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Crocus (mythology)

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(Redirected from Krokus (mythology)) Greek mythological figure
Kingdom of Flora by Nicolas Poussin. Canvas painting, 1631, 181×131 cm

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

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.

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. The myth is similar to that of Apollo and Hyacinthus, and may indeed be a variation or modelled after it thereof.

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.

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

External links

Metamorphoses in Greek mythology
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