Note FM — PREFACE TO THE EDITION OF 1814 (continued 2)
Reading edition
The ναἴάδες (water-nymphs) and ὁρειάδες (mountain-nymphs), with others of the meadows woods and dales, sprung from the fertile imagination of the Greeks. Wordsworth's explanation of the origin of these myths from natural causes is not peculiar to him, although his lines are a locus classicus on the subject; but his explanation of the "lurking Satyrs," as due to the sight of the horns of the deer, or the goats, in the woods, is probably his own.—ED.