Dryad

In this week's episode, we're heading back over to Ancient Greece and Rome for a fan favourite, the Dryad! How similar are Dryads and Nymphs? Why do they hate hiding from humans and gods so much? Find out this week!

Transcript

INTRO:
Hello and welcome to Myth Monsters, my name is Erin and I’ll be your host for these little snack bite size podcasts on folklore and mythical monsters from around the world. 

These podcasts focus on the actual cryptids, folklore and mythic monsters from global mythology, rather than focusing on full stories of heroes and their big adventures.

I’ll also be dropping in some references that they have to recent culture and where you can see these represented in modern day content so you can learn more, and get as obsessed as I am about these absolute legends of the mythological world.

I’m finally feeling better hooray! And now I am completely free of employment and sickness, hopefully we can go ahead unrestrained into the podcast world! 

This week’s monster is not a recommendation but a personal favourite that I’ve been wanting to cover for a while, so let’s hop straight in shall we?

DESCRIPTION:

This week we’re heading over to the lovely Greek isles and looking at another legendary mythological creature, the Dryad. 

Dryads are typically described as nature sprites within Greek and Roman mythology, who are always female and are usually the most beautiful women you’ve ever seen. They have long flowing hair made of vines, branches or leaves which reflect the season they’re in, with glowing amber eyes and bark-like skin, which can be rough like an oak or as smooth as willow. They often have limbs replaced with or covered in foliage such as tree trunks, roots or branches and they blend in perfectly within their forest home. 

Within modern media, you may also see Dryads as four-legged, deer-like creatures rather than just woody-women. There’s nothing in mythology to support that they were deer hybrids, it’s just a popular look for them in movies and video games. 

I mentioned that they were nature spirits, and whilst this is true - they’re more specific than that. Dryads are tree spirits, embodying the plants and flora around them in their looks, but also their nature. They are usually peaceful, shy creatures and avoid people at almost any cost due to the lustful nature of those that seek them. When the coast is clear, they love to dance and sing with their male counterparts, the Satyr, which we’ll cover in another episode.

Dryads live deep in forests, particularly within Greece and Italy as their mythology reports, but they were also believed to live in every forest in the world and were nowhere near going extinct. Because of their shy and camouflage nature, they avoided all those they wanted to but enjoyed the company of certain gods, mostly Pan, Artemis and Dionysus, gods of nature, hunting and partying respectively. They are usually linked to a certain tree within a forest which the Dryad calls home and reflects in her appearance, and can retreat there if needed.

Now their powers are interesting, as they are often considered to be lesser goddesses, so are pretty wise. They have extremely long lifespans, and are sometimes considered immortal - however, if their tree home is cut down, they can die or be severely weakened by it. They also cannot be harmed in their own environment physically, as they take power from the land around them to stay strong - so the achilles heel is to take down the tree rather than the Dryad. 

But of course, their main powers are connected to all around them, they have the power to manipulate all plants and trees and have significant influence over all living souls within their forests, which can include things like bears and deer for instance. They are also able to shapeshift in and out of animal and tree form to help defend themselves, and have healing powers through touch. This also includes being able to restore the balance in their environment, by bringing back dead plants or animals that are needed or causing weather to help assist the forest, such as winds to carry seedlings or rain to water things.

Lastly on humans, they have the power of charm and enchantment and are able to hypnotise humans to do their bidding if needed. For instance if there were invaders, they could influence them to turn around and leave. They could also influence emotions, which could turn men extremely aggressive and possessive of them, but could also inspire peace, joy and awe.

Their main task is to guard the forest that they live in, and they will defend it fiercely. They use their powers to encourage the trees and animals to fight, as well as often getting involved with the fighting themselves with their magic or in a shapeshifted form. Dryads can be pretty scary, and they will defend their home till their last breath, so it’s not worth disturbing them. If you were to damage any tree within Greek myth, you would be punished by the Gods if you didn’t ask the Dryad it belongs to first - so it’s super not worth it.

Now strangely, you could be born into being a Dryad, but usually from a god - but you could also be turned into a Dryad and that was pretty common actually.

Dryads are defined as a type of Nymph, which was another myth monster within the Greek and Roman mythologies. These are all nature spirits, where Dryads are specifically tree nymphs. I’ll go into Nymphs more later on, but there are also many different types of Dryad. 

There are Daphnaie, who are the nymphs of laurel trees specifically, the Epimelides, the nymphs of fruit trees which included the Hesperides who guard the golden apples. If you want to know more about them, have a listen to my Labours of Heracles episode. 

We also have the Hamadryads, who are the more generic dryads that I’ve described here - ones that are attached to certain trees and the Meliae, who are dryads of ash trees. These have their own separate category because they are so important within Greek myth so again, I’ll get onto them later. 

