Jennifer Larson (1)

Approximately the first half of the book surveys narratives about nymphs, and attempts to answer some basic mythological questions. The second half is a survey of cult lore, cave discoveries (nymph worship frequently took place in caves), and regional variations. I must admit that, despite my own burning nympholepsy, I had some trouble getting through this second half at times. So, once past this scholarly slog (that makes it sound worse than it really is), I was surprised to find a very short Afterword which ended quite abruptly, or so it felt to me.

If you want to know what nymph worship is all about, you should read this book. In fact you should read this first, and then go through the extensive bibliography. But if you only think you want the serious scholarly stuff, when really what you want is a romantic study, then you should probably avoid it.

As a last word, I want to emphasize that this seems like a landmark text filling a gap in the literature that was otherwise loosely covered by an uneven spread of previous authors. Farnell, who I've praised very highly in another place, had almost nothing to say about nymphs in six volumes of work. Larson's book is a valuable addition to the understanding of Greek religion, and deserves high placement.… (mehr)