Flora and Zephyer Love story in Mythology

Flora was the Roman
goddess of flowers,
youth, and spring.
(Chloris)

Goddess of "all that flourishes
Flora Picture (26,828 byte)

Zephyrus was the lover of Flora. Milton
alludes to them in "Paradise Lost," where
he describes Adam waking and contemplating
Eve still asleep.

"...He on his side
Leaning half raised, with looks of cordial love,
Hung over her enamoured, and beheld
Beauty which; whether waking or asleep,
Shot forth peculiar graces; then with voice,
Mild as when Zephyrus on Flora breathes,
Her hand soft touching, whispered thus: 'Awake!
My fairest, my espoused, my latest found,
Heaven's last, best gift, my ever-new delight.'"

Dr. Young, the poet of the "Night Thoughts,"
addressing the idle and luxurious, says:

"Ye delicate! who nothing can support
(Yourselves most insupportable) for whom
The winter rose must blow,...
....and silky soft
Favonius breathe still softer or be chid!"
from Bulfinch

Zephyrus (the West wind), who was fond of Hyacinthus and
jealous of Apollo, blew Appolo's arrow off course to kill
Hyacinthus (since she was mortal) Zephyrus was also in love
with Flora (a Goddess)

APOLLO AND HYACINTHUS.

Apollo was passionately fond of a youth named Hyacinthus. 
He. accompanied him in his sports, carried the nets when he 
went fishing, led the dogs when he went to hunt, followed 
him in his excursions in the mountains, and neglected for 
him his lyre and his arrows.

One day they played a game of quoits together, and Apollo, 
heaving aloft the discus, with strength mingled with skill, 
sent it high and far.

Hyacinthus watched it as it flew, and excited with the sport 
ran forward to seize it, eager to make his throw, when the 
quoit bounded from the earth and struck him in the forehead. 
He fainted and fell. The god, as pale as himself, raised him 
and tried all his art to stanch the wound and retain the 
flitting life, but all in vain; the hurt was past the power 
of medicine.

As when one has broken the stem of a lily in the garden it 
hangs its head and turns its flowers to the earth, so the 
head of the dying boy, as if too heavy for his neck, fell 
over on his shoulder. "Thou diest, Hyacinth," so spoke 
Phoebus, "robbed of thy youth by me. Thine is the suffering, 
mine the crime.

Would that I could die for thee! But since that may not be, 
thou shalt live with me in memory and in song. My lyre shall 
celebrate thee, my song shall tell thy fate, and thou shalt 
become a flower inscribed with my regrets."

While Apollo spoke, behold the blood which had flowed on the 
ground and stained the herbage ceased to be blood; but a 
flower of hue more beautiful than the Tyrian sprang up, 
resembling the lily, if it were not that this is purple and 
that silvery white.* And this was not enough for Phoebus; 
but to confer still greater honour, he marked the petals 
with his sorrow, and inscribed "Ah! ah!" upon them, as we 
see to this day. The flower bears the name of Hyacinthus, 
and with every returning spring revives the memory of his 
fate.

* It is evidently not our modern hyacinth that is here 
described. It is perhaps some species of iris, or perhaps of 
larkspur or pansy.

blew the quoit out of its course to make it strike 
Hyacinthus. Keats alludes to this in his "Endymion," where 
he describes the lookers-on at the game of quoits:

Or they might watch the quoit-pitchers, intent
On either side, pitying the sad death
Of Hyacinthus, when the cruel breath
Of Zephyr slew him; Zephyr penitent,
Who now ere Phoebus mounts the firmament,
Fondles the flower amid the sobbing rain."

An allusion to Hyacinthus will also be recognized in 
Milton's "Lycidas":

"Like to that sanguine flower inscribed with woe."

inscribed "Ah! ah!" upon them, as we see to this day. The 
flower bears the name of Hyacinthus, and with every 
returning spring revives the memory of his fate.

* It is evidently not our modern hyacinth that is here 
described. It is perhaps some species of iris, or perhaps of 
larkspur or pansy.

It was said that Zephyrus (the West wind), who was also fond 
of Hyacinthus and jealous of his preference of Apollo, blew 
the quoit out of its course to make it strike Hyacinthus. 
Keats alludes to this in his "Endymion," where he describes 
the lookers-on at the game of quoits:

An allusion to Hyacinthus will also be recognized in 
Milton's "Lycidas":

from BULFINCH

My HomePage

Last Modified on: