View source for (Boylove Documentary Sourcebook) - The Pederastic Ancient Greek Myth of Apollo and Hyacinthus as Depicted in the 'Metamorphoses' by Ovid

[[File:Hyacinth Rides a Swan Over the Waters.png|thumb|center|[[Hyacinth (mythology)|Hyacinth]] Rides a Swan Over the Waters. Attic red-figure cup by Apollodoros, ca. 500–490 BC. Oxford (Mississippi), University of Mississippi, University Museums, 1977.3.102.]]


From <i>[[Homosexuality]] in [[Ancient Greece|Greece]] and [[Ancient Rome|Rome]]: A Sourcebook of Basic Documents</i>, edited by Thomas K. Hubbard (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003). Footnotes omitted.

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<center><b>8.22</b> Ovid, <i>Metamorphoses</i> 10.78–219</center>

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<i>This extract follows the previous one by a short interval, during which Ovid describes [[Orpheus (mythology)|Orpheus]]’ loss of his beloved wife, Eurydice, and his futile attempt to recover her from the Underworld. Like Phanocles, Ovid credits Orpheus with the invention of [[Pederasty in ancient Greece|pederasty]] and proceeds to tell several other pederastic myths.</i>
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[...]

[[Apollo (mythology)|Phoebus]] would have given you a home in the sky,<br>
Amyclides, if the sad fates had allowed it.<br>
Still, what was allowed was done: you are eternal;<br>
Each year, when spring drives winter away, and Aries<br>
watery Pisces, in the greensward<br>
You rise up and bloom. My father loved you beyond<br>
All others; he would abandon Delphi, the Earth’s<br>
Midpoint, and go to [[Spartan pederasty|spend time with you in Sparta]],<br>
The unwalled city by the river Eurotas.<br>
He would neglect his cithara and his arrows, <small>170</small><br>
Forget himself, carry hunting nets, handle dogs,<br>
Accompany you along the jagged ridges<br>
Of steep mountains; togetherness stoked his passion.<br>
It was nearly noon: Titan had climbed to the point<br>
That stands halfway between dawn and night’s arrival.<br>
They shed their clothes; their bodies sleek with the unguent<br>
Of the rich olive, they decided to contend<br>
With the broad discus. Phoebus threw it first, sent it<br>
Hurtling high into the air, slicing through the clouds.<br>
Its flight was prolonged; it fell back to solid ground <small>180</small><br>
Precisely; the god’s strength was united with art.<br>
The Spartan boy, impelled by his zeal for the game,<br>
Unknowing, rushed right out to retrieve the discus,<br>
Which the hard earth shot straight back up, Hyacinthus,<br>
Into your face. Apollo went white, no less than<br>
The boy. He cradled your slackened limbs and warmed you,<br>
Stanched your sad wounds, tried bringing your life back with herbs.<br>
His arts were useless; the wound was incurable.<br>
Just as, when someone snaps the stem of a violet,<br>
Or of a poppy in a well-watered garden, <small>190</small><br>
Or of lilies, with their long, bristling yellow tongues<br>
—Unstrung, they let drop their suddenly heavy heads,<br>
Unable to sustain their weight, and gaze towards earth—<br>
In just this way your face turned downward as you died;<br>
Your neck, its strength gone, became too great a burden,<br>
Rolled sideways onto your shoulder. Phoebus cried out,<br>
‘Descendant of Oebalus, cheated of your youth,<br>
You’ve fallen, and I see that your wound is my crime.<br>
You are my guilt and my sorrow; my own right hand<br>
Must be inscribed with your death; I am the author<br>
Of your demise. And yet, what was my great error? <small>200</small><br>
Is it wrong to play? Can it be called wrong to love?<br>
If only I could die for you, or die with you!<br>
I’m bound by the laws of fate—but still, you’ll always<br>
Be near me: you’ll be in my thoughts, and in my words;<br>
My songs, the lyre strings I pluck, will tell of you,<br>
And you will become a flower, my groans engraved<br>
Upon you. The time will come when a great hero<br>
will add himself to this bloom; his grief will be read<br>
from the same petal.’ While Apollo prophesied<br>
What was to come, the blood, which had stained the grasses, <small>210</small><br>
Ceased to be blood, took on a deeper radiance<br>
Than Tyrian dye, rose up, and assumed the form<br>
Of a lily—except that it was not silver,<br>
But purple. This was still not enough for Phoebus<br>
(The author of the honor): he inscribed AIAI,<br>
The text of his lament, on the flower’s petals;<br>
The flower bears this funereal inscription.<br>
Sparta was never ashamed of Hyacinthus,<br>
Whose honor persists to this day: the annual<br>
Hyacinthia and opening procession<br>
Are celebrated in the ancestral manner.”
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[[File:BLONDEL Merry-Joseph 1830c La mort d'Hyacinthe 980x1600.jpg|thumb|center|<i>The Death of Hyacinth</i> (ca. 1830) by Merry-Joseph Blondel.  Oil on canvas, 230 × 151 cm (Gray, France: Musée Baron Martin).]]

==See also==
*[[Adult friend (dictionary)]]
*[[Age of attraction (dictionary)]]
*[[Athenian pederasty]]
*[[Boylove]]
*[[Cretan pederasty]]
*[[Ephebophilia]]
*[[Eromenos]]
*[[Greek love]]
*[[Historical boylove relationships in ancient Greece]]
*[[Loved boy (dictionary)]]
*[[Minor-attracted person (dictionary)]]
*[[Pedophilia]]
*[[Philosophy of ancient Greek pederasty]]
*[[Theban pederasty]]
*[[Young friend (dictionary)]]

==External links==
*[https://greek-love.com/antiquity/the-metamorphosis-of-hyakinthos THE METAMORPHOSIS OF HYAKINTHOS (Greek Love Through the Ages)]
*[https://greek-love.com/antiquity/greek-practices/pursuit-and-flight-by-sir-kenneth-dover <i>PURSUIT AND FLIGHT</i> BY SIR KENNETH DOVER (Greek Love Through the Ages)]
*[https://greek-love.com/antiquity/greek-practices/greeks-pedicate-loved-boys-pederasty DID THE GREEKS PEDICATE THEIR LOVED BOYS? (Greek Love Through the Ages)]

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