By Kelcie Brown, Kenneth Reginald Otero-Walker

Jun 6 2023

The flowering period of hyacinth may have passed, but their celebration continues in June. The plant hyacinth (Hyacinthus spp.) got its name from a Spartan prince of the same name, Hyacinthus. He was a lover of Apollo, the sun god. Zephyr, the god of the west wind, also loved Hyacinthus. One day, as Apollo and Hyacinthus played discus, Zephyr grew jealous of the two, and as the discus left Apollo’s hands, Zephyr blew a strong west wind that caused the discus to strike Hyacinthus in the head. Apollo, in his grief realizing he had inadvertently killed his lover, held Hyacinthus as he died, and willed hyacinth flowers to bloom from his blood.

“Thou diest, Hyacinth,” so spoke Phoebus [Apollo], “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 regret…” (Bullfinch, 1855)

The lore ascribed to common names of plants can encode traditional ecological knowledge and other biocultural information. The death of Hycinthus and his transformation into a flower link him with a number of vegetal spirits the world over which are associated with the cycles of local ecologies (Frazer, 1922).

It has previously been proposed that Hyacinthus was a pre-Hellenic deity who was absorbed into the mythology of Apollo. The etymology of hyacinthus has been tied to a 4000 year old pre Greek language known as Thraco-Pelasgian. Some scholars believe that the hyacinths mentioned in Greek Mythology were actually quite different from the flowers referred to by that common name presently (Raven, 2000).

One suggested alternative is Orchis quadripunctata. One hint at this being the “true” hyacinth is Apollo claiming to have inscribed “AI AI” (a lamentation meaning “alas”) on the petals of the flower. To see this on what we know as hyacinth, one would really have to squint. It is more easily imagined on Orchis quadripunctata.

In that same vein, this Greek lover's name has also been applied to the grape hyacinth, Muscari spp., and the water hyacinth, Eichhornia crassipes. An NSF grant (Award # 2140478) is working to curate 23,000 vernacular names into the collections management system of the William and Linda Steere Herbarium and C.V. Starr virtual Herbarium.

Whatever the original reference plant may be, to this day the hyacinth serves as a symbol of queer love. Although the tale is tragic, there is hope in the knowledge that love will always bloom again.