountains and grottoes which were called - Orodemniades and Oreiades at the times of the ancients. 2) Nymphs of forests, groves and glens were believed sometimes to appear to and frighten solitary travellers. 3) Nymphs to trees were believed to die together with the trees which had been their abode, and with which they had come into existence. They were called Dryades, Hamadruades or Hadryades.
The Dryades of the Ancient times of The Greek Gods~ 
These are a few of the Dryades of The Great Zeus & Hera of the Greek Gods-
DAPHNIS   An Oreiad of Mount Parnassos in Phokis who was appointed by the Goddess Gaia as the prophetess at the oracle at Delphoi in the time before it passed into the hands of Apollon. 
DRYOPE  A Hamadryad nymph of Mount Othrys in Malis. She was a princess of the Dryopes who was transformed into a poplar-tree nymph by her Hamadryad sister-in-laws.

EKHO  A Oreiad nymph of Helikon in Boiotia, and a handmaiden of the goddess Hera. She was cursed to only repeat  the words of others by her mistress. When she fell in love with the self-obsessed youth Narkissos, he spurned her advances, and she faded away in her grief.
HELIADES Daughters of the sun-god Helios, the Heliades were transformed into amber-teared poplar trees. They were probably regarded as a typed of Hamadryad.
HESPERIDES The three guardians of the golden apples were sometimes regarded as Hamadryad or Hamameliad (apple-tree) nymphs.
KHELONE  An Arkadian Oreiad nymph who ignored the summons to attend the wedding of Zeus and Hera and as punishment was transformed into a tortoise.
KYLLENE An Arkadian Oreiad who was the eponym of Mt. Kyllene in Arkadia. She was the wife of Pelasgos the very first King of Arkadia.
PENELOPEIA   An Oreiad or Epimellid nymph of Mount Kyllene in Arkadia. She was the mother of the God Pan by Hermes. 

PHIGALIA A Libyan Hamadryad nymph who was the mother of several of the Danaides by King Danaus.
PITYS An Oreiad nymph loved by Pan. She fled his advances and was transformed into a pine-tree.
SYKE  A Hamadryad nymph of the fig-tree.
OTHREIS An Oreiad of Mount Othrys in Malis. She was loved by the Gods Apollon and Zeus. 
These are few of the Dryads of the Greek Gods with a brief descriptions of each. At some point, I might decide to add to this post. By adding a more details to the different Dryads I have shown you here or maybe different ones. I hope yu enjoy the Magic of the Dryads
Wendy...
Note... Note the images are note mind 
they are incredible artist that have depicted the dryads so elegantly.  

Water Faeries

Water Faeries
Water spirits can be found in lakes, ponds,marshes, rivers, pools, springs, wells, fountains, raindrops,

teardrops and at the oceans edge. Also waterfalls, ghettos, hidden lakes in deep forest, the tiniest pool of water. They especially love to running water in the form of bubbling springs and waterfalls But any type of running water you can usually find a water spirit faerie dancing on top of the water or fluttering about through the mist of the falling waterfalls or even the foam of the sands of any lake or beach. Some say that crossing over certain parts of water depending where the body of water is could be a method of entering the realm of the faerie world. But it has to be a very special area for this to happen. 
Nixie's are the ancients of a race who are beautiful river faeries with translucent white skin and long green hair. Some have said they are related to the magical creatures who haunt the waterways all around the world-

 There are the seductive Nereid's of the Greeks-
The playful Fenetten's of Germany-
The enchanting Kallraden's of Sweden-
The dangerous Bonga Maidens of India-
The Glaistig is a Scottish goat woman who lives in the darkness behind waterfalls-
The Stromkarlis is a Norwegian faery who dwells in waterfalls and is loves his elfin dance tunes-
The Ghostly Water wraith of Scotland leads travelers to a waterlily death and is a horrify faery called Jenny Greenteeth lurks at the bottom of stagnated pools- 
The monstrous Welsh water leaper-
These are all different Water Faeries from around the world that you must take care if you ever come across one in any type of water. So beware of the Water Faeries 
Wendy..

Note. later in on I will go in deeper details about each of these water faeries.
These are not my photos..Enjoy the beauty of them and how the Artist depites them so well with water faeries.  

Fairy Dragons

Fairy Dragons
The fairy dragon is one of its species that has been very difficult to find any information. But I've

been search for a long time now and I finally found the truth about the fairy dragon. So I hope that you will enjoy this post as much a I did when I my research for looking for the history of the 
Fairy Dragon...
Appearance~
The Faerie dragons are quite small, they are actually the size of your average house cat. ( you may wonder why I compared them to a house cat? Well you will see why later on in my post).
These amazing dragons are tree dwelling creatures and commonly live in the old growth forest. The Faerie dragons generally prefer the ancient forest that have been abandoned by elves. Probably because elf's generally take great pride in Nature and the World that they live in. This includes the forests & deep woods, even if they abandoned the ones they had lived in at one time. When they do leave their homes, they are generally Grand tree houses that link throughout the forest high up in the highest parts of the trees - plus a little bit of magic too! 

