Oread

Origin

The iconographic origin is the Greek nature-spirit (numen) belief of the eighth and seventh centuries BCE, and the earliest textual canon is the canon of the mountain nymphs in line 420 of Book 6 and lines 615-617 of Book 24 of the Iliad of the eighth-century BCE Homer (Homeros) — the mountain nymphs dance and hunt in the mountains following the goddess Artemis. The etymology derives from the substantival form Oreias (Oreias) of the Greek oros ('mountain'), and the plural Oreiades (Oreiades) first appears in lines 615-617 of Book 24 of Homer's Iliad. The decisive textual canon is the Echo (Echo) and Narcissus (Narcissus) canon in lines 339-510 of Book 3 of the Latin epic Metamorphoses (Metamorphoses, 15 books) of the Roman poet Ovid (Publius Ovidius Naso, 43 BCE - 17 CE) of c. 8 CE. The plot is: Narcissus, the beautiful youth of Boeotia, son of the river-god Cephissus (Kephisos) and the Naiad Liriope, is so beautiful at age 16 that everyone loves him, but he rejects them all. Meanwhile the Oread mountain nymph Echo is cursed by the goddess Hera (Hera), because of Echo's chatter that concealed the affairs of Zeus with other nymphs, to be able only to repeat the last words of others. Echo, encountering Narcissus in the mountains, loves him unrequitedly, but when Narcissus rejects her love, Echo withers away in the mountains in sorrow, and her voice alone remains as the mountain echo. Meanwhile, by the curse of the goddess of vengeance Nemesis (Nemesis), Narcissus falls in love with his own reflection in water and ultimately transforms into the narcissus flower — the decisive canon. Lines 7-9 of Book 9, Chapter 31 of the Description of Greece of the second-century Greek geographer Pausanias (Pausanias) systematised the Echo-Narcissus sacred sites at the Donakous spring in Boeotia, Greece, and the second-century Greek pastoral novel Daphnis and Chloe by Longus (Longos) reinterpreted the Echo-mountain-echo transformation canon.

Features

• Dwelling on mountain peaks and in caves
• Skilled in hunting, wielding bow and arrow
• Companion of the goddess Artemis
• Presiding over the abundance and safety of the mountain
• Freely moving through rugged terrain
• Permanent being bound to her own mountain

Stories

The mountain-nymph canon in line 420 of Book 6 and lines 615-617 of Book 24 of the Iliad of the eighth-century BCE Homer is the origin of the Oread canon, the Theogony of Hesiod of c. 700 BCE established the Greek-mythological nymph system, and the Argonautica of Apollonius Rhodius (Apollonios Rhodios, 295-215 BCE) of the fourth and third centuries BCE extended the mountain-nymph canon. The decisive literary canon is the Echo and Narcissus canon in lines 339-510 of Book 3 of Ovid's Metamorphoses of c. 8 CE, and the Description of Greece of the second-century Pausanias systematised the Oread sacred sites across Greece. Renaissance Italy — the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili of Polifilo of 1499 and the c. 1597 painting Narcissus of Caravaggio (1571-1610), currently held by the Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Antica in Rome — settled the Renaissance visual canon of Oread iconography, and the nineteenth-century British Romantic poetry, including the 1820 Ode to Psyche of the British poet John Keats (1795-1821), settled the Oread canon in English literature. The decisive visual canon is the 1903 painting Echo and Narcissus by the British Pre-Raphaelite painter John William Waterhouse (1849-1917) — 109.2 by 189.2 cm, held by the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool, Britain — and the 1937 painting Metamorphosis of Narcissus by the Spanish Surrealist painter Salvador Dali (1904-1989), held by the Tate Modern in London, Britain, established the twentieth-century Modernist canon. The Nymph and Dryad canon of the 1977 D&D Monster Manual by Gary Gygax of TSR in the USA — consistent through to 5e (5th Edition) of 2014 — is the decisive canon of the modern fantasy RPG nature spirit, and the 2010 Warner Brothers film Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief (based on Rick Riordan's original) series settled the twenty-first-century global Greek-mythological young-adult cinematic canon.

