NYMPHÆUM, (Plutarch); the name of a sacred place, near Apollonia in Illyricum, sending forth continually fire in detached streams from a green valley and verdant meadows. Dio Cassius adds, that the fire neither burns up nor parches the earth, but that herbs and trees grow and thrive near it, and therefore the place is called nymphæum; near which was an oracle of such a nature, that the fire, to show that the wish was granted
Nymphæ-
um,
Nymphi-
dus.
granted, consumed the frankincense thrown into it : but repelled it, in case the desire was rejected. It was there that a sleeping satyr was once caught and brought to Sylla as he returned from the Mithridatic war. This monster had the same features as the poets ascribe to the satyr. He was interrogated by Sylla and by his interpreters; but his articulations were unintelligible; and the Roman spurned from him a creature which seemed to partake of the nature of a beast more than that of a man.