Nomia
nymphAn Arcadian nymph who blinded the shepherd Daphnis when he broke his vow of fidelity to her.
The Myth
Nomia was a nymph of the mountains of Arcadia, that wild, pastoral heart of the Peloponnese where Pan played his pipes and shepherds still lived close to the old gods. She fell in love with Daphnis, the beautiful shepherd who was said to have invented pastoral poetry — those songs about love and loss among the flocks.
Daphnis swore eternal faithfulness to Nomia. It was a serious oath, sworn on the nymphs' sacred springs. But a princess — in some versions the daughter of a local king — got Daphnis drunk at a feast and seduced him. He broke his vow.
Nomia's punishment was immediate and permanent: she blinded him. In Arcadian tradition, Daphnis wandered sightless through the mountains, singing the sorrowful songs that became the foundation of bucolic poetry. He eventually died — falling from a cliff, or wasting away from grief — and the springs of the region were said to weep for him. Nomia felt no recorded remorse. She had been wronged, and she had responded. The pastoral tradition born from this betrayal and punishment would eventually reach Theocritus, Virgil, and through them, all of Western literature.
Parents
An Arcadian mountain nymph
Symbols
Fun Fact
The entire tradition of pastoral poetry — from Theocritus to Virgil to Milton — arguably traces back to Nomia blinding the shepherd Daphnis for cheating on her.
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