Mystical Angels

Athenian view on fairies?

How did the people of athens view fairies? Did they see them as gods or some mystical creatures? Archaic/ancient greece/medieval period. Somewhere around Shakespeare's time. Okay, then is there any relation or even mention of fairies or creatures similar to fairies during those times?

Public Comments

1. Athens is still a city. When do you mean?
2. Do you mean the ancient Greeks? They had no concept of "fairies." That's a very new age belief.
3. Ancient Greece was long before Shakespeare's time. There were no fairies in Greek mythology. Fairies were generally part of Celtic and Scandinavian mythology.
4. "While most studies of fairies believe they originated within Celtic mythology, Diane Purkiss makes a case for the harbingers of birth, marriage and death of ancient Greek and Mesopotamian cultures." "Fairies are tricky types to pin down and they next appear in medieval stories then onto two specific cases during the Scottish witch trials in the 16th and 17th centuries that continue to carry the weighty power of the taboos that fairies are used describe." "Belief in fairies is universal among almost all cultures. Scholars attribute fairies to the sirens of Homer, the nymphs of the Iliad, celestial singers in Sanscrit poetry, spirits of the Pacific Islands, and Hathors of ancient Egypt. In more recent folk culture, you will find leprechauns - wee folk of Ireland, the brownies of Britain and the kobold from the faerie realm of Germany."
5. Greek myths did not have fairies, but they did have narieds, dryads and nymphs. I'd also like to point out that Shakespeare incorporated Greek characters into his fairy play "A Midsummer Night's Dream" such as Theseus and Hippolyta.
6. The ancient Greeks did have creatures that we now call faeries, however, they didn't address this group of beings as faeries, so they couldn't possibly have had one view on them as a whole (like how we think of the Irish peasantry of being generally afraid of them.) This doesn't mean that they didn't have faeries, though. One of my favorite examples of a Greek faerie is the garden nymph. They were companions of Chloris, goddess of flowers, and had butterfly wings. They seem obvious counterparts to our flower fairies. Every home in Greece had two house faeries, one feared and the other honored. They also had many other nymphs, satyrs, centaurs, and sirens. Many modern authors now address the gods as more powerful faeries.
7. Ancient, even medieval, Greeks did not have the concept of a fairy in their culture. The closest creatures they would have been familiar with would be nymphs, sprites, etc. and these were usually created by a god or goddess to watch over and protect some aspect of nature. Hope this helps.