For this reason, both dryads and the other gods would punish mortals who harmed trees.
The name of the hamadryades was compounded from the ancient Greek words háma (ἅμα, Doric: ἁμᾶ, "together, concurrently"[4][5]) and dryás (δρυάς, "tree, wood nymph"[6]).
This informs the understanding that the life of a hamadryas is concurrent with that of its tree: one cannot exist without the other.
The Deipnosophistae of Athenaeus lists eight hamadryads, the daughters of Oxylus and Hamadryas: The mother, Hamadryas, is immortalized in three scientific names, two of which are still valid: the generic name of the cracker butterfly, the specific name of the northernmost monkey in Asia Minor, the hamadryas baboon, and the original (but no longer valid) genus name of the king cobra (originally Hamadryas hannah, now Ophiophagus hannah).
The king cobra is sometimes considered arboreal or semi-arboreal, and is also referred to by the common name "hamadryad", especially in older literature.