Crocus (mythology)

In Classical mythology, Crocus (Ancient Greek: Κρόκος, Krókos) was a mortal youth who was changed by the gods into a saffron flower.[1]

Kingdom Of Flora by Nicolas Poussin. Canvass painting, 1631, 181×131 cm

Mythology

Crocus was unhappy with his love affair with the nymph Smilax, and he was turned by the gods into a plant bearing his name, the crocus (saffron). Smilax is believed to have been given a similar fate and transformed into bindweed.[2][3][4]

In another variation of the myth, Crocus was said to be a companion of Hermes and was accidentally killed by the god in a game of discus when he unexpectedly stood up. As the unfortunate youth's blood dripped on the soil, the saffron flower came to be.[5][6][7] The myth is similar to that of Apollo and Hyacinthus, and may indeed be a variation or modelled after it thereof.[7]

In his translation of Nonnos' Dionysiaca, W.H.D. Rouse describes the tale of Crocus as being from the late Classical period and little-known.[8]

See also

  • Hyacinthus, another youth killed in a discus accident and turned into a flower
  • Smilax, Crocus' lover turned into a shrub
  • Clytie

Notes

  1. William Smith, Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology Crocus
  2. Ovid, Metamorphoses 4.283
  3. Nonnus, Dionysiaca 12.86
  4. "Kingdom Of Flora". arthive.com. Retrieved 2021-08-17.
  5. Galenus, De Compositione Medicamentorum Secundum Locos 9.4
  6. Servius on Virgil's Georgics 4.182
  7. Miller & Strauss Clay 2019, p. 133.
  8. In: Nonnos, Dionysiaca. With an English translation by W. H. D. Rouse. Volume I, books I - XV. Cambridge - Massachusetts, Harvard University Press, London, William Heinemann Ltd, 1940, p. 404

References

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