Daphne and the

Laurel Wreath
Shannon Kehoe
To start…

• Original source: Greek mythology; Ovid’s

Metamorphases
• A “laurel” is a type of evergreen shrub
Basically….
• Eros (god of love) was mad at Apollo, shot him with
a special arrow
• Arrow caused Apollo to fall in love with Daphne, a
nymph and follower of Artemis
• Daphne ran away from Apollo, but Apollo pursued
• Just before he caught her, Daphne prayed to her
father (the river God) and was turned into a Laurel
tree.
• Apollo still loved Daphne, so he declared the laurel
tree sacred
Eponyms &
Contemporary meanings
• Eponym: “Laureate”- one who has been honored
with “high achievements” or who has
accomplished great deeds
▫ From Latin “laureatus”- honored with laurel
• Contemporary Meanings-
▫ Laurel represents triumph
Petrarch: Rime Sparse 30
• A young lady beneath a green laurel
I saw, whiter and colder than is a snow
untouched by the sun for many, many years;
and her speech and her beauty and her face and
all her hair
so pleased me that I carry her before my eyes
forever, wherever I am, on hill or shore.
When my thoughts will come to rest on that shore
when the green leaves are no more on the
laurel,
when I have quieted my heart, dried my eyes,
then you will see burning ice and snow;
to await that day, I have fewer hairs
than I would be willing to spend in years.
But because time flies and fleeing go the years
and death suddenly casts one from shore,
crowned either with brown or with white hair,
I will follow the shadow of that sweet laurel
through the burning sun or through the snow,
until the last day closes these eyes.
• Never have there been seen such beautiful eyes,
in our times or in the first years,
dissolving, melting me as the sun does the snow,
from which flows so large a tear-filled shower
which Love floods at the foot of the hard laurel
with all its diamond branches and golden hair.
I fear I first will change this face and this hair
before she will with pity raise her eyes,
she, my idol sculpted in living laurel,
for it is today now seven years
since I have gone sighing from shore to shore
both night and day, both in heat or in snow.
Within fire, though without white snow,
alone with these thoughts, with whitened hair,
weeping I go over every shore
in order to make pity run in the eyes
of one who will be born in a thousand years,
if so long can live a tended laurel.
The topaz sun all aureate above the snow
is outshined still by the yellow hair near those eyes
which lead my years so rapidly to shore.
Shakespeare’s Richard the III
“'Tis thought the king is dead; we will not stay.
The bay trees in our country are all wither'd.”
Pop Culture References
• Fred Perry clothing- logo is a laurel wreath
• Nerina Pallot- Daphne and Apollo
▫ Venus loved Daphne and so did Apollo
So why can't I make myself like a tree?
Why must I burn daily and nightly
When nobody's running - well not after me.
Must I wait, must I pray.
For something good to come my way?
 “Apollo and
Daphne,”
by Ron Rogers
Works Cited
• http://www.haverford.edu/engl/engl277b/Cont
exts/greek_myths.htm
• http://www.musesrealm.net/stories/apollodaph
.html
• http://www.wsu.edu/~dee/MA/RIME30.HTM
• http://www.wsu.edu/~delahoyd/ovid1.html
• http://larryavisbrown.homestead.com/files/xen
o.ovid1.htm
• http://www.theherbcottage.com/1-09_bay_laur
el.html
• http://www.squidoo.com/Fred-Perry-Clothing
 Works Cited
16 October 2010 <http://www.musesrealm.net/stories/apollodaph.html>.

BAY LAUREL A DISCUSSION OF THE HERB OF THE YEAR FOR 2009. January 2009. 16

October 2010 <http://www.theherbcottage.com/1-09_bay_laurel.html>.

Brown, Larry A. Ovid's Metamorphoses. October 2010. 16 October 2010

<http://larryavisbrown.homestead.com/files/xeno.ovid1.htm>.

Greek Mythology. 9 April 2000. 16 October 2010

<http://www.haverford.edu/engl/engl277b/Contexts/greek_myths.htm>.

Hooker, Richard. Petrarch Rime Sparse 30. 6 June 1999. 16 October 2010

<http://www.wsu.edu/~dee/MA/RIME30.HTM>.

OVID Metamorphoses Book I. 16 October 2010 <http://www.wsu.edu/~delahoyd/ovid1.html>.