Hyacinth (Greek mythological figure)

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Modern Hyacinth flowers
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Hyacinth /ˈhaɪəsɪnθ/ or Hyacinthus (in ancient Greek, Ὑάκινθος, Hyakinthos) is a divine hero from Greek mythology and Apollo's young lover, a beardless youth between the ages of 12 and 19. His cult at Amyclae, southwest of Sparta, dates from the Mycenaean era. The sanctuary (temenos) grew up around his burial mound (tumulus), located in the Classical period at the feet of Apollo's statue.[1] The literary myths serve to link him to local cults, and to identify him with Apollo.[2]

Mythology

Hyacinthus and Zephyrus on a red-figure vase

In Greek mythology, Hyacinth was given various parentage, providing local links, as the son of Clio and Pierus, King of Macedon, or of king Oebalus of Sparta, or of king Amyclas of Sparta,[3] progenitor of the people of Amyclae, dwellers about Sparta. His cult at Amyclae, where his tomb was located, at the feet of Apollo's statue, dates from the Mycenaean era (1600 - 1100 BC).

The Martagon Lily
(Lilium martagon)
The spots on the petals representing the blood drops of Hyacinth

According to a local Spartan version of the story, Hyacinth and his sister Polyboea were taken to Elysium by Aphrodite, Athena and Artemis.[4]

In the literary myth, Hyacinth was a beautiful youth and lover of the god Apollo who also acted in the role of his teacher/mentor, though he was also admired by West Wind, Zephyr.

One day as Apollo and Hyacinth took turns throwing the discus. Hyacinth ran to catch it to impress Apollo and was struck by the discus as it fell to the ground, and died.[5] A twist in the tale makes the wind god Zephyrus responsible for the death of Hyacinth.[6] His 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. Apollo holding the dying youth, desperately trying to use his skill with medicine to keep him alive. But even the mighty god of healing could not save the one he loved. When he died, Apollo did not allow Hades to claim the youth; 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. The flower of the mythological Hyacinth has been identified with a number of plants other than the modern hyacinth, such as the iris, larkspur, and the martagon lily (pictured left), and other flowers indigenous to the region. [7]


Hyacinth was the tutelary deity of one of the principal Spartan festivals, the Hyacinthia, held every summer. The festival lasted three days, one day of mourning for the death of the divine hero Hyacinth, and the last two celebrating his rebirth as Apollo Hayakinthios, though the division of honours is a subject for scholarly controversy.[8]

Interpretation

The name of Hyacinth is of pre-Hellenic origin, as indicated by the suffix -nth.[9] According to classical interpretations, his myth, where Apollo is a Dorian god, is a classical metaphor of the death and rebirth of nature, much as in the myth of Adonis. It has likewise been suggested that Hyacinthus was a pre-Hellenic divinity supplanted by Apollo through the "accident" of his death, to whom he remains associated in the epithet of Apollon Hyakinthios.[10]

Apollo teaches Hyacinthus to become an accomplished adult. Indeed, according to Philostratus, Hyacinthus learns not only to throw the discus, but all the other exercises of the Palaestra as well, to shoot with a bow, music, the art of divination, and also to play the lyre. Pausanias also mentions his apotheosis, represented on the pedestal of the ritual statue of the youth at Amyclae, his place of worship. The poet Nonnus of Panopolis mentions the resurrection of the youth by Apollo. Sergent finds that the death and resurrection as well as the apotheosis, represent the transition to adult life.

The Hyacinthia

The death of Hyacinthus was celebrated at Amyclae by the second most important of Spartan festivals, the Hyacinthia (Ancient Greek Ὑακίνθια / Hyakínthia) in the Spartan month Hyacinthius in early summer (May/June). The festival lasted for three days:

  • The first day was given over to mourning for the death of the hero: sacrifices were offered to the dead, banquests were stark and without pomp or decoration, the sacrificial breads were very plain.
  • The second day was one of celebration for his rebirth. The young men and boys played the cithara and the aulos, and sang of the glory of Apollo. Others participated in horse races. Numerous choirs competed in town, singing country songs and dancing. Amyclae was also the location of parades of carts decorated by the girls and women of Sparta. Numerous sacrifices were offered, exclusively goats, with the occasion of the κοπίς, kopis, banquets where the citizens invited their friends and relatives. The helots had the right to participate in the celebrations, as did any foreigners: "they treat not only their countrymen, but any foreigners who happen by" (Athenaeus, IV, 138F). The kopis took place under special tents known as σκηναί (skēnaí), a characteristic trait of ancient country festivals.
  • The third day is not described in detail, it is possible that it was more solemn, or that mysteries were held. It is also known that for this holiday, the Spartan women wove a chiton (χιτών / chitōn, or "tunic") which is then offered to the god.
(***more information is needed on the modern practice of these rites)

See also

Modern sources

  • Gantz, Timothy (1993). Early Greek Myth. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. 
  • Kerenyi, Karl (1959). The Heroes of the Greeks. New York/London: Thames and Hudson. 

References

  1. ↑ There have been finds of sub-Mycenaean votive figures and of votive figures from the Geometric Period, but with a gap in continuity between them at this site: "it is clear that a radical reinterpretation has taken place," Walter Burkert has observed, instancing many examples of this break in cult during the "Greek Dark Ages", including Amyklai (Burkert, Greek Religion, 1985, p 49); before the post-war archaeology, Machteld J. Mellink, (Hyakinthos, Utrecht, 1943) had argued for continuity with Minoan origins.
  2. ↑ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyacinth_%28mythology%29
  3. ↑ Pseudo-Apollodorus 3. 10.3; Pausanias 3. 1.3, 19.4
  4. ↑ Pausanias 3. 19. 4
  5. ↑ Pseudo-Apollodorus, 1. 3.3.
  6. ↑ Lucian, Dialogues of the Gods; Servius, commentary on Virgil Eclogue 3. 63; Philostratus, Imagines 1. 24; Ovid Metamorphoses 10. 184.
  7. ↑ Other divinely beloved vegetation gods who died in the flower of their youth and were vegetatively transformed, are Narkissos, Kyparissos and Adonis.
  8. ↑ As Colin Edmonson points out, Edmonson, "A Graffito from Amykla", Hesperia 28.2 (April - June 1959:162-164) p. 164, giving bibliography note 9.
  9. ↑ "As the non-Greek suffix- nth indicates, Hyakinthos was an indigenous deity at Amyklae in Laconia", remarks Nobuo Komita, "Notes on the Pre-Greek Amyklaean God Hyakinthos", 1989 (on-line text)..
  10. ↑ Pierre Chantraine, Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue grecque, Klincksieck, 1999, article "ὑάκινθος", p. 1149 b.

External links

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