Satyrs and nymphs - the deities of nature

Hellenes - tireless travelers, adventurers, sea robbers and merchants - possessed inexhaustible imagination. They settled a small, two and a half kilometer, Mount Olympus immortal and beautiful externally, but insidiously essentially gods, who always rejoiced, if people had trouble. The Greeks surrounded their evil gods with suites of beautiful girls - nymphs - and scary satyrs - half people, half animals. Satires and nymphs did not live on cloudless heavenly expanses with higher gods, but on earth.

Nymphs and satyrs are gods of what?

The imagination of the ancient Greeks knew no bounds, and when in the Renaissance the enlightened Europeans learned the myths and traditions of the Greeks, the ancient gods, satyrs and nymphs served as an inexhaustible source of inspiration for writers, artists and musicians. They learned that the spirits of the mountains were nymphs of orad, forests and trees - dryads, sources - naiads. In the meadows and valleys lived limnads and napeei, and in the seas and oceans - Nereids and Oceanides. About many of them the Greeks made interesting legends, but about this - below. Peter Paul Rubens created a wonderful portrait of the two faunas.

Their appearance - curly uncombed tangled hair with a wreath of grape leaves and horns, flattened, red nose from drunkenness and in powerful hands - a bunch of grapes from which wine is made - fully corresponds to the descriptions of the Greeks. Only the tail is not visible. Satyrs did not have specific habitats: on their goat's legs they were always lustful, often drunk, they jumped everywhere, chasing the nymphs, until they were summoned to the service of the god Dionysus or the god Pan. This description should give an answer to the question: "The lowest deities, satyrs and nymphs, gods of what?" These are the spirits that settled, according to the Greeks, the entire surrounding nature. The satyrs often pursued the nymphs, having the lowest motives, but the beautiful girls escaped from them.

Legends of Nymphs

Satires and nymphs in myths are not always neighbors. The story of the nymph Daphne tells how an erotic Erod laughed at the beautiful Phoebe, letting him shoot an arrow that evokes love, and in a nymph Daphne - killing. So perfect, Phoebus, seeing Daphne, began to pursue her, begging for love. But the daughter of river god Peneus, swiftly escaping from persecution and feeling that she was left with strength, prayed to her father. She asked him to help her escape and take away her earthly appearance. And immediately her slender mill began to become covered with bark, the hands raised in entreaty turned into branches and the leaves rustled on them. The girl turned into a laurel tree. With a sadness stood beside the laurel of Phoebus. He asked his branches to make himself a wreath, and the tree rustled the leaves and, in agreement, bowed the crown to Apollo. The nymphs looking out of the branches of the trees formed the retinue of Sister Phoebus, the hunter of Artemis. And what fun it was at that time-the laughter of the girls, the barking of dogs. And when Artemis was tired on the hunt, then all together conducted round dances to the sounds of ceparace Phoebe.

In the mountains and valleys

In the story that follows, satires and nymphs are not united again. Nymph Echo to meet their misfortune met no one who loves the beautiful Narcissus. She could not speak to him, as the goddess Hera allowed her only to respond to someone's speech. And Narcissus, punished by Aphrodite for not responding to Echo's tender feelings, fell in love with himself and perished, peering at his reflection in the water.

For harvesting grapes

Sometimes nymphs and satyrs peacefully meet and gather together the fruits that the land gives them. In the painting by Rubens, this is exactly the moment. In the foreground is a powerful satyr who holds a wicker basket full of bunches of green and black grapes and other fruits. Behind him is a charming nymph who helped him. This time is the time of complete harmony in nature.

Dionysus and Pan

Among the entourage of the mysterious, mocking and formidable god Dionysus one can meet not only the satyrs, but also the god Pan. His father was Hermes, and his mother - nymph Driopa. When Pan was born, the mother, throwing only one glance at the child, fled in horror. O nightmare! The kid had a beard, goat legs and horns. But Hermes was delighted with his child and took it to show the Olympians. Those all just had a good laugh. Pan went down to earth and began to live on it. Shady groves and mountains became his refuge. In them, Pan herds herds and plays the flute. Nymphs gather around him and dance around him dances. The sounds of his pipe are gentle and full of sadness. After all, Pan was in love with the wonderful nymph Shiring, who, in order not to respond to his love, turned on the banks of the river into a reed. Grieved Pan of the reed made himself a pipe-syringa and since then has not parted with it.

Satire

They look like Pan, but do not have his nobility. They are lazy, whimsical, always drunk and like to sing at the same time. When satyrs do not accompany Dionysus, they spend time in search of nymphs. Playing flutes, sitting under the shady crowns of trees, they try to attract the attention of beautiful girls. But their rudeness and unceremoniousness repel women from them. All who envy them, try to escape from the satyrs. Together with the maenads, they participate in the Bacchanalia and the orgiastic festivities of Dionysos. According to legend, it was the satyrs that saved Ariadne when she fled Crete. After that, Ariadne became the wife of Dionysus. Satire is a wild uncontaminated nature.

So the Greeks perceived nature, populating it with nymphs, deities and spirits of forests, fields, mountains, water, but there was no complete serenity, therefore satires appeared.