Crocus (mythology)
In classical mythology Krokos ( ancient Greek Κρόκος ; latin Crocus ) a mortal youth, by the gods due to its unfortunate love of nymph Smilax was transformed into a plant, the crocus . Smilax, on the other hand, has been transformed into a bindweed .
In another variant of the myth, Krokos appears as a companion of Hermes , who accidentally kills him with a discus . Hermes was so upset about this that, with the help of Chloris , he turned the body of the crocus into a flower. This story has clear parallels to the myth of Apollo and Hyakinthos and could therefore be a modification of that legend.
The myth probably belongs to the late classical period and was probably little known.
literature
- Karl Scherling: Krokos 1. In: Paulys Realencyclopädie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume XI, 2, Stuttgart 1922, Col. 1972 f.
- Pierre Grimal : A Concise Dictionary of Classical mythology . Basil Blackwell Ltd, 1990. p. 109.
Remarks
- ^ Ovid , Metamorphoses , 4. 283
- ^ Nonnos of Panopolis : Dionysiaca , 12. 86; Servius on Virgil's Georgica , 4. 182
- ^ Galen , De constitutione artis medicae , April 9 ( Corpus medicorum Graecorum , 13 p. 269)
- ^ In: Nonnos, Dionysiaca. With an English translation by WHD Rouse. Volume I, books I - XV. Cambridge - Massachusetts, Harvard University Press, London, William Heinemann Ltd, 1940, p. 404