On Tue, 11 Mar 2003, Mark A Mandel wrote: > On Tue, 11 Mar 2003, M J wrote: > > #I cannot for the life of me fit "Sethra Lavode" and "nymph" in the > #same sentence without cracking the hell up. Aren't nymphs supposed > #to be a lot more... um... pastel-ish than The Dark Lady of Dzur > #Mountain? > > Victorian. Like "fairies in the bottom of my garden". -- Hmm, OED > citations show this implication, at least, back as far as Spenser, > c1586. > > I suppose the ancient Greeks might have thought of some of those spirits > as alluring, but I don't think the association is, as it were, built > into the classic definition. Drop the word "nymph" and think of "oread" > as meaning 'spirit of a mountain'. For what it's worth (like our cousins the baboons, I shrug), in _Soldier of Arete_ Wolfe portrays a dryad as a rather bloodthirsty being.