Dryas is the name of nine characters in Greek mythology

Greek mythology

Greek mythology is the body of myths and legends belonging to the ancient Greeks, concerning their gods and heroes, the nature of the world, and the origins and significance of their own cult and ritual practices. They were a part of religion in ancient Greece...

1. Dryas was the son of King Lycurgus

Lycurgus (Thrace)

In Greek mythology, Lycurgus was the king of the Edoni in Thrace, son of Dryas, the "oak", and father of a son whose name was also Dryas. He banned the cult of Dionysus. When Lycurgus heard that Dionysus was in his kingdom, he imprisoned Dionysus's followers, the Maenads, or drove them and...

, king of the Edoni

Edoni

The Edoni were a Thracian people who dwelt mostly between the Nestus and the Strymon rivers in southern Thrace, but also once dwelt west of the Strymon at least as far as the Axios. They inhabited the region of Mygdonia before the Macedonians drove them out...

 in Thrace

Thrace

Thrace is a historical and geographic area in southeast Europe. As a geographical concept, Thrace designates a region bounded by the Balkan Mountains on the north, Rhodope Mountains and the Aegean Sea on the south, and by the Black Sea and the Sea of Marmara on the east...

. He was killed when Lycurgus went insane and mistook him for a mature trunk of ivy

Ivy

Ivy, plural ivies is a genus of 12–15 species of evergreen climbing or ground-creeping woody plants in the family Araliaceae, native to western, central and southern Europe, Macaronesia, northwestern Africa and across central-southern Asia east to Japan and Taiwan.-Description:On level ground they...

, a plant holy to the god Dionysus

Dionysus

Dionysus was the god of the grape harvest, winemaking and wine, of ritual madness and ecstasy in Greek mythology. His name in Linear B tablets shows he was worshipped from c. 1500—1100 BC by Mycenean Greeks: other traces of Dionysian-type cult have been found in ancient Minoan Crete...

, whose cult Lycurgus was attempting to extirpate.

Resisting the arrival of the god, Lycurgus had pursued all of Dionysus' followers, the Maenads, with an ox-goad and imprisoned them; Dionysus was forced to flee to the undersea grotto of Thetis

Thetis

Silver-footed Thetis , disposer or "placer" , is encountered in Greek mythology mostly as a sea nymph or known as the goddess of water, one of the fifty Nereids, daughters of the ancient one of the seas with shape-shifting abilities who survives in the historical vestiges of most later Greek myths...

 the sea nymph. Homer (Iliad 4) says that Zeus struck him blind; Dryas, the oak, is sacred to Zeus. The compiler of Bibliotheke (3.5.1) says that Dionysus drove Lycurgus insane. In his madness, Lycurgus pruned the corpse of Dryas of its nose, ears, fingers and toes: the land of Thrace dried up in horror. An oracle

Oracle

In Classical Antiquity, an oracle was a person or agency considered to be a source of wise counsel or prophetic predictions or precognition of the future, inspired by the gods. As such it is a form of divination....

 predicted that the land would stay dry and barren as long as Lycurgus was alive, so his people had him torn apart by wild horses. With Lycurgus dead, Dionysus lifted the curse.

2. Dryas, father of the aforementioned Lycurgus

Lycurgus

Lycurgus or Lykurgus may refer to:People:* Historical:** Lycurgus of Sparta, creator of constitution of Sparta** Lycurgus of Athens, one of the ten notable orators at Athens,...

, and thus grandfather of Dryas #1. In Iliad

Iliad

The Iliad is an epic poem in dactylic hexameters, traditionally attributed to Homer. Set during the Trojan War, the ten-year siege of the city of Troy by a coalition of Greek states, it tells of the battles and events during the weeks of a quarrel between King Agamemnon and the warrior Achilles...

1, Nestor

Nestor (given name)

Nestor is a given name of Greek origin. It comes from that of the son of Neleus, the King of Pylos and Chloris in Greek mythology.- People with the name :** Nestor the Chronicler , reputed author of the earliest East Slavic chronicle...

 numbers Dryas among an earlier generation of heroes of his youth, "the strongest men that Earth has bred, the strongest men against the strongest enemies, a savage mountain-dwelling tribe whom they utterly destroyed"; "Shepherd of the People", Nestor calls him (Iliad 1.263). No trace of such an oral tradition, which Homer's listeners would have recognized in Nestor's allusion, survived in literary epic. According to Homer, it was him who Lycurgus killed.

3. Dryas, the son of Ares

Ares

Ares is the Greek god of war. He is one of the Twelve Olympians, and the son of Zeus and Hera. In Greek literature, he often represents the physical or violent aspect of war, in contrast to the armored Athena, whose functions as a goddess of intelligence include military strategy and...

 or of Iapetus

Iapetus (mythology)

In Greek mythology, Iapetus , also Iapetos or Japetus , was a Titan, the son of Uranus and Gaia, and father of Atlas, Prometheus, Epimetheus, and Menoetius and through Prometheus, Epimetheus and Atlas an ancestor of the human race...

. He was involved in the hunt for the Calydonian Boar

Calydonian Boar

The Calydonian Boar is one of the monsters of Greek mythology that had to be overcome by heroes of the Olympian age. Sent by Artemis to ravage the region of Calydon in Aetolia because its king failed to honor her in his rites to the gods, it was killed in the Calydonian Hunt, in which many male...

 and fought with the Lapiths against the Centaurs. His brother, Tereus

Tereus

In Greek mythology, Tereus was a Thracian king, the son of Ares and husband of Procne. Procne and Tereus had a son, Itys.Tereus desired his wife's sister, Philomela. He forced himself upon her, then cut her tongue out and held her captive so she could never tell anyone. He told his wife that her...

