Talk:Nymph

Welcome

Needs editing! Please take a look. Thanks.

Nymph types

Please review the article and the types of nymphs. There was ieimakid, which was moved to Leimakids, because it was typed with capital "I", a common source of confusion. Now because of wikispamming the web I cannot quickly verify any of them, so I leave this to the experts. Thank you, mikka (t) 22:52, 11 October 2005 (UTC)

Hamadryad

According to this list, the dryad is a subcategory/subspecies of the hamadryad. But the articles on dryads and hamadryads both say it's the other way around, that hamadryads are a type of dryad. Maybe it should be swapped here too. But I'm no expert on nymphs.

Alseid or Alpseid (or neither)?

The running text names "alpseids," but the sidebar lists "alseids." It looks like the spelling with P is a typo, since Google turns up no other occurrences of the word, and the main entry on them is Alseid. However, even that article is a stub, and a quick Web search didn't turn up much more on them, so I don't know if either spelling actually names a type of nymph. This needs a source and a correction.

Xanth

The area regarding popular fiction and stuff really needs a mention of Xanth. I'd put it in, but I'm lazy and stuff.

Foreign words - relevance?

Several Greek words, along with a Latin word and a German one, are defined in the article. All of this is very nice, but the relevance of these words in conjunction with nymph isn't clear. Are these terms alternate names for nymphs? Are they the roots from which the English nymph comes from What words come from "nymph"? --Badger151 11:59, 30 August 2006 (UTC)

"Quoting"

There are too many quotes; it is annoying running into them everywhere. Surely they can be paraphrased and their sources moved to footnotes? Inline citations further uglify the text. Brainmuncher 13:46, 22 February 2007 (UTC)

Titans

Weren't they actually of Titan heritage? At the very least their relatives, the oceanids where daughters to two Titans, Oceanus and Tethys. Rursus dixit. (^mbork³!) 21:29, 28 January 2010 (UTC)

Fanciful, unsourceable excursus

I have moved here the following:

Usually female, they were dressed in white, decked with garlands of flowers, but they frequently had unnatural legs, like those of a goat, donkey or cow. They were so beautiful that the highest compliment was to compare some feature of a woman (eyes, hair, etc.) with that of a nereid. They could move swiftly and invisibly, ride through the air and slip through small holes. Although not immortal, their lives exceeded a human's tenfold, and they retained their beauty until death.

Not "usually" but invariably female. Not "dressed" in anything. Not with cow or donkey legs, etc. Slipping through small holes is just unlettered silliness. Etc etc. --Wetman (talk) 18:05, 3 February 2010 (UTC)

wives and daughters of the polis?

The phrase "the restricted and chaste wives and daughters of the Greek polis" in the lead seems strange to me. Why wives and daughters rather than just "women"? Is that to emphasize their low status? But it seems an indirect and belittling way to do so. And why polis, as opposed to just "of ancient Greece?" Ccrrccrr (talk) 21:44, 10 January 2012 (UTC)

Sorry to have missed this, as I've just reverted your change and my edit summary was too long, and therefore half-swallowed-up. The unfettered freedom of nymphs is telling contrast to the respectable "wives and daughters of the polis", who were subject to the authority of families, communities, laws and mores. "Women of Greece" could include female rustics, slaves and prostitutes. Haploidavey (talk) 15:24, 24 March 2012 (UTC)

Thanks. That makes sense. Glad to see my mistaken edit reverted. Ccrrccrr (talk) 14:35, 25 March 2012 (UTC)

Chailae?

An IP from Ankara has twice added this to Nymph:

Chailae or Chailaes (snow nymph; also winter smile), other name variants include Chailes, Chailas or Chailaid; shows similarities with Aurae (breezes). Also goes by 'Çağıl' in certain parts of Anatolia.

Has anyone heard of these? I can't find the forms in Greek (TLG and Packard Inscriptions dB, Χαιλ- or even -λαιδ-) or Latin (PHI, Chael-), but the χ ... λ gives this a veneer of plausibility because of the etymological relation of "hail" and κάχληξ, "pebble". Çağıl is a toponym in Turkey and a male given name, as in Çağıl Uyar. This smells like a semi-learned hoax, but I can't be sure. Any insights?

This has now been twice reverted, and the IP asked to provide sources, should it wish to reintroduce. If anyone else has knowledge of these nymphs, please educate the rest of us. — cardiff | chestnut — 01:50, 15 January 2012 (UTC)