The NAIADES were the nymphs of
fresh-water springs, lakes, brooks, rivers, &c.
As the trees, plants, and
flowers owed their nourishment to their genial, fostering care, these
divinities were {168} regarded by the Greeks as special benefactors to mankind.
Like all the nymphs, they possessed the gift of prophecy, for which reason many
of the springs and fountains over which they presided were believed to inspire
mortals who drank of their waters with the power of foretelling future events.
The Naiades are intimately connected in idea with those flowers which are
called after them Nymphae, or water-lilies, whose broad, green leaves and
yellow cups float upon the surface of the water, as though proudly conscious of
their own grace and beauty.
We often hear of the Naiades
forming alliances with mortals, and also of their being wooed by the sylvan
deities of the woods and dales.
