Alseid
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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In Greek mythology, Alseids (Ἀλσηΐδες) were the nymphs of glens and groves. They liked to scare travelers. Of the Classical writers, the first and perhaps only poet to use the term alseid is Homer. Rather than alseid he used alsea. The three uses of alsea by Homer are as follows:
"The nymphs who live in the lovely groves (ἄλσεα - alsea), and the springs of rivers (πηγαὶ ποταμῶν - pegai potamon) and the grassy meadows (πίσεα ποιήεντα - pisea poiêenta)."
"They [nymphs] come from springs (krênai), they come from groves (alsea), they come from the sacred rivers (ποταμοί - potamoi) flowing seawards."
"The nymphs [of Mount Ida] who haunt the pleasant woods (alsea), or of those who inhabit this lovely mountain (oros) and the springs of rivers (pegai potamon) and grassy meads (pisea)."
