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Author
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Comment
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RaggedyMoth
Registered User
(6/10/05 7:02 am)
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Daphne
Hello. I was wondering if anybody knew the location in myth where Daphne was transformed into a laurel tree? I'm pretty sure it was in Thessaly-maybe?- but I was wondering if there was a more exact place name. I think she was somewhere near her father, the river Peneus...I'm painting a painting of a fairy woman who has come to visit the Daphne tree, a potrait that is the fairy's version of a postcard or tourist picture. I'm having lots of fun! Thanks to all...
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janeyolen
Registered User
(6/12/05 3:44 am)
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Re: Daphne
I wrote a poem about that years ago (ala Ogden Nash.)
Laurel Tree.
If Apollo had chased Daphne,
We wouldn't haphne.
Jane
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Judith Berman
Registered User
(6/13/05 7:57 am)
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Re: Daphne
I'm at the moment unable to locate Robert Graves in the disaster that is my office (Greek Myths I and II), but that's where I'd look first.
There was a real grove called Daphne consecrated to Apollo near "great Antioch on the river Orontes" (Plutarch, Lucullus). Graves probably talks about this and the relationship between the myth and the sacred site, if only I could find the books.
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Kathie Rose
Unregistered User
(6/13/05 8:13 pm)
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Re: Daphne
Here are the texts from Graves [The Greek Myths, Complete Edition, p 78, 81 or "L" and 6 of myth #21]:
"[Apollo] pursued Daphne, the mountain nymph, a priestess of Mother Earth, daughter of the river Peneius in Thessaly (my note: I read this to mean the RIVER was in Thessaly, not that that was where he pursued her); but when he overtook her, she cried out to Mother Earth who, in the nick of time, spirited her away to Crete, where she became known as Pasiphae. Mother Earth left a laurel tree in her place, and from its leaves, Apollo made a wreath to console himself. " [p 78 or #21 small 'L']
Then his note adds: "His pursuit of Daphne the mountain nymph........ refers apparently to the Hellenic capture of Tempe, where the goddess Daphoene ('bloody one') was worshipped by a college of orgiastic laurel-chewing Maenads. " [p 81 or note 6 to myth #21].
Daphne was related to Daphoene, so it seems that the most likely place of Apollo's pursuit and thus of the laurel tree was Tempe [wherever that is.....].
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RaggedyMoth
Registered User
(6/14/05 10:08 am)
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Thanks
Wow, thanks to everybody! There is much more to Daphne then I suspected. Connecting to the Graves excerpt, after Daphne was whisked to Crete 'reborn' as Pasiphae, she became the mother of the Minotaur, after being cursed by Poseidon to fall in love with a bull. I've heard both myths, never heard of this connection, and it gives so many new ironies to both. But I'll always think of Daphne in her grove, still a tree. Again, thank you for the replies!
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RaggedyMoth
Registered User
(6/14/05 3:33 pm)
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Re: Daphne
...and Jane- it took me a minute, but I love the silver-lining ode to the Laurel!
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