Gods/Heroes - Italy - Apollo and Hyacinthus...
Share travel photos on the Exploitz.com website, the leading travel photography site on the Internet!
exploitz.com


Italy Hotels
Italy Hostels
Italy Sights

Recommended Italy Pictures:

Rome Italy Coliseum picture
Panoramic of Colosseum picture
Rome Italy
Italian Memorabilia
Venice Canal
Spaghetti Italiano
The Last Supper picture
Tuscan Palazzo

Other picture lists:

France Posters
France Posters, Page 2
France Posters, Page 3
France Posters, Page 4
France Posters, Page 5
France Posters, Page 6
Australia Posters
Tunisia Posters
Egypt Posters
Portugal Posters
Denmark Posters



Arezzo Hotels
Bergamo Hotels
Bologna Hotels
Brescia Hotels
Capri Hotels
Catania Hotels
Como Hotels
Cortona Hotels
Ferrara Hotels
Firenze Hotels
Florence Hotels
Forte Dei Marmi Hotels
Genova Hotels
Ischia Hotels
Lucca Hotels
Merano Hotels
Messina Hotels
Milan Hotels
Milano Hotels
Montecatini Terme Hotels
Motta Anastasia Hotels
Naples Hotels
Padova Hotels
Paestum Hotels
Palermo Hotels
Palinuro Hotels
Parma Hotels
Perugia Hotels
Piacenza Hotels
Pisa Hotels
Positano Hotels
Rapallo Hotels
Ravenna Hotels
Ricadi Hotels
Rimini Hotels
Riva Del Garda Hotels
Roma Hotels
Rome Hotels
San Remo Hotels
Sardinia Hotels
Siena Hotels
Siracusa Hotels
Sorrento Hotels
Taormina Hotels
Torino Hotels
Trieste Hotels
Turin Hotels
Venezia Hotels
Venice Hotels
Verona Hotels
Vicenza Hotels
Vieste Hotels


Myth: Mythology: Age of Fable, Gods and Heroes

Index | pg. 19 |Previous Page - Next Page

Apollo and Hyacinthus ...

APOLLO AND HYACINTHUS

Apollo was passionately fond of a youth named Hyacinthus. He accompanied him in his sports, carried the nets when he went fishing, led the dogs when he went to hunt, followed him in his excursions in the mountains, and neglected for him his lyre and his arrows. One day they played a game of quoits together, and Apollo, heaving aloft the discus, with strength mingled with skill, sent it high and far. Hyacinthus watched it as it flew, and excited with the sport ran forward to seize it, eager to make his throw, when the quoit bounded from the earth and struck him in the forehead. He fainted and fell. The god, as pale as himself, raised him and tried all his art to stanch the wound and retain the flitting life, but all in vain; the hurt was past the power of medicine. As, when one has broken the stem of a lily in the garden, it hangs its head and turns its flowers to the earth, so the head of the dying boy, as if too heavy for his neck, fell over on his shoulder. "Thou diest, Hyacinth," so spoke Phoebus, "robbed of thy youth by me. Thine is the suffering, mine the crime. Would that I could die for thee! But since that may not be thou shalt live with me in memory and in song. My lyre shall celebrate thee, my song shall tell thy fate, and thou shalt become a flower inscribed with my regrets." While Apollo spoke, behold the blood which had flowed on the ground and stained the herbage, ceased to be blood; but a flower of hue more beautiful than the Tyrian sprang up, resembling the lily, if it were not that this is purple and that silvery white (it is evidently not our modern hyacinth that is here described. It is perhaps some species of iris, or perhaps of larkspur, or of pansy.) And this was not enough for Phoebus; but to confer still grater honor, he marked the petals with his sorrow, and inscribed "Ah! Ah!" upon them, as we see to this day. The flower bears the name of Hyacinthus, and with every returning spring revives the memory of his fate.

It was said that Zephyrus (the West-wind), who was also fond of Hyacinthus and jealous of his preference of Apollo, blew the quoit out of its course to make it strike Hyacinthus. Keats alludes to this in his Endymion, where he describes the lookers- on at the game of quoits:

"Or they might watch the quoit-pitchers, intent
On either side, pitying the sad death
Of Hyacinthus, when the cruel breath
Of Zephyr slew him; Zephyr penitent,
Who now ere Phoebus mounts the firmament,
Fondles the flower amid the sobbing rain."

An allusion to Hyacinthus will also be recognized in Milton's Lycidas:

"Like to that sanguine flower inscribed with woe."



Index | pg. 19 |Previous Page - Next Page

Italy Hotels - Italy Hostels - Italy Sights

................................................................

Other popular Italy book pages:

Macaroni with Tomatoes
Macaroni alla Casalinga
Macaroni al Sughillo
Macaroni alla Livornese
Tagliarelle and Lobster
Polenta
Polenta Pasticciata


Online Italy Books

Italian Renaissance
Italian Recipes
Italian Poetry
Roman Mythology






Italy Travel Guide
A good starting point for researching Italy for travel or reference.

Venice - Piazza St. Marco (St. Mark's Square)
Venice - Gondola along the Grand Canal
Venice - Walking around Venice Streets
Venice - Pictures from the Venice canals
Venice - From the Train Station to St. Mark's 1
Venice - From the Train Station to St. Mark's 2
Ceasar's European Discovery Pictures. Italy Pg.1
Breathtaking Italy and France
Ceasar's European Discovery Pictures. Italy Pg. 2
Florence and Venice
Arno River in Florence
Campania