Hyacinth
Hyacinthus In Greek mythology, a young man loved by Apollo; son of Amyclas and Diomedes of Pierus and the Muse Clio. Hyacinthus was killed out of jealousy by Zephyrus, the West Wind, with a discus. Apollo created a flower named in Hyacinthus’s honor with Apollo’s cries of grief, “Ai, Ai,” etched on its petals. Varieties of flowers identified with Hyacinthus are the hyacinth, iris, and gladiolus. The hyacinth has come to stand for mourning. Milton’s Lycidas (106) calls it “that sanguine flower inscrib’d with woe.” Originally, Hyacinthus was a pre-Hellenic god whose worship was absorbed by Apollo’s cult. A three-day festival, the Hyacinthia, was held at Sparta in honor of the god, who was worshipped at Amyclae in Laconia. On the first day of the festival a sacrifice to the dead was offered at the grave of Hyacinthus, which was under a statue of Apollo in the temple. The following day the people rejoiced. Boys and girls, accompanied by flutes and harps, went to the temple of Apollo, where games, competitions, sacrifices, and entertainments took place. A robe woven by Spartan women was offered to Apollo. Pausanias’s Descriptions of Greece records a statue of Hyacinthus that portrayed the god with a beard. The myth of Apollo and Hyacinthus is told in Ovid’s Metamorphoses (book 10). One of Mozart’s earliest works, Apollo et Hyacinthus, is set to a Latin text.
SOURCE:
Encyclopedia of World Mythology and Legend, Third Edition – Written by Anthony S. Mercatante & James R. Dow
Copyright © 2009 by Anthony S. Mercatante