Hamadryad – מילון אנגלי-אנגלי
hamadryad
n.
king cobra of southeastern Asia and the East Indies, largest poisonous snake; (Greek and Roman mythology) tree nymph who lives in a tree and dies when the tree dies
Hamadryad
A
hamadryad (; ) is a
Greek mythological being that lives in
trees. They are a particular type of
dryad, which are a particular type of
nymph. Hamadryads are born bonded to a certain tree. Some believe that hamadryads are the actual tree, while normal
dryads are simply the
entities, or
spirits, of the trees. If the tree died, the hamadryad associated with it died as well. For that reason, dryads and the gods punished any
mortals who harmed trees. The
Deipnosophistae of Athenaeus lists eight hamadryads, the daughters of
Oxylus and Hamadryas:
Their mother, Hamadryas, is immortalized in the name of two genera: that of the
cracker butterfly, and that of the northernmost monkey in
Asia Minor, the
hamadryas baboon. The cracker butterfly is more arboreal than most butterflies, as it commonly camouflages itself on trees. It feeds on sap, rotting fruit and dung. The hamadryas baboon is one of the least arboreal monkeys, but was the most common monkey in
Hellenic lands.
hamadryad
Noun
1. the nymph or spirit of a particular tree
(hypernym) dryad, wood nymph
2. large cobra of southeastern Asia and the East Indies; the largest venomous snake; sometimes placed in genus Naja
(synonym) king cobra, Ophiophagus hannan, Naja hannah
(hypernym) cobra
(member-holonym) Ophiophagus, genus Ophiophagus
Hamadryad
(n.)
A tree nymph whose life ended with that of the particular tree, usually an oak, which had been her abode.
(n.)
A large venomous East Indian snake (Orhiophagus bungarus), allied to the cobras.
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913), edited by Noah Porter.
About
Hamadryad
Hamadryad [from Greek `ama together with + dryad tree-soul] Nearly the same as dryad, but indicating that the life of the tree elemental was bound up with that of the tree. With dryad, the mind dwells upon the fact that the physical tree is but an expression of an indwelling life or tree-soul, an elemental being expressing itself as a tree. With hamadryad, the emphasis lies in the thought that not only is a tree the expression of a tree-soul, but that this tree-soul and the tree are essentially, and even physically, one; and that the dryad or tree-soul itself is but again the expression of a still higher monadic essence.
