Daphne- Greek SpiritSpirit · Nymph

Eros's Revenge

Daphne was a naiad nymph, daughter of the river god Peneus in Thessaly — or of the river Ladon in Arcadia, according to other traditions. She was devoted to hunting and the wilderness and had vowed to remain a virgin, a choice her father had reluctantly accepted.

The story begins with a quarrel between Apollo and Eros. After Apollo boasted of slaying the serpent Python and mocked the young love god's tiny bow, Eros took revenge with two arrows: a golden one tipped with desire struck Apollo, inflaming him with uncontrollable passion for Daphne; a leaden one tipped with aversion struck Daphne, making her despise the very thought of love.

The Pursuit

Apollo chased Daphne through the forests of Thessaly, calling out promises while she ran faster, hair streaming behind her. Ovid compares them to a hound and a hare — the dog's jaws at the creature's heels, the hare twisting free by a breath. As Apollo drew close enough to feel her hair against his hands, Daphne cried out to her father Peneus — or to Gaia, in some versions — to destroy her beauty and save her.

The Laurel

In answer to her prayer, bark crept over Daphne's breast, her hair turned to leaves, her arms stretched into branches, and her swift feet gripped the earth as roots. She had become a laurel tree — daphnē in Greek. Apollo, reaching the tree, embraced the trunk and felt the heart still beating beneath the bark. He declared that since she could not be his bride, she would be his sacred tree: her evergreen leaves would crown the victors of the Pythian Games at Delphi. The Pythia chewed laurel before delivering the god's oracles, and laurel branches purified Apollo's own temple.