MAIN MYTH

Once, a very long time ago, there was a Spartan Prince by the name of Hyacinthus. Hyacinthus was revered all across the land for being beautiful, so beautiful in fact he attracted the interest of two gods; Apollo; the god of archery, prophecy, music and healing, and Zephyrus; the god and personification of the west wind. Hyacinthus flew with the West-wind, enjoying the cool breeze of the air although he prefered his time with Apollo where he enjoyed music, sports and archery with the god. This made Zephyrus angry as his beloved prince was spending more time with Apollo.

One day, Apollo and Hyacinthus were playing with a discus; Apollo would throw the discus and Hyacinthus would catch it, Apollo was so strong that he could throw the discus far beyond the horizon and Hyacinthus would catch. While watching the two lovers play discus, Zephyrus had an idea. So he blew on the discus as it soared through the sky. It hit the ground so hard that when Hyacintus went to catch it, it ricocheted off the ground and struck the young prince in the face. Apollo rushed to the Spartan and tried everything in his godly power to save him, even attempted to feed Hyacinthus ambrosia and nectar but it was no use, all remedies are powerless to heal the wounds of Fate and so Hyacinthus was dead at the hands of his own lover.

The god was distraught, beliving that he was at fault for Hyacithus' death, wishing to create a memorial for the prince, Apollo took the blood of the prince which had seeped into the soft soil and created the Hyacinth, a flower which could only match Hyacinthus in beauty. On each petal of the flower Apollo enscribed the initials of Hyacithus (U) to keep as a memory of his young lover. Apollo went to Hermes to explain what had happen:

"Why are you so sad?" asked Hermes, "Oh Hermes, my love-"

"are you still greiving the loss of Daphne?" asked Hermes.

"no, I greive for my Hyacinthus!"

"Is he not-"

"Dead."

"Oh who could have the heart to kill sweet Hyacinthus! That lovely boy!"

"It was I," Apollo explained,

"Oh you must've been mad!" exclaimed Hermes,

"Not mad; it was an accident."

"How did it happen?" enquired Hermes.

Apollo explained what happened to Hermes, that they had merely been playing discus when a sudden gust of wind

sent from the jelous Zephyrus had sent the discus to the ground, ricocheting into Hyacithus' face, murdering him.