, falsely believing that he was plotting to kill his son, murdered him.

4. Dryas the seer, father of Municus.

5. Dryas, one of the suitors of Pallene

Pallene

Pallene can refer to:* Pallene , one of the seven Alkyonides, daughters of the giant Alkyoneus in Greek mythology* Pallene , a small moon of Saturn, discovered in 2004*Pallini, a town east of Athens, Greece...

, daughter of Sithon

Sithon (mythology)

In Greek mythology, Sithon was a king of the Odomanti or Hadomanti in Thrace, son of either Poseidon and Ossa or of Ares and Anchiroe, daughter of the river god Neilus...

. He was killed by Clitus

Clitus

Cleitus, is the English form of the personal name Kleitos . It has been adopted as an English personal name in modern times mainly in the U.S., and usually with a modern spelling Claitus. Classical scholarship uses the traditional spelling.It may refer to:* In ancient history:**Cleitus the Black...

, who then went on to marry Pallene.

6. Dryas, father of Amphilochus

Amphilochus

Amphilochus or Amphílokhos may refer to:* In Greek mythology:** Amphilochus ** Amphilochus ** Husband of Alcinoe* Amphilochus , a genus of crustaceans...

.

7. Dryas, one of the sons of Aegyptus

Aegyptus

- Aegyptus, King of Egypt and Arabia :In Greek mythology, Aegyptus is a descendant of the heifer maiden, Io, and the river-god Nilus, and was a king in Egypt. Aegyptos was the son of Belus and Achiroe, a naiad daughter of Nile. Aegyptus fathered fifty sons, who were all but one murdered by the...

 and Polyxo

Polyxo

Polyxo is the name of several figures in Greek mythology:*One of the Hyades.*A Naiad of the river Nile, presumably one of the daughters of the river-god Nilus. She was one of the wives of Danaus and bore him twelve daughters: Autonoe, Theano, Electra, Cleopatra, Eurydice, Glaucippe, Anthelea,...

. He married (and was murdered by) Hecabe

Hecabe

Hecabe can refer to:* Hecabe, Latin Hecuba, a Trojan queen, wife of Priam and mother of Hector.* An orchid related to the genus Phaius....

 or Eurydice

Eurydice (disambiguation)

Eurydice is the wife of the musician OrpheusEurydice may also refer to:-Greek Mythology:* Eurydice of Thebes, wife of Creon and mother of Haemon, Menoeceus and Megara* Eurydice of Argos, wife of King Acrisius and mother of Danae...

, daughter of Danaus

Danaus

In Greek mythology Danaus, or Danaos , was the twin brother of Aegyptus and son of Achiroe and Belus, a mythical king of Egypt. The myth of Danaus is a foundation legend of Argos, one of the foremost Mycenaean cities of the Peloponnesus...

 and the naiad

Naiad

In Greek mythology, the Naiads or Naiades were a type of nymph who presided over fountains, wells, springs, streams, and brooks....

 Caliadne

Caliadne

Caliadne , in Greek mythology, is a naiad of the river Nile, presumably one of the daughters of the river-god Nilus. She is one of the wives of Aegyptus, bearing him twelve sons: Eurylochus, Phantes, Peristhenes, Hermus, Dryas, Potamon, Cisseus, Lixus, Imbrus, Bromios, Polyctor, and Chthonios...

, daughter of Nilus

Nilus (mythology)

Nilus, in Greek mythology, was the son of Oceanus and Tethys. He represented the god of the Nile river itself and was father to several children. Of these included Memphis , as well as a son named Nilus Ankhmemiphis .His granddaughter Libya in turn became mother to Belus and Agenor...

 and Polyxo's sister.

8. Dryas, a chieftain from Tanagra

Tanagra

Tanagra is a town and a municipality north of Athens in Boeotia, Greece. The seat of the municipality is the town Schimatari. It is not far from Thebes, and it was noted in antiquity for the figurines named after it...

 he brought 1000 archers with him to defend Thebes

Thebes, Greece

Thebes is a city in Greece, situated to the north of the Cithaeron range, which divides Boeotia from Attica, and on the southern edge of the Boeotian plain. It played an important role in Greek myth, as the site of the stories of Cadmus, Oedipus, Dionysus and others...

 against the Seven Against Thebes

Seven Against Thebes

The Seven against Thebes is the third play in an Oedipus-themed trilogy produced by Aeschylus in 467 BC. The trilogy is sometimes referred to as the Oedipodea. It concerns the battle between an Argive army led by Polynices and the army of Thebes led by Eteocles and his supporters. The trilogy won...

. He died in battle, felled by an unknown hand.

9. Dryas, a Greek warrior killed, during the Trojan War

Trojan War

In Greek mythology, the Trojan War was waged against the city of Troy by the Achaeans after Paris of Troy took Helen from her husband Menelaus, the king of Sparta. The war is among the most important events in Greek mythology and was narrated in many works of Greek literature, including the Iliad...

, by Deiphobus

Deiphobus

In Greek mythology, Deiphobus was a son of Priam and Hecuba. He was a prince of Troy, and the greatest of Priam's sons after Hector and Paris...

.