In Greek mythology, two virgin Oechalides (Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: Οἰχαλίδες|Oikhalides|Oechalian women) were transformed into trees by the nymphs when they revealed the fate of a disappeared priestess. They dwelled in Oechalia, a town in ancient Thessaly.
After Dryope married Andraemon and gave birth to Apollo's son Amphissus, she and her husband erected a temple to Apollo, where Dryope served as a priestess. One day the nymphs took Dryope with them and left a poplar tree in her place. Two virgin women of the town told the rest that the nymphs had seized Dryope; the nymphs in anger turned them both into fir trees. This was supposedly why women were not allowed in the foot-race in honour of Apollo at Oechalia.[1]