(formed of ἁδρός, together, and ἄρχειν, dryad, from ἄρξειν, oath), in Antiquity, certain deities believed by the ancients to preside over woods and forests, and to be inclosed under the bark of oaks. The Hamadryades were supposed to live and die with the trees to which they were attached, as is observed by Servius on Virgil (Eclog. x., ver. 62), after Mnesimachus, the scholiast of Apollonius, who mentions other traditions relating to the same subject. The poets, however, frequently confound the Hamadryades with the dryads, naiads, and rural nymphs in general. See Dryads.