Nysiads

The Nysiads (Nysiades) were the nymphs of Mount Nysa in Greek mythology, who received the infant Dionysus and brought him up. They are also identified with the Hyades, the group of stars that Zeus later set in the sky in return for their care of the god.

The Nymphs of Nysa

After Semele died and Zeus took the unborn child from her, the infant Dionysus was first given by Hermes to Ino and Athamas, who were to rear him as a girl. Hera drove them mad in her anger, and Zeus escaped her wrath by turning Dionysus into a kid; Hermes then took him to the nymphs who dwelt at Nysa in Asia, whom Zeus afterwards changed into stars and named the Hyades (Apollodorus, Library 3.4.3).

The Homeric Hymn to Dionysus says that the rich-haired Nymphs received him from his father, nurtured him in the dells of Nysa and reared him in a sweet-smelling cave (Homeric Hymn 26, lines 1–6). Diodorus Siculus says that Hermes took the child to the cave at Nysa, which lay between Phoenicia and the Nile, and handed him to the nymphs to be reared with great care; from Zeus and Nysa, he says, the god received the name Dionysus (Diodorus Siculus 4.2.3–4).

Ovid gives them the name Nysiades. In the Fasti, when the stepmother (Hera) was looking for the child, the Nysiad nymphs laid ivy over his new cradle to hide him (Ovid, Fasti 3.769–770).

Where Was Nysa?

The ancient sources do not agree on where Mount Nysa lay. A Homeric Hymn to Dionysus, quoted by Diodorus, puts it “in Phoenice afar, close to Aegyptus’ streams” (Diodorus Siculus 4.2.4), and Apollodorus places the nymphs at Nysa in Asia (Library 3.4.3).

The Nysiads and the Hyades

According to Pherecydes, as reported by Hyginus, the Hyades were the nurses of Liber (Dionysus), seven in number, who had earlier been called the Dodonian nymphs. Hyginus gives their names as Ambrosia, Eudora, Pedile, Coronis, Polyxo, Phyto and Thyone. According to Asclepiades, they fled from Lycurgus, and all but Ambrosia took refuge with Thetis; in the version of Pherecydes they took Dionysus to Thebes and handed him over to Ino, and Zeus thanked them for this by placing them among the stars (Hyginus, Astronomica 2.21).

Nysiads Sources

Apollodorus, Library 3.4.3; Homeric Hymn 26 to Dionysus, 1–6; Diodorus Siculus 4.2.3–4; Ovid, Fasti 3.769–770; Hyginus, Astronomica 2.21 (citing Pherecydes and Asclepiades).

See Also: Dionysus, Hermes, Zeus, Semele, Hyades, Lycurgus, Silenus