N Y M 
347 
N Y M 
John Buller, efq. who has a manfion-houfe there, called 
New Place. The church is dedicated to St. James ; and 
a revel is kept on the Sunday next after the 25th of July. 
NYMPH, /! [ nympha , Lat. wp.®n, Gr. fignifying a bride, 
or a woman betrothed or newly-married.] A young lady : 
This refolve no mortal dame, 
None but thofe eyes, cou’d have o’erthrown ; 
The nymph I dare not, need not, name. Waller. 
A goddefs of the woods, meadow's, or waters: 
And as the moifture which the thirdly earth 
Sucks from the fea, to fill her empty veins, 
From out her womb at laft doth take a birth. 
And runs a nymph along the grafly plains. Davies. 
The Nymphs are faid to be the daughters of Oceanus 
and Tethys. All the univerfe was reprefented as full of 
thefe nymphs, who are diftinguifhed into feveral ranks or 
clafles. The general divifion of them is into celeftial and 
terreftrial ; the former of them w'ere called Urania, and 
were luppofed to be intelligences that governed the hea¬ 
venly bodies or fpheres. The terreftrial nymphs, called 
Epigeice, prefided over the feveral parts of the inferior 
world ; and were divided into thofe of the water, and 
thofe of the earth. The nymphs of the water were the 
Oceanitides, or nymphs of the ocean ; the Nereids, the 
nymphs of the fea ; the Naiads and Ephydriades, the 
nymphs of the fountains ; and the Limniades, the nymphs 
of the lakes. The nymphs of the earth were the Oreades, 
or nymphs of the mountains ; the Napacc, nymphs of the 
meadows ; and the Dryads and Hamadryads, w ho were 
nymphs of the forefts and groves. Beftdes thefe, we meet 
with nymphs who took their names from particular coun¬ 
tries, rivers, See. as the Cithceroniadcs, fo called from 
Mount Citheeron, inBceotia: the Dodonidcs, from Do- 
dona ; Tiberiades, form the Tiber, &c. Goats w'ere fome- 
times facrificed to the nymphs; but their conftant offer¬ 
ings were milk, oil, honey, and wine. 
We have thefollovvingaccount of nymphs in Chandler’s 
Greece. “ They were fuppofed to enjoy longevity, but 
not to be immortal. They were believed to delight in 
fprings and fountains. They are deferibed as lleeplefs, 
and as dreaded by the country-people. They were fuf- 
ceptible of palfion. The Argonauts, it is related, land¬ 
ing on the fnore of the Propontis to dine in their way to 
Colchos, lent Hylas, a boy, for water, who difeovered a 
lonely fountain, in which the nymphs Eunica, Malis, and 
Nycheia, were preparing to dance ; and thefe, feeing him, 
w'ere enamoured, and, feizing him by the hand as he 
was filling his vafe, pulled him in. The deities, their 
co-partners in the cave, are fuch as prefided with them 
over rural and paftoral affairs. 
“ The old Athenians were ever ready to cry out, A 
god ! or a goddefs ! The tyrant Pififtratus entered the 
city in a chariot with a tall woman dreffed in armour to 
referable Minerva; and regained the Acropolis, which he 
had been forced to abandon, by this ftratagem ; the peo¬ 
ple worlhipping, and believing her to be the deity whom 
Hie reprefented. The nymphs, it was the popular perfua- 
fion, occafionally appeared ; and nympholepfy is charac- 
terifed as a frenzy, which arofe from having beheld them. 
Superftition difpofed the mind to adopt delufion for rea¬ 
lity, and gave to a fancied vifion the efficacy of full con¬ 
viction. The foundation was perhaps no more than an 
indirect, partial, or obfcure, view of fome harmlefs girl, 
who had approached the fountain on a like errand with 
Hylas, or was retiring after flie had filled her earthen 
pitcher. 
