In Greek mythology, the Naiads were a type of nymph who presided over fountains, wells, springs, streams, and brooks. They are distinct from river gods, who embodied rivers, and the very ancient spirits that inhabited the still waters of marshes, ponds and lagoon-lakes, such as pre-Mycenaean Lerna in the Argolid. Naiads were associated with fresh water, as the Oceanids were with saltwater and the Nereids specifically with the Mediterranean; but because the Greeks thought of the world's waters as all one system, which percolated in from the sea in deep cavernous spaces within the earth, there was some overlap.
The essence of a Naiad was bound to her spring, so if a Naiad's body of water dried, she died. They were often the object of archaic local cults, worshipped as essential to humans. Boys and girls at coming-of-age dedicated their childish locks to the local Naiad of the spring. In places like Lerna their waters' ritual cleansings were credited with magical medical properties. Animals were ritually drowned there. Oracles might be sited by ancient springs.
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