Cyparissus
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In Greek mythology, the Chian myth tells of Cyparissus (Greek: κυπάρισσος, "Kyparissos" Latin: cupressus, "cypress"), a young boy and son of Telephus, was one of Apollo's pederastic lovers.[1] Apollo gave the boy a tame deer as a companion, but Cyparissus accidentally killed it with a javelin as it lay asleep in the undergrowth. Cyparissus asked Apollo to let his tears fall forever. Apollo turned the sad boy into a cypress tree, which was said to be a sad tree because the sap forms droplets like tears on the trunk. He was one of the trees Orpheus charmed. (Ovid, Metamorphoses X.106ff).
[edit] Notes
- ^ "In all these tales the beautiful boys are doubles of Apollon himself" (Kerenyi 1951:240).
[edit] Refderences
- Kerenyi, Karl, 1951. The Gods of the Greeks, (Thames and Hudson) p 140.
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