Weakness

The Oread's weaknesses are: (1) destruction of the mountain — the decisive weakness in the Greek-mythological nature-spirit canon that the Oread vanishes immediately when the mountain in which she dwells collapses or its forest is destroyed, the core canon of Greek nature-spirit belief; (2) logging and hunting in the mountain forest — the canonical weakness in Greek mythology that, while the Oread is angered by humans' reckless logging — as in Book 8 of Ovid's Metamorphoses where Erysichthon (Erysichthon) cut down a tree of Demeter's sacred grove and was punished — direct retribution is rare; (3) environmental binding — the environmental-binding canon of Greek-mythological nature spirits, that the Oread cannot leave her own mountain; (4) the curse of the goddess Hera — the decisive canon in the Echo canon of Book 3 of Ovid's Metamorphoses of c. 8 CE, in which Echo, by the curse of Hera, can only repeat the last words of others — and withers away in the mountains; (5) the tragedy of unrequited love — the canonical weakness in lines 339-510 of Book 3 of Ovid's Metamorphoses for Echo, the decisive canon of nineteenth-century British Pre-Raphaelite painting; (6) flow of time — the canon in Greek mythology that the Oread lives longer than humans, but ultimately disappears with her own mountain; (7) wrath of the gods — the Greek-mythological canon that the Olympian gods transform or pacify the Oread in the transformation tales; (8) sacred sealing rite — the Greek-mythological canon that the wrath of the hunting goddess Artemis transforms the Oread. The decisive canonical finale of the Latin-literary Oread tragedy in line 510 of Book 3 of Ovid's Metamorphoses of c. 8 CE — in which Echo withers away in the mountains and her voice alone remains as the mountain echo.

Cultural Significance

The Oread is not merely a nature-spirit icon but the canonical iconographic figure of the Greek-Western nature-spirit canon, traversing the eighth-century BCE Homeric epic, the fourth- and third-century BCE Apollonius Rhodius Alexandrian-school epic, the first-century BCE Ovidian Latin poetry, the nineteenth-century British Pre-Raphaelite painting, the twentieth-century Salvador Dali Surrealist painting, and the twentieth-century D&D fantasy RPG. The Oread belief of the mountains of Greek mythology — Mount Parnassus (Parnassos), Mount Olympus (Olympos), Mount Cithaeron (Kithairon), Mount Sipylos (Sipylos) and others in central mainland Greece — is the decisive canon of the Greek Bronze Age (3000-1200 BCE) Mycenaean civilization's nature-spirit belief, and the Oread iconography as the companion of the hunting goddess Artemis (Artemis) is the decisive canon of Greek mythology. The Echo and Narcissus canon in lines 339-510 of Book 3 of Ovid's Metamorphoses of c. 8 CE — as the decisive work of the Latin-literary canon — settled the decisive canonical visual-adaptation series of Western art, including c. 1597 Caravaggio's painting Narcissus, the 1903 decisive painting Echo and Narcissus by John William Waterhouse (held by the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool, Britain), and the 1937 Surrealist painting Metamorphosis of Narcissus by Salvador Dali (held by the Tate Modern in London, Britain). The 1914 paper On Narcissism: An Introduction (Zur Einfuehrung des Narzissmus) of the Austrian psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud (Sigmund Freud, 1856-1939) — which decisively canonised the psychoanalytic concept of 'Narcissism' from the Narcissus canon of Ovid's Metamorphoses — became the decisive event of twentieth-century psychology and cultural criticism, and the 1979 The Culture of Narcissism of the American sociologist Christopher Lasch (1932-1994) became the decisive canon of late-twentieth-century American cultural criticism. The Nymph monster of the 1977 D&D Monster Manual — consistent through to 5e (5th Edition) of 2014 — is the decisive canon of the modern fantasy RPG nature spirit.

In Popular Culture

Homer, Iliad, Book 6, line 420 and Book 24, lines 615-617 (eighth century BCE) — origin of the mountain-nymph canonHesiod, Theogony (c. 700 BCE) — establishment of the Greek-mythological nymph systemApollonius Rhodius, Argonautica (fourth-third century BCE) — Alexandrian-school mountain-nymph canonOvid, Metamorphoses, Book 3, lines 339-510 (c. 8 CE) — decisive Echo and Narcissus canonPausanias, Description of Greece, Book 9, Chapter 31 (second century CE) — sacred sites of Oread belief across GreeceCaravaggio, Narcissus (c. 1597) — Renaissance painting canonWaterhouse, Echo and Narcissus (1903) — decisive Victorian Pre-Raphaelite visual canonSalvador Dali, Metamorphosis of Narcissus (1937) — twentieth-century Surrealist canonFreud, On Narcissism: An Introduction (1914) — decisive psychoanalytic canonisationGygax, D&D Monster Manual, Nymph (1977) — fantasy RPG canon