Messapian Shepherds
In Greek mythology, Greek and Roman mythology, the Messapian shepherds ( grc, Μεσσάπιοι) are the flock-tending inhabitants of Messapians, Messapia (southern Apulia), an ancient region in the Italian Peninsula. They feature in two similar myths, where they offend local nymphs and are punished by them for their impiousness. Mythology Shepherd In one version of the myth, some nymphs, companions of Pan (god), Pan, lived in Messapia. A shepherd frightened them, and then proceeded to mock them by mimicking their dance with loutish leaps, crude shouts and rustic insults. He would not stop until they turned him into a olea oleaster, wild olive tree, whose bitter berries still bear his sourness to this day. Group of shepherds In another variation of the myth, a group of Messapian shepherds declared themselves better dancers than the Dryad#Epimelides, Epimelides nymphs (the nymphs that tend to the flocks), not realizing they were goddesses. The shepherds and the nymphs then ...
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