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| '''Hyacinth''' /ˈhaɪəsɪnθ/ or '''Hyacinthus''' (in ancient Greek, Ὑάκινθος, ''Hyakinthos'') is a divine hero from [[Greek mythology]]. His cult at Amyclae, southwest of Sparta, dates from the Mycenaean era. The sanctuary ''(temenos)'' grew up around his burial mound ''(tumulus)'', located in the Classical period at the feet of Apollo's statue.<ref>There have been finds of sub-[[Mycenaean Greece|Mycenaean]] votive figures and of votive figures from the Geometric Period, but with a gap in continuity between them at this site: "it is clear that a radical reinterpretation has taken place," [[Walter Burkert]] has observed, instancing many examples of this break in cult during the "[[Greek Dark Ages]]", including Amyklai (Burkert, ''Greek Religion'', 1985, p 49); before the post-war archaeology, Machteld J. Mellink, (''Hyakinthos'', Utrecht, 1943) had argued for continuity with Minoan origins.</ref> The literary myths serve to link him to local cults, and to identify him with Apollo.
| | #REDIRECT [[Hyacinth (mythology)]] |
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| ==Mythology==
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| [[Image:DOURIS -480c Zephyr and Hyacinth (Boston 95.31) 851x1130.jpg|thumb|left|200px|Hyacinthus and Zephyrus on a red-figure vase]]
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| In [[:Category:Ancient Greece|Greek mythology]], Hyacinth was given various parentage, providing local links, as the son of Clio and Pierus, King of [[Macedon]], or of king Oebalus of Sparta, or of king Amyclas of Sparta,<ref>[[Pseudo-Apollodorus]] 3. 10.3; [[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]] 3. 1.3, 19.4</ref> progenitor of the people of Amyclae, dwellers about Sparta. His cult at [[Amyclae]], where his tomb was located, at the feet of Apollo's statue, dates from the Mycenaean era.
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| In the literary myth, Hyacinth was a beautiful youth and lover of the god [[Apollo]], though he was also admired by [[Anemoi#West Wind|West Wind, Zephyr]]. Apollo and Hyacinth took turns throwing the discus. Hyacinth ran to catch it to impress Apollo, was struck by the discus as it fell to the ground, and died.<ref>[[Pseudo-Apollodorus]], 1. 3.3.</ref> A twist in the tale makes the wind god [[Zephyrus]] responsible for the death of Hyacinth.<ref>[[Lucian]], ''Dialogues of the Gods''; [[Servius]], commentary on [[Virgil]] ''Eclogue'' 3. 63; [[Philostratus]], ''Imagines'' 1. 24; Ovid ''[[Metamorphoses]]'' 10. 184.</ref> His beauty caused a feud between Zephyrus and Apollo. Jealous that Hyacinth preferred the radiant archery god Apollo, Zephyrus blew Apollo's discus off course, so as to injure and kill Hyacinth. When he died, Apollo did not allow Hades to claim the youth; rather, he made a flower, the hyacinth, from his spilled blood. According to Ovid's account, the tears of Apollo stained the newly formed flower's petals with the sign of his grief. The flower of the mythological Hyacinth has been identified with a number of plants other than the true hyacinth, such as the iris.<ref>Other divinely beloved vegetation gods who died in the flower of their youth and were vegetatively transformed, are [[Narcissus (mythology)|Narkissos]], Kyparissos and [[Adonis]].</ref> According to a local Spartan version of the myth, Hyacinth and his sister Polyboea were taken to Elysium by Aphrodite, Athena and Artemis.<ref>[[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]] 3. 19. 4</ref>
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| Hyacinth was the tutelary deity of one of the principal Spartan festivals, the Hyacinthia, held every summer. The festival lasted three days, one day of mourning for the death of the divine hero Hyacinth, and the last two celebrating his rebirth as Apollo Hayakinthios, though the division of honours is a subject for scholarly controversy.<ref>As Colin Edmonson points out, Edmonson, "A Graffito from Amykla", ''Hesperia'' '''28'''.2 (April - June 1959:162-164) p. 164, giving bibliography note 9.</ref>
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| {{clr}}
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| == Interpretation ==
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| The name of Hyacinth is of pre-Hellenic origin, as indicated by the suffix ''-nth''.<ref>"As the non-Greek suffix- nth indicates, Hyakinthos was an indigenous deity at Amyklae in Laconia", remarks Nobuo Komita, "Notes on the Pre-Greek Amyklaean God Hyakinthos", 1989 ([http://www.kait-r.com/dspace/bitstream/10368/161/1/kka-013-005.pdf on-line text])..</ref> According to classical interpretations, his myth, where Apollo is a [[Dorians|Dorian]] god, is a classical metaphor of the death and rebirth of nature, much as in the myth of [[Adonis (mythology)|Adonis]]. It has likewise been suggested that Hyacinthus was a pre-Hellenic divinity supplanted by Apollo through the "accident" of his death, to whom he remains associated in the epithet of ''Apollon Hyakinthios''.<ref>Pierre Chantraine, ''Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue grecque'', Klincksieck, 1999, article "ὑάκινθος", p. 1149 b.</ref>
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| Apollo teaches Hyacinthus to become an accomplished adult. Indeed, according to Philostratus, Hyacinthus learns not only to throw the discus, but all the other exercises of the Palaestra as well, to shoot with a bow, music, the art of divination, and also to play the lyre. Pausanias also mentions his apotheosis, represented on the pedestal of the ritual statue of the youth at Amyclae, his place of worship. The poet Nonnus of Panopolis mentions the resurrection of the youth by Apollo. Sergent finds that the death and resurrection as well as the apotheosis, represent the transition to adult life.
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| ==See also==
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| * [[Ganymede (mythology)]]
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| ===Modern sources===
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| *{{cite book | last=Gantz | first=Timothy | author=Timothy Gantz | title=Early Greek Myth | publisher=Johns Hopkins University Press | location=Baltimore | year=1993 }}
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| *{{cite book | last=Kerenyi | first=Karl | author=Károly Kerényi | title=The Heroes of the Greeks | publisher=Thames and Hudson | location=New York/London | year=1959 }}
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| ==References==
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| {{Reflist}}
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| ==External links==
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| *[http://www.theoi.com/Heros/Hyakinthos.html Collected classical references to Hyacinthus]
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| [[Category:Ancient Greece]]
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