Krokus (mythology)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

In Classical mythology, Krokus (Κρόκος) was a mortal youth who, because they were unhappy with his love affair with Smilax, was turned by the gods into a plant bearing his name, the crocus (saffron). Smilax is believed to have been given a similar fate and transformed into bindweed.[1][2][3]

In another variation of the myth, Krokus was said to be a companion of Hermes and was accidentally killed by the god in a game of discus. Hermes was so distraught at this that he transformed Krokus' body into a flower.[4] The myth is similar to that of Apollon and Hyakinthos, and may indeed be a variation thereof.

In his translation of Nonnos' Dionysiaca, W.H.D. Rouse describes the tale of Krokus as being from the late Classical period and little-known.[5]

References

  1. Ovid, Metamorphoses, 4. 283
  2. Nonnus, Dionysiaca, 12. 86
  3. Servius on Virgil's Georgics, 4. 182
  4. Galenus, De constitutione artis medicae, 9. 4. (Corpus medicorum Graecorum, 13. p. 269)
  5. In: Nonnos, Dionysiaca. With an English translation by W. H. D. Rouse. Volume I, books I - XV. Cambridge - Massachusetts, Harvard University Press, London, William Heinemann Ltd, 1940, p. 404

Sources

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike; additional terms may apply for the media files.