“ Among the facred caves on record, one on Mount 
Ida, in Crete, was the property of Jupiter; and one by 
Lebadea, in Bceotia, of Trophonius. Both thefe were 
oracular, and the latter bore fome refemblance to that we 
have deferibed. It was formed by art, and the mouth 
iurrounded with a wall. The defeent to the landing- 
place was by a light and narrow ladder, occafionally ap¬ 
plied and removed. It was fituated on a mountain above 
a grove; and they related, that a fwarm of bees conducted 
the perfon by whom it was firlt difeovered. But the com¬ 
mon owners of caves ivere the nymphs ; and thefe were 
fometimes local. On Cithseron in Bceotia, many of the 
inhabitants were poffeffed by nymphs called Sphragitides, 
whole cave, once alfo oracular, was on a fummit of the 
mountain. Their dwellings had generally a well, or 
fpring of water; the former often a collection of moifture 
condenfed, or exuding from the roof and lides; and this, 
in many inftances, being pregnant with ftony particles, 
concreted, and marked its paflage by incruftation, the 
ground-work in all ages and countries of idle tales framed 
or adopted by fuperftitious and credulous people. 
“ A cave in Paphlagonia was facred to the nymphs who 
inhabited the mountains about Heraclea. It was long 
and wide, and pervaded by cold water clear as cryftal. 
There alfo were feen bowls of ftone, and nymphs and 
their webs and diftaffs, and curious work, exciting ad¬ 
miration. 
“ The piety of Archidamus furnifhed a retreat for the 
nymphs, where they might find ihelter and provifion, it 
diftrefled; whether the fun parched up their trees, or Ju¬ 
piter, enthroned in clouds upon the mountain-top, feared 
them with his red lightning and terrible thunder, pour¬ 
ing down a deluge of rain, or brightening the fummits 
with his fnow.” 
Nymph, among naturalifts, that ftate of winged infeCts 
between their living in the form of a worm, and their ap¬ 
pearing in the winged or moft perfect ftate. This is other- 
wife called the pupa, or chryfalis ftate. See the article 
Entomology, vol. vi. p. 834. 
NYMPH BANK', about ten leagues off the coaft of 
the county of Waterford, and province of Munfter, in 
Ireland, is a great fifliing-place, and eleven leagues fouth- 
fouth-eaft from the high head of Dungarvan. It abounds 
with cod, ling, fkate, bream, whiting, and other fifh; 
which was difeovered by Mr. Doyle, who, on July 15, 
1736, failed to it, in company with leven men, 011-board 
the Nymph, a fmall veflel of about twelve tons. This 
place is well adapted for a fifhing-company. See the ar¬ 
ticle Fishery, vol. vii. p. 409. 
NYMPHAS'A, f. Certain buildings among the an¬ 
cients. It is doubtful what ftrudtures they were: fome 
take them to have been grottoes, deriving their name 
from the ftatues of the nymphs with which they were 
adorned ; but that they were confiderable works, appears 
from their being executed by the emperors (as Ammianus, 
Victor, and Capitolinus), or by the city-prefects. Npne 
of all thefe nymphaea has lafted down to our time. Some 
years fince, indeed, a fquare building of marble was dif¬ 
eovered between Naples and Vefuvius, with only one en¬ 
trance, and fome fteps that went down to it. On the 
right hand as you enter, towards the head, there is a foun¬ 
tain of the pureft water; along which, by way of guard 
as it were, is laid a naked Arethufa of the whiteft mar¬ 
ble ; the bottom or ground is of variegated marble, and 
encompafled with a canal fed by the water from the foun¬ 
tain : the walls are fet round with fnells and pebbles of 
various colours; by the fetting of which, as by 1b many 
ftrokes in a picture, are expreffed the twelve months of 
the year, and the four political virtues ; alfo the rape of 
Proferpine ; Pan playing on his reed, and foothing his 
flock ; beftdes the reprefentations of nymphs fwimming, 
failing, and wantoning on fifties, See. 
It fieems pretty evident that the nymphsea were public 
baths ; for at the fame time that they were placed in pleat¬ 
ing grottoes, they were alfo fupplied with cooling ftreams, 
by which they were rendered exceedingly delightful, and 
drew great numbers of people to frequent them. Silence 
feems to have been a particular requifite there, as appears 
by this infeription, Nymphis loci; bibe, lava, taee. That 
building between Naples and Vefuvius, mentioned above, 
was certainly one of thefe nymphasa. 
4 NYMPHfE'A, 
