In Greek mythology, Dryope[1] (Δρυόπη) was the daughter of
Dryops, king of Oeta ("oak-man") or of Eurytus (and hence
half-sister to Iole). She was sometimes thought of as one of
the Pleiades (and hence a nymph). There are two stories of
her
metamorphosis into a black poplar. According to the first,
Apollo seduced her by a trick. Dryope had been accustomed to
play with the hamadryads of the woods on Mount Oeta. Apollo
chased her, and in order to win her favours turned himself
into a tortoise, of which the girls made a pet. When Dryope
had the tortoise on her lap, he turned into a snake. She
tried
to flee, but he coiled around her legs and held her arms
tightly against her sides as he raped her. The nymphs then
abandoned her, and she eventually gave birth to her son
Amphissus. She married Andraemon. Amphissus eventually built
a
temple to his father Apollo in the city of Oeta, which he
founded. Here the nymphs came to converse with Dryope, who
had
become a priestess of the temple, but one day Apollo again
returned in the form of a serpent and coiled around her
while
she stood by a spring. This time Dryope was turned into a
poplar tree.[2]...
Read More
（Δρυόπη), a daughter of king Dryops, or, according to others,
of Eurytus. While she tended the flocks of her father on Mount
Oeta, she became the playmate of the Hamadryades, who taught
her to sing hymns to the gods and to dance. On one occasion
she was seen by Apollo, who, in order to gain possession of
her, metamorphosed himself into a tortoise. The nymphs played
with the animal, and Dryope took it into her lap. The god then
changed himself into a serpent, which frightened the nymphs
away, so that he remained alone with Dryope. Soon after she
married Andraemon, the son of Oxylus, but she became, by
Apollo, the mother of Amphissus, who, after he had grown up,
built the town of Oeta, and a temple to Apollo. Once, when
Dryope was in the temple, the Hamadryades carried her off and
concealed her in a forest, and in her stead there was seen in
the temple a well and a poplar. Dryope now became a nymph, and
Amphissus built a temple to the nymphs, which no woman was
allowed to approach. (Ov. Met. 9.325, &c.; Ant. Lib. 32;
Steph. Byz. s. v. Δρυόπη.) Virgil (Aen. 10.551) mentions
another personage of this name. - A Dictionary of Greek and
Roman biography and mythology, William Smith, Ed.
Read More
