Leukothea

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Leukothoe ( Greek  Λευκοθόη ) is the daughter of King Orchamos and Eurynome in Greek mythology .

Leukothoe is so beautiful that Apollo falls in love with her and forgets all other lovers, including her sister Klytia . She is jealous and tells Orchamos about the love affair, which Leukothoe then lets buried alive. Apollo arrives too late to save her and lets a stick of incense grow up out of her grave. As a result, Klytia has lost the favor of the sun god and sits sadly on a rock for nine days and nights without food or drink, her face turned to the sun. After nine days it transforms into a flower that always has to face the sun.

Their myth has only been handed down in Ovid ; Lactantius Placidus writes in his Argumenta that Ovid took over the myth from Hesiod .

literature

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Individual evidence

  1. Ovid Metamorphosen 4, 208 ff.
  2. Lactantius Placidus Argumenta , Metamorphoses 4, 5.