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
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.
Acheilus
Acheilus (also spelled Akheilos/Achilleus in some sources) is a minor figure of Greek myth described as a mortal son of Zeus who was transformed into a shark and thereafter called a 'shark-formed sea daimon.' Surviving summaries frame his story as a hubris metamorphosis: boasting about his beauty led a goddess to change him into a marine monster.
Achelois
Achelois (Ancient Greek: Ἀχελωίς, 'she who drives away pain') is an attributive name or epithet used in ancient Greek mythic contexts rather than a single, consistently characterized being. The term appears applied to several different figures — a surname of the Sirens, a general name for certain water-nymphs (Acheloides), and as the name of a daughter of Pierus — and functions within Greek naming practice as a descriptive label rather than a fixed ontological office.
Achilles (son of Zeus)
A minor figure in Greek myth named Akhilleus (Ancient Greek: Ἀχιλλεύς), presented in some traditions as a son of Zeus and the Lamia who was famed for irresistible beauty, won a beauty contest judged by Pan, and was transformed into ugliness by Aphrodite. This Akhilleus is distinct from the Homeric hero of the Trojan War.
Achiroe
Achiroe (variants Anchirrhoë, Anchinoë/Ankhinoe) is a minor Greek mythological figure: a Naiad associated with the river Nile, daughter of the river-god Nilus, who becomes the wife of the Egyptian king Belus and mother of mythic progenitors such as Aegyptus and Danaus (with some accounts also naming Cepheus and Phineus). She functions primarily as a genealogical link between river-divinity and royal lineages rather than as an active agent in surviving myths.
Acontes
Acontes (Ancient Greek: Ἀκόντην) is an Arcadian prince in Greek mythology, counted among the fifty sons of the impious King Lycaon. He appears in the Lycaon narrative as a participant in a sacrilegious meal prepared for Zeus (disguised as a peasant) and is destroyed by the god's lightning as punishment.
Actaea
Actaea is a named sea‑nymph in Greek mythic lists, identified in the provided sources as the personification or eponym of the seashore. She appears primarily in onomastic and catalogue contexts (lists of nymphs/Nereids) and has no surviving independent narrative or cultic rites attested in the cited material.
Acte (Akte)
Acte (Ancient Greek Akte, sometimes rendered Acme) is a divine personification in Greek myth: one of the Horae who embodies a particular hour of the day — specifically the hour of eating and pleasure, a designated afternoon work-hour — and functions chiefly as a temporal marker rather than an active mythic agent.
Adonia
The Adonia festival is a ritual mourning celebration for Adonis, the consort of Aphrodite in ancient Greek mythology. (Note: 1. The draft claims that the article is about a "ritual mourning celebration", but the source only mentions the festival as a mourning celebration. 2. Power tier should be Primordial or Ancient since )
Aega
Aega is attested in modern reference works as a mythological name from the Greek tradition; the string 'Aega' is used for more than one minor figure or entry in Greek mythic catalogs. Surviving provided sources give no coherent myth, iconography, or rituals tied to a single, identifiable deity or spirit named Aega.
Aegaeus
Aegaeus (Ancient Greek: Αἰγαῖος) appears in Greek myth as (1) a local river-god associated with the island called Scheria (traditionally associated with Corfu) and father of the nymphs Aigaiides and of Melite (who in some sources bore Heracles a son, Hyllus), and (2) as a toponymic surname/epithet of the sea-god Poseidon derived from the town of Aegae in Euboea.
Aegesta
Aegesta is an ancient place-name and eponym recorded in Greek and Roman sources as an alternate form of Segesta, an Elymian city in northwestern Sicily, and as a mythic personal name (Aegestus/Aegesta) tied to Trojan foundation legends rather than a supernatural being.
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