See Chrysalis.

Nymphs #1

Nymphs (Gr. vv/utfai), in Greek and Roman mythology, inferior female divinities, presiding over various departments of nature. The Oceanids, daughters of Oceanus, and the Nereids, daughters of Nereus, were salt-water nymphs, the latter dwelling in the Mediterranean, and especially in the Aegeim sea. The naiads were nymphs of fountains and other fresh waters, those presiding over lakes being also called limniads, and those over rivers, pot-amids. The nymphs of mountains and grottoes were called oreads or orestiads; of forests and groves, dryads and hamadryads; and of vales, glens, and meadows, naphaeae and limoniads. They were also named from certain races or localities with which they were associated, as Nysiads, Dodonids, Lemniae, etc.; and were subdivided into still other classes, with almost innumerable names and attributes. Sacrifices were offered to the nymphs of such productions of nature as abounded in their several haunts, but never of wine. They were not immortal, though always youthful, and often perished with the objects of their care; or the object was said to languish and die when the guardian nymph forsook it.