In the account preserved in later summaries of classical sources (notably the scholia on Lycophron attributed to John Tzetzes as reported in modern compilations), the tree in which Chrysopeleia dwelt was imperiled by the floodwaters of a mountain torrent. Arcas, hunting nearby, intervened: he rerouted the river and constructed a dam to secure the tree. Following this rescue Chrysopeleia became Arcas's lover and bore him two sons, Apheidas and Elatus. The narrative places her as an Arcadian hamadryad whose fate is tied to a specific tree and whose intimate relation with a mortal integrates her into human genealogical lines.
No specific, contemporary ancient description of Chrysopeleia's individual appearance survives in the provided sources. She is identified categorically as a hamadryad (a dryad bound to a single tree), and modern and secondary summaries of dryad imagery describe dryads generically as female nature-spirits often pictured with human form suffused with arboreal features (for example, hair like leaves or skin with bark-like aspects). Those general dryad attributes are descriptive conventions from the broader dryad tradition rather than attested physical details for Chrysopeleia herself; the primary attestations supplied name her role and fate but do not record a distinctive visual portrait.
The sources attest that Chrysopeleia is a hamadryad whose life is ontologically bound to the life of her tree: if the tree were to die, the hamadryad would die as well. In the narrative preserved in summaries, her agencies are largely relational and reproductive—after being rescued by Arcas she forms a sexual partnership with him and bears two sons, Apheidas and Elatus—demonstrating that nymphs in Greek myth can intermarry or couple with mortals and enter human genealogies. General dryad lore present in the same corpora also indicates that tree-nymphs as a class could punish or be offended by mortals who harmed trees without propitiation, but that punitive behavior is a customary attribute of dryads in general and is not a specific recorded action of Chrysopeleia in the surviving account.
Weaknesses
- conditionmortality tied to host tree
Wards
- ritualpropitiation of tree-nymphs
*Péh₂usōn (reconstructed)
Péh₂usōn is a hypothetical Proto‑Indo‑European pastoral guardian reconstructed by comparative scholars from parallels in Greek and Vedic traditions. Proposed as a Graeco‑Aryan ancestor‑figure, the reconstruction describes a protector of flocks, roads, and travellers rather than an attested historical cultic personality.
Aba (disambiguation / name-form)
Aba is a polyvalent name-form attested across many unrelated contexts (place names, personal names, animal names, and brief mythological listings). The provided sources do not support a single, coherent supernatural entity called "Aba" and offer no descriptive or ritual material for such a being.
Abarbarea
Abarbarea is a name attested in classical Greek and Roman sources for freshwater nymphs (naiads). The name appears for at least two individual mythic figures — a naiad wife of Bucolion and a naiad counted among ancestors of the Tyrians — and Hesychius records plural forms that may indicate the name was also used as a class-name (Abarbareai / Abarbalaiai).
Abas
Abas (Ancient Greek: Ἄβας, gen.: Ἄβαντος) is not a single mythic being but a recurring personal name borne by multiple mortals and minor mythic figures in Greek epic and genealogical traditions — kings, founders, seers, warriors, attendants, a centaur, and a youth transformed by a goddess. The name is glossed in the sources as 'guileless' or 'good-hearted' and appears across Argive, Theban, Trojan, Euboean, and other local cycles.
Abderus
Abderus (Ancient Greek: Ἄβδηρος, romanized Ábdēros) is a mortal heroic figure in Greek myth closely associated with Heracles, remembered as the youth left in charge of the Mares of Diomedes who was killed by them. He functions as an eponymous local/divine-hero ancestor for the city of Abdera and received funerary commemoration and athletic agones at his tomb.
Abomination of Desolation
An apocalyptic prophetic phrase originating in the Book of Daniel designating a profaning thing or act that renders the Jerusalem Temple cult desolate; later reused in the Synoptic Gospels as an eschatological sign prompting urgent flight. The term denotes ritual/cultic impurity (Hebrew shiqquts) and is variously interpreted as pagan offerings or altar, a foreign cult statue, or (in some New Testament readings) an acting agent.
Absyrtus
Absyrtus (Ancient Greek: Ἄψυρτος) is a Colchian prince in the Greek Argonautic cycle, son of King Aeëtes and brother or half-brother of Medea. He appears in variant traditions either as a companion taken by Medea during her flight with Jason and murdered/dismembered to delay pursuit, or as a pursuer sent by Aeëtes who is overtaken and slain by Jason; his death functions as a key narrative device in the escape from Colchis.
Acacallis
Acacallis (Ancient Greek: Ἀκακαλλίς; also Acalle) is a mythological princess of Crete in Greek tradition, daughter of King Minos and Pasiphae. She functions primarily as a dynastic and etiological figure: in varying accounts she is mother, by gods such as Hermes (Mercury) or Apollo, of eponymous or founder-figures like Cydon (founder of Cydonia), Miletus, or Lydon/ Lydus.
Acacus
Acacus (Ancient Greek: Ἄκακος) is, in Arcadian Greek tradition, a mortal eponymous founder-king of Acacesium and is remembered as the foster-father who reared the infant Hermes (Mercury) in that local tradition. He is presented in genealogies as a son of Lycaon and functions as a local ancestral/onomastic figure rather than a supernatural spirit.
Academus
Academus (Greek: Akádemos / Hekádemos) is an Attic hero-eponym tied to a sacred grove (Akademeia) on the Cephissus near Athens. In myth he revealed where Helen was hidden to the Dioskouroi, an act said to have saved the city, and the place bearing his name became a long-lived sacred precinct, later the site of Plato's Academy.
Acamas
Acamas (Ancient Greek: Ἀκάμας) is a personal name recurrent in ancient Greek narrative traditions applied to multiple human characters (warriors, princes, suitors), once to a Cyclops, and once as a hound's name. Rather than a single supernatural entity, bearers of the name appear episodically across the Trojan War, Theseid, and Theban cycles as mortal actors whose deeds intersect with gods and fate.
Acantha
Acantha (Ancient Greek: Ἀκάνθα, 'thorn') is a late or secondary mythological figure known from modern retellings as a nymph transformed into the acanthus plant. The tale that she scratched Apollo and was changed into a spiny-leaved plant is not attested in surviving classical corpora and appears to be a modern compilation or invention rather than a firmly documented ancient myth.
Community Record
- [1]Chrysopeleia — Wikipedia. Wikipedia entry 'Chrysopeleia' (summary of literary tradition; cites scholia on Lycophron/Tzetzes and classical compilations).wiki
- [2]KHRYSOPELEIA (Khrysopeleia) - Arcadian Dryad Nymph of Greek Mythology — Theoi. Theoi.com summary article on Chrysopeleia (compiles classical references and summarizes the Arcadian hamadryad account).literary
- [3]Chrysopeleia | Facts, Information, and Mythology — Pantheon. Pantheon.org summary of the Chrysopeleia tradition (derives from later summaries of classical scholia).other
- [4]Dryads — Spirits (Episode 396). Podcast and modern overview of dryad types and traits (used here for generalized dryad/hamadryad description, not as a primary ancient source).other
- [5]Chrysopeleia (moth) — Wikipedia (taxonomic homonym). Modern taxonomic reuse of the name 'Chrysopeleia' for a genus of moths (not a mythic attestation; cited only to note homonymy).wiki