Naiads

Naiad

A Naiad by John William Waterhouse, 1893; a water nymph approaches the sleeping Hylas.
Grouping	Mythological
Sub grouping	Water spirit Elemental
Similar creatures	Mermaid Huldra Selkie Siren
Habitat	Any body of fresh water

In Greek mythology, the Naiads (Ancient Greek: Ναϊάδες) are a type of female spirit, or nymph, presiding over fountains, wells, springs, streams, brooks and other bodies of fresh water.

They are distinct from river gods, who embodied rivers, and the very ancient spirits that inhabited the still waters of marshes, ponds and lagoon-lakes, such as pre-Mycenaean Lerna in the Argolis.

Naiads were associated with fresh water, as the Oceanids were with saltwater and the Nereids specifically with the Mediterranean, but because the ancient Greeks thought of the world's waters as all one system, which percolated in from the sea in deep cavernous spaces within the earth, there was some overlap. Arethusa, the nymph of a spring, could make her way through subterranean flows from the Peloponnesus, to surface on the island of Sicily.

The Greek word is Ναϊάς (Naiás, pronounced [na͜a.i.ás]), plural Ναϊάδες (Naiades, [na͜a.i.ád.es]) It derives from νάειν (náein), "to flow", or νᾶμα (nãma), "running water". "Naiad" has several English pronunciations: /ˈneɪæd/, /ˈneɪəd/, /ˈnaɪæd/, /ˈnaɪəd/.