22 March - World Water Day 2006: Water and Culture

The Naiades were freshwater nymphai who inhabited the rivers, lakes, brooks and springs of their Rivers-God fathers' catchments

Mythology is the body of stories associated with a particular culture, stories attempting in some way to explain aspects of the world. In all mythologies, natural elements play an essential role - water, air, fire, earth - and are both central to the stories themselves, and represented in the characters that play them out. As in the creation stories, mythology frequently uses water as a source of life.

Traditionally, water is associated with the feminine, while fire is connected to the masculine. Water is seen as an element of fertility: it gives life, just as women do, and it could be that the link is made stronger by the fact that women give birth from 'water' - the amniotic fluid of the womb. Water is fluid, changeable, healing, life-bearing; all of which are traits that have been traditionally associated with the feminine. Many cultures associate water with women - be they goddesses, nature spirits or nymphs. This is particularly true of running water, such as springs or water fountains, as they represent fertility and childbirth. It is also particularly true of arid lands, where water is scarce and all the more precious for it.

Mythology does more than link water with women; in many myths and legends, water is both a source of life and a place of death. These myths call on the sensuous nature of water to tell their stories: in some cases, this is personified by a water spirit, often called a nymph, who takes the form of a beautiful young woman. She is not generally seen to have any malicious intent, but used water as a place of regeneration (sometimes miraculous) and recreation. The Greek water nymphs are the most well-known of such water spirits, but they populate the myths of a great number of civilizations.

Not all mythological water spirits are as well-intentioned as nymphs: Welsh, Irish, Norse and other mythologies all tell of troublesome water spirits, all young girls or women, who lure victims to their water abode and cause them to drown, like the Sirens that Ulysses encounters in the Greek epic poem, the Odyssey.

Water in mythology is as contradictory as it is commonplace: women, gods, spirits, life, death, dryness - all are themes that appear throughout the water myths of the world's many and varied cultures.