Smilax (mythology)

For other uses, see Smilax.

In Greek mythology Smilax (/smɪ.lɑːks/; Greek pronunciation: [zmîːlaks]; ‹See Tfd›Greek: Σμῖλαξ, translit. Smílax, lit. "bindweed"^[1]) was the name of a nymph who was in love with Crocus^[2] and was turned into the plant bearing her name (the bindweed). Ancient sources with information about her and her tale are few and far between.

Etymology

Variants of the word σμίλαξ include μῖλαξ, milax, and (σ)μῖλος, (s)milos, which point to a pre-Greek origin for the noun according to Robert Beekes.^[3]

Mythology

Details of her story are vague and sparse. Pliny writes that Smilax was turned into bindweed shrub for loving the young Crocus.^[4] Ovid writes that the smilax and crocus both tell a love story,^[5] and Nonnus also mentions Crocus' love for Smilax, the "airgarlanded girl".^[6]

See also

• Amaracus
• Clytia, another nymph turned into plant out of unfulfilled love.
• Myrsine

Notes

1. Liddell & Scott (1940), A Greek–English Lexicon, Oxford: Clarendon Press, "σμῖλαξ"
2. William Smith, Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology Crocus
3. Beekes 2010, p. 1368.
4. Pliny the Elder, Natural History 16.63.1
5. Ovid, Metamorphoses 4.283
6. Nonnus, Dionysiaca 12.86

References

• Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010). Lucien van Beek (ed.). Etymological Dictionary of Greek. Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series. Vol. ΙΙ. Leiden, the Netherlands: Brill Publications. ISBN 978-90-04-17419-1.
• 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.
• Pliny the Elder, Pliny – Natural History, 10 volumes. Translated by Rackham, H.; Jones, W. H. S.; Eichholz, D. E. Loeb Classical Library. 1938–1962.
• 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.
• Smith, William, Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, London (1873). Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.

External links

• FLOWER MYTHS from The Theoi Project