What are the Flower Myths about?

How did Narcissus, Hyacinth, and Adonis become flowers?

What are the Flower Myths about?
In mythology, Ameinias, a young man, loved Narcissus but was scorned. To tell Ameinias off, Narcissus gave him a sword as a present. Ameinias used the sword to kill himself on Narcissus' doorstep and prayed to Nemesis that Narcissus would one day know the pain of unrequited love. This curse was fulfilled when Narcissus became entranced by his reflection in the pool and tried to seduce the beautiful boy, not realizing it was himself he was looking at. He only realized that it was his reflection after trying to kiss it. Completing the symmetry of the tale, Narcissus took his sword and killed himself from sorrow. His corpse then turned into a flower.





In the myth, Hyacinth was a beautiful youth beloved by the god Apollo. The wind god Zephyrus was actually responsible for the death of Hyacinth. The lad's beauty caused a feud between Zephyrus and Apollo. Jealous that Hyacinth preferred the radiant archery god Apollo, Zephyrus blew Apollo's discus off course, so as to injure and kill Hyacinth. When he died, Apollo didn't allow Hades to claim the boy; rather, he made a flower, the hyacinth, from his spilled blood. According to Ovid's account, the tears of Apollo stained the newly formed flower's petals with the sign of his grief. However, the flower of the mythological Hyacinth has been identified with a number of plants other than the true hyacinth, such as the iris.


When Adonis was born, the baby was so beautiful that Aphrodite placed him in a closed chest, which she delivered for security to Persephone, who was also entranced by his unearthly beauty and refused to give him back. The argument between the goddess of love and the goddess of death was settled, either by Zeus or Calliope, with Adonis spending four months with Aphrodite, who seduced him with the help of Helene, her friend, four months with Persephone and four months of the years to himself. Some say Aphrodite eventually seduced Adonis into spending his four months alone with her.





Adonis died at the tusks of a wild boar, sent by either Artemis in retaliation for Aphrodite instigating the death of Hippolytus, a favorite of the huntress goddess, or Aphrodite's paramour, Ares. As Aphrodite sprinkled nectar on his body, each drop of Adonis' blood turned into a blood-red anemone, and the river Adonis (modern Nahr Ibrahim) flowing out of Mount Lebanon in coastal Lebanon ran red.
Reply:I direct you to Edith Hamilton's "Mythology" a virtual classic on Greek and Roman myths. Very readable and thorough. Also god is Bulfinch's Mythology: a bit more formal, but excellent. Both may be available online. If not, Wikipedia would have some info.
Reply:Many myths from Greek mythology come to us via the first century A.D. Roman poet Ovid who wrote a Metamorphoses ('Transformations') about the physical changes of mostly humans and nymphs into other things or vice versa. For example, in the story of the great flood, when the only remaining humans, Pyrrha and Deucalion (children of the titans Epimetheus and Prometheus), threw rocks behind their backs, the rocks turned into living creatures to repopulate the world, and when Lycaon offended Jupiter with his predatory behavior he was turned into a wolf. If you're a fan of horror movies, the word lycanthrope is related to the name Lycaon, which is derived from the Greek, rather than Latin, even though that was the language in which Ovid wrote.