Mnemosyne — Classical Greek Myth Library

Hyacinthus was a beautiful Spartan (Amyclaean) youth, son of Amyclas (or of Pierus in some strands), beloved of Apollo. The two competed at throwing the discus. Apollo cast the discus; it struck Hyacinthus and killed him. Classical authors disagree whether the blow was pure accident or whether the West Wind Zephyrus, jealous of Apollo’s favor, diverted the discus onto the boy’s head. From Hyacinthus’s blood sprang the hyacinth flower (the classical identification is debated; ancient “hyacinthos” is not necessarily the modern garden hyacinth), marked—in poetic tradition—with letters of lament. Apollo mourned and honored him. At Amyclae the Hyacinthia festival and the tomb-altar of Hyacinthus beneath Apollo’s throne commemorated the dead youth alongside the god—Pausanias describes the Amyclaean cult image and the rites that mix mourning and Apolline celebration. The myth joins Apollo’s dangerous love for mortal youths (compare Cyparissus in later tradition), Spartan cult, and floral metamorphosis. Ovid’s extended garden scene is Roman; the Greek core is Apollodorus’s summary and Pausanias’s Amyclaean cult report.