There are also the Oreads, who are mountain conifers, but are also sometimes the mountains themselves and the Ampeloi, the dryads of grapevines, who as you can imagine are great at parties.

It was super typical for Gods and heroes to go after nymphs and dryads, and a lot of them are known by name because of these chases such as Daphne, Eurydice or Melia, all names you might have heard of if you’re interested in Greek myth.  

ORIGIN:

But before I tell you about those lovely ladies, let’s talk about etymology. It’s a pretty simple one this week, of course, Dryad is a Greek word and it comes from the root word Drys meaning tree, but more specifically oak. Whilst we don’t think of Dryads being associated specifically with oak trees, the generic word Dryad means oak and implies that they came from oak trees originally. 

I won’t go into Nymphs here as I’ll save that for another episode, but just for your information - nymph is also Greek, meaning maiden or girl, but can also mean bride.

Now onto history, I’m sorry to say that like with all of our ancient Greek monsters, it is a struggle to put a specific date on when they came into folklore. What I can tell you is that the Ancient Greeks were about and writing stuff about them from 800 BC to 146 BC when the epic poets and writers were all alive.

But the more interesting thing is the myths involving Dryads. I did mention that Nymphs were chased by gods, and I have many a story on that - but how does this relate to Dryads though? Well this is because turning a Nymph into a Dryad, which was a common thing to do, was actually seen as more an escape from these gods and men, and a blessing from the gods of protection, rather than one of being a tree forever. The man would stop chasing them and the Nymph would be free from them to be a Dryad instead. This is a common theme, so I wanted to pre warn you first before I get into these stories. 

Also pre warning for men chasing after women to assault them in these stories - don’t say I didn’t warn you. They’re not graphic, but if you’re upset by this kind of thing, you might want to skip some of these.

So let’s start off with the most famous Dryad, Daphne. Daphne was a Nymph and was a follower of Artemis, goddess of the hunt and famously, celibate and very anti-romance and sex for her followers and her. One day, the god of light, Apollo, and Artemis’ twin brother I hasten to add, was struck by one of the golden arrows of love from Eros, god of love. 

He saw Daphne playing with his sister and immediately had to have her. He chased Daphne for days, always a step behind her and eventually, the exhausted Daphne called out to her father, a river god, and to save her from Apollo, he turned her into a laurel tree immediately. Apollo, devastated, declared that the laurel tree would now be sacred to him, and took a branch from Daphne’s tree to wear around his head as a symbol of his eternal love for her. Hence, the laurel is still one of Apollo’s symbols and the laurel crown is now synonymous with the Greek pantheon.

I mentioned Eurydice, who is a character from my favourite Greek myth, Orpheus and Eurydice. She was a tree nymph who married the most talented musician alive, but died the night before their wedding. He ventured into the underworld to save her, but was told he could walk her back to the surface if he didn’t turn around to look for her during the journey. As he got to their front door, he turned and she was pulled back in to the underworld for good. 

Melia and the Meliae were a group of Dryads who were particularly special, as they were born differently to all others. They were formed from the drops of blood that fell onto the Earth when the titan Cronus castrated his father, the titan Uranus. The Earth in Greek mythology is the body of the titaness, Gaia or Mother Earth, and she became pregnant with the Meliae. They lived in the Cretan Dikti mountains and when the king of the Greek gods, Zeus was born to a father she knew would try and eat him, the titaness Rhea, gave her youngest son to the Meliae to raise him away from Cronus. They fed him honey and the milk of a goat, turned into by the nymph, Amalthea. Unfortunately, when he does grow up and try to take down his dad, the oracle advises him to use the goat’s skin as a weapon and he fashions the Aegis from her as a thank you I guess.

Lastly for our Greeks, we do have the Battle of Troy - where the Dryads kind of got involved. The battle had destroyed the forests around the city and the Dryads lost it, so they used their powers to hinder the invading Greeks, like growing trees in their paths or blocking ways with vines and plants, even trapping soldiers. 

And on the Roman side, I only have one story for now, but it’s of the Dryad Leuce, who was loved by the god of the underworld, Pluto. He abducted her and she lived in the Underworld with him until her death, when Pluto turned her body into a white poplar tree and placed her in the Elysian Fields, one of the higher floors of the underworld for warriors. When Heracles came to the underworld for one of his labours, as he was leaving he took a branch from her tree as a sign of victory and crowned himself with it.

We do have a couple of mythical comparisons for Dryads across the world of mythology. For instance we have the Ghillie Dhu from Scottish folklore, a male protector of the forests, the Kodama from Japanese mythology, who protected and inhabited trees across Japan. We also have the Kapre from Filipine folklore, who guard the forest and sit in mango trees smoking cigars whilst watching for outsiders or the Rådande from Swedish folklore who are called grove-folk and watch over specific trees in a forest with deadly intent.

