1000 Classical Characters Briefly Described

Who was Iphigenia? What did Cincinnatus do? A thousand gods, heroes and tyrants of the classical world, each explained in the time it takes to read a text message.

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Naiades

Inferior deities who presided over rivers, springs, wells, and fountains. The Naiads generally inhabited the country, and resorted to the woods and meadows near the stream over which they preside. They are represented as young and beautiful girls 1 leaning on an urn, from which flows a stream of water. Aegle was the fairest of them, according to Vergil. The word Naiad has become Anglicized, and is in frequent use, especially by the poets. Thus Scott says in his Lady of the Lake, canto i. verse 17: "In listening mood she seem'd to stand The guardian Naiad of the strand."

Naisus, Naissus, or Naesus (Nissa). A town of Upper Moesia, situated on an eastern tributary of the Margus, and celebrated as the birthplace of Constantine the Great.

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