Oak and Mythology

In many cultures, oak tree represents power, puissance and wisdom, and has been given important places in the history of the countries. In ancient Greece, the oak tree was thought to be the holy tree of Zeus. Some priests and fortune-tellers even interpret the sound and rust of the oak leaves in the wind.

According to another story, there were tree dairies living in the woods and some of those fairies were called “Dryads”. These fairies, written “δρυς” in Greek and pronounced as Drys and derived from the word oak tree, Dryads and Hamadryads have some differences from each other. The Dryads, who had two brothers, could relate to people, even have a family with them and have children, while the Hamadryads could not leave the trees and live their entire life in that tree. Hamadyads are know to punish the mortals, but there is not enough information about how they did it. Some Dryads are known to be immortal.

Of course, these are all legends. But the ancient Greeks believed in these legends so much, they asked the religious authorities for help before they cut the tree. These legends are quite true for the people who only cut the trees Dryads left and don’t touch the others.