CULTURAL SIGNIFICANCE: 

Now onto modern media, there’s absolutely loads for Dryads so I hope you’re ready for them.

For art, there are a load of portraits with Dryads in them but my favourites are The Dryad by Evelyn De Morgan from 1885, Francis Danby's The Wood Nymph's Hymn to the Rising Sun from 1845, Émile Bin's The Hamadryad from 1870, Félicien Rops' Hamadryad from 1885 & The Last Dryad by Gabriel Guay from 1898. Otherwise, have a look at independent art this week for some really beautiful art around this monster.

In movies, we have; Hercules, Barbie Fairytopia, Mavka: The Forest Song, The Guardian, The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe, Maleficent, Batman and Robin & Epic.

For TV, we have; Delicious in Dungeon, Overlord, Rosario + Vampire, Once Upon a Time, Power Rangers, Doctor Who, Charmed, Batman: The Animated Series, Krapopolis, Monster Musume, PJ Masks, Hercules, Thundercats & Wakfu.

In video games, we have ones such as; World of Warcraft, Warcraft, Warcraft, Unavowed, Fable, Elder Scrolls, Age of Wonders, Tavern Talk, A Very Long Rope to the Top of the Sky, Terraria, Rayman, Final Fantasy, Avowed, Quest for Glory, Age of Mythology, Zork, The Witcher, Baldur’s Gate, Dragon Age: Origins, Guild Wars, Legend of Zelda, Neverwinter Nights, Pokemon, Touhou Project, World of Mana & Total War: Warhammer. 

My book recommendation this week is Greek Mythology: The Gods, Goddesses, and Heroes Handbook by Liv Albert, who runs the podcast Let’s talk about Myths Baby! or you can look at my classic Stephen Fry Heroes or Mythos, because these are some of my favourite Greek mythology books and they’re a lot of fun!

DO I THINK THEY EXISTED? 

Now it’s time for, do I think they existed?

I’m going to say no for this one, the Greeks made it very easy to say yes or no to their monsters, and this is one of them that I’m not behind. I only say this as I can’t really imagine a barky maiden peeking out of a tree but that’s not to say that I don’t think they hide away and could possibly exist - I’m just saying that it's such a small possibility that I’m gonna say no.

Also with the destruction of our forests and the Amazon, surely if something like Dryads were about to defend them - we definitely would have found out by now. We all know forests are ancient places, with so much folklore and mystery behind them, but I think whilst Dryads aren’t there - it would be really great if they were for the sake of our planet and all that live in it. 

I do love these creatures though, I was first properly introduced to Dryads through World of Warcraft when I was a teenager, and I always thought they were the fae-touched deer hybrids, it was only when I started studying Greek myth that I realised they were just women with tree powers, like Poison Ivy from Batman. There is a part in Hercules the Disney movie, where Philoctetes is chasing after nymphs and one turns into a tree and slaps him, but it's not stressed that she’s a Dryad at this point. But he also isn’t a satyr in myth either, so Disney aren’t the best at stating the truth.

But what do you think? Did the Dryads protect the Earth’s forests? Let me know on social media!

OUTRO: 

One of my absolute favourites this week, I’m so glad we finally got to cover them. I think if I could be any mythical creature that I could choose, it would be a Dryad - I just think they’re neat!

I will stress that I love your recommendations and keep sending them in for me to look at, but I am just a single person and I have a lot of requests. I’ll get through them and put your monster request in if there's a) enough information on them to cover 15 minutes of airtime, b) when there’s not already monsters from that mythology mentioned and c) quite frankly, if I want to cover them.

Saying this, please don’t chase me to put your monster in, I’m not obligated to do anything I hasten to add and I’m trying my best here. Be patient and be kind, I create my running order in December for the year ahead and I don’t change it unless I have to and it takes me ages to mix everything up - so please bear with me.

Next week, we’re heading over to Eastern Europe for a watery nymph instead - that’s right, we’re looking at the Rusalka! Don’t let these soggy ladies be tempting you in with them next Thursday!

For now, thank you so much for listening, it’s been an absolute pleasure. If you enjoyed this podcast, please give it a rating on the service you’re listening on - I’ve got loads of social media for any questions, or suggestions on what monsters to cover next and I’d love to hear from you. The social media handles for Tiktok, YouTube and Instagram are mythmonsterspodcast, and twitter is mythmonsterspod and I’m now also on BlueSky under mythmonsters. But all of our content can be found at mythmonsters.co.uk, and you can also find us on Goodpods, Buymeacoffee and Patreon if you want to help me fund the podcast too.

Come join the fun though and share this with your pals, they might love me as much as you do.

But for now, stay spooky and I’ll see you later babes.