ABSTRACT
Chapter 9 examines the nature and myths of minor deities and nature spirits, starting with three groups of minor goddesses, the Muses, Graces, and Seasons, and then on to the multitudes of nymphs who were thought to inhabit different areas of nature, and the coarser male nature spirits, the Satyrs and Seilenoi, who had animal features and became specialized in their role as members of the retinue of Dionysos. Next comes the rustic god Pan, who was partly comparable to the latter figures, and the chapter then passes across the sea to consider some figures who were associated with Asia Minor, notably Atthis, Cybele, and the Corybantes, and with the Greek islands, namely the Couretes, Cabeiroi, gods of Samothrace, Dactyls, and Telchines, before concluding with some picturesque minor gods, the sea-god Glaucos, the ithyphallic Priapos, the marriage-god Hymenaios, and the androgynous Hermaphroditos.
