
29/08/2025
Before Romeo and Juliet, before Tristan and Isolde, there was Apollo and Hyacinthus - a love story between a god and a mortal prince that was celebrated across ancient Greece. Apollo, the mighty god of sun, music, and poetry, found himself completely enchanted by the beautiful young Prince Hyacinthus.
So deep was their love that Apollo - who commanded the sun itself - would leave his divine duties just to spend his days on Earth with Hyacinthus. They would train together in athletics, hunt through forests, and make music so beautiful it made the mountains weep. For the first time in his immortal life, Apollo knew what it meant to truly love someone.
But the gods can be jealous creatures. Zephyrus, the god of the west wind, watched their happiness with growing bitterness. One day, as Apollo was teaching Hyacinthus to throw the discus, Zephyrus sent a cruel wind that drove the disc back, striking the young prince.
As Hyacinthus lay dying in his lover's arms, Apollo's grief shook the heavens. Rather than let death take his beloved, the god transformed Hyacinthus's spilled blood into a flower of deepest purple - the first hyacinth.
🌸 Apollo's grief was so profound that the other gods agreed to write his cries of anguish ("AI AI") on the hyacinth's petals, where some say they can still be seen today
🌸 Unlike many tragic Greek myths, their love was celebrated and honored, never portrayed as scandalous or wrong