Crocus (mythology)

In Classical mythology, Crocus (Ancient Greek: Κρόκος, Krókos) was a mortal youth who was changed by the gods into a saffron flower.^[1]

Kingdom of Flora by Nicolas Poussin. Canvas painting, 1631, 181×131 cm

Mythology

Crocus was unhappy with his love affair with the nymph Smilax, and he was turned by the gods into a plant bearing his name, the crocus (saffron). Smilax is believed to have been given a similar fate and transformed into bindweed.^[2][3][4]

In another variation of the myth, Crocus was said to be a companion of Hermes and was accidentally killed by the god in a game of discus when he unexpectedly stood up. As the unfortunate youth's blood dripped on the soil, the saffron flower came to be.^[5][6][7] The myth is similar to that of Apollo and Hyacinthus, and may indeed be a variation or modelled after it thereof.^[7]

In his translation of Nonnos' Dionysiaca, W.H.D. Rouse describes the tale of Crocus as being from the late Classical period and little-known.^[8]

See also

• Clytie
• Hyacinthus, another youth killed in a discus accident and turned into a flower
• Smilax, Crocus' lover turned into a shrub

Notes

1. William Smith, Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology Crocus
2. Ovid, Metamorphoses 4.283
3. Nonnus, Dionysiaca 12.86
4. "Kingdom Of Flora". arthive.com. Retrieved 2021-08-17.
5. Galenus, De Compositione Medicamentorum Secundum Locos 9.4
6. Servius on Virgil's Georgics 4.182
7. Miller & Strauss Clay 2019, p. 133.
8. In: Nonnos, Dionysiaca. With an English translation by W. H. D. Rouse. Volume I, books I - XV. Cambridge - Massachusetts, Harvard University Press, London, William Heinemann Ltd, 1940, p. 404

References

• Grimal, Pierre. A Concise Dictionary of Classical mythology. Basil Blackwell Ltd, 1990. - p. 109
• Miller, John F.; Strauss Clay, Jenny (2019). Tracking Hermes, Pursuing Mercury. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-877734-2.
• Nonnus of Panopolis, Dionysiaca translated by William Henry Denham Rouse (1863-1950), from the Loeb Classical Library, Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press, 1940. Online version at the Topos Text Project.
• Nonnus of Panopolis, Dionysiaca. 3 Vols. W.H.D. Rouse. Cambridge, MA., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1940-1942. Greek text available at the Perseus Digital Library.
• Publius Ovidius Naso, Metamorphoses translated by Brookes More (1859-1942). Boston, Cornhill Publishing Co. 1922. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
• Publius Ovidius Naso, Metamorphoses. Hugo Magnus. Gotha (Germany). Friedr. Andr. Perthes. 1892. Latin text available at the Perseus Digital Library.
• Smith, William, Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, London (1873). Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
• Realencyclopädie der classischen Altertumswissenschaft, Band XI, Halbband 22, Komogrammateus-Kynegoi (1922) - ss. 1972-1973

External links

• FLOWER MYTHS from The Theoi Project