These faerie dragons are nimble little creatures and are very protective of their homes. Which is usually hollowed out tree trunks in the abandoned forested that the elf's who generally leave great tree houses that are quite beautiful. These tiny fairy dragons have also found homes in Grand abandoned elfin cities too. Sometimes there have been sightings in these place but this is very rare.
They are quite beautiful in appearance too. Usually having beaming wings that are dark on the outside and on the underside their wings resemble exactly like a butterfly pattern. 
The body of the Faerie dragon is covered in soft scales that are flexible to the touch, more like a lizard that their larger cousin kin. They are rumored to be very friendly and curious, often stealing

from those who have seen them. They keep troves of what they consider to be treasure, but do not think it is wise to steal from them. The Troves that have been recovered and investigated were filled with just brightly colored feathers, shiny rocks, small gemstones- emeralds ruby's sapphires and blue diamonds - So it was really what the faerie dragon felt was of value or treasure. And of course every creatures idea of quote treasure is very different.
Traits~ 
One very interesting detail I found out about this beautiful tiny dragons, is they seem most content when they are singing. Another interesting note that I found was that the sound of these beauty's is when they sing it sounds more commonly like a cat purring, but its more melodic and a sweet on the ear. 
Some faerie dragons can shapeshift into an elfin form. This power is rare and hard to recognize as there can be no signs that the elf is a faerie dragon, that is if the shapeshifter is a older faerie dragon. These transformations are very few, but of few that have shapeshifted into an elfin form, they have blended into an elfin group very well.  
Weapons~ 
The dragons do have breathe fire but it is a aqua blue in color and it doesn't burn when brought in

contact with flesh or wood. Their flame does produce heat and light as if it were a natural flame but it only burns for a few minutes.
Their real weapon of defense is their venomous bite. This is what they use against their predators.
The venom is only enough to numb a small area upon each bite, however, such as a hand, or a joint being bitten many times could be a deadly bite you could say. Although the species is recorded as being mostly friendly and docile it will use its venomous bite in a final line of defence.  
Another line of defense I found of the faerie Dragon which it seems to be their most useful of all against predators would be the power that comes out of their wings in times of fear or anger.
This line of defense if inhaled could cause great harm to his victims as he/she is inhaling the powered from the wings as the flutter them.
1)Small amount - could cause euphoria and mild hallucination. 
2)Large amounts - could turn into horrible nightmares and violent ones in fact.
3) Second stage of hallucination could cause paranoia, vomiting and inability to distinguish reality from their vision. 
This is one of favorite dragons, simply because of its close relations to the faerie's and that it can

shiftshape into a elf. I found these tiny dragons to be fascinating myself.Being a friendly dragon to the human race it would be amazing to be able to go in a forest an befriend one of these wee dragon faeries. 
note. the images are not mind. But I hope you
do enjoy them, the artist are very good at depicted 
what they probably look like. 
Wendy    

Mothers Day - May 12, 2013

Happy Mother Day

To

All

 Mothers 

Around

 the

World 
May 12 2013 

The Naiads - Greek Nymphs

The Naiads 

The Naiad were the Nymphs of the Fresh waters-
In Greek Mythology, the Naiads, were a type of nymph who preside over fountains, wells, springs 
and brook. They were known to be very ancient spirits that inhabited the still waters of marshes, 
ponds, and lagoon lakes. The essence of a Naiad was that they were bound to their body of water being that of a spring, brook, fountain or lake, the naiad could never ever leave their body of water or they would die. This would be also the case if their body of water they live in were to dry up the naiad would die with the lake too.
These Naiads presided over rivers, streams brooks, springs, ponds, fountains waterfalls, lakes, 
ghettos, basically any type of freshwater body of water. 
The lifestyle of the Naiads~
The Naiad was intimately connected to her body of water and her existence seems to have depended

on it. If a stream, brook, fountain or lake dried up its Naiad will expire.  The water over which Naiads presides were thought to be endowed with inspirational, medical or prophetic powers.

Whoever drank of these magical waters would be inspired, thus the Naiads were themselves considered prophetic and were frequently worshipped by the Ancient Greeks in association with divinities of fertility and growth. Hence all person in the state of rupture, such as madmen, poets seers and prophets were said to be caught by the Nymphs - Naiads 
Naiad's Reputation in Greek Mythology~
The Naiads can be quite dangerous and treacherous too. And were often known to exhibit jealous

tendencies toward men - mortal men.
In the legend of Hylas -

The legendary Argon aught was lost when the Naiads seduced him and carried him away fascinated by his beauty. 
Another Fascinating legend about the Naiads is they were worshipped by the humans and youth at coming-of-age ceremonies. They used to dedicated their childish locks to the naiad of the local spring and many of them were attributed to magical or healing powers.
The Naiads is just one of the many different

nymphs to the Greek mythology. 
later on in my writings I hope to cover all the different Greek Nymphs .. 
I hope that you find this interesting as much as I have..
and the beautiful images I have chosen to go with the post too.
note. These are some of my favorite artist and are not my paintings
Wendy.