Trees and the Tempest

In my exploration of the puer, I have found that Adonis and Pinochio have their origins within trees. In Shakespeare's The Tempest, we learn that Ariel is taken from a tree; Prospero saves this spirit from being imprisoned there by Sycorax. The relation of trees to these primal spirits cannot be underestimated. Hamadryad nymphs might be described as a genus of nymph s who are “coeval" with their trees. Two mythic stories surrounding these nymphs are:
-The story of Rhoikos who saw an oak was about to fall. He propped up the tree. The Tree's Nymph asked him for one wish to thank him. He asks for sex and the Nymph replied that a bee would announce the time of their meeting (Oxford...74) A similar myth exists about Arkas, father of the Arkadians and his eventual marriage to the nymph Chrysopeleia.
-Ovid’s version of the Erysichthon myth, dryads are dancing around a mighty Oak, belonging to Ceres. When Erysichthon cuts into the “oak of Deo” blood flows from in and the nymph within the tree cries out a prophetic curse as she dies. Ceres sends his nymphs to find Fames. “The hideous hag Fames attacks Erysichthon who uses up his money, sells his daughter and finally consumes his own flesh" (76). Melanie would be interested in this enactment of Sparagmos. The Erysichthon myth is also an interesting parallel to the lenten season of emptying; it carries the ritualistic consuming of flesh, crying out in death, the bleeding tree, and the celebratory carnival preceeding the tragedy.
Nymphs are characters who refuse to leave our world. They occupy the psychic realm of the id, and challenge the design of the masterful senex (Prospero)--whose projection of the dramatic action in The Tempest is nothing less than extraordinary.