In Greek mythology, Alseids (/ælˈsɪdz/; Ancient Greek: Ἀλσηΐδες, romanizedAlsēḯdes) were nymphs who inhabited groves.[1]

They are mentioned by Apollonius of Rhodes,[2] who relates that the woman Cleite hangs herself after the death of her husband, Cyzicus, who was killed by the hero Jason.[3] Upon her suicide:[4]

Even the woodland nymphs themselves lamented her death, and from all the tears they shed for her from their eyes to the ground, the goddesses made a spring, which they call Cleite, the famous name of the unfortunate bride.

A scholium on the Iliad (from the A family of scholia)[5] states explicitly that "Alseids" is the name given to nymphs who occupy groves.[6]

Notes

  1. ^ Grimal, s.v. Nymphs, p. 313; Oxford Classical Dictionary, s.v. Nymphs, p. 1056.
  2. ^ Larson, p. 281 n. 31.
  3. ^ Apollonius of Rhodes, 1.1053–1065. On Jason's killing of Cyzicus, see Brill's New Pauly, s.v. Doliones.
  4. ^ Apollonius of Rhodes, 1.1065–1069.
  5. ^ Erbse, p. 3.
  6. ^ Scholia A on Homer's Iliad, 20.8 (Dindorf, p. 193).

References

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