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Sunday, July 8, 2012

Giacinto

Speranza


Giacinto is the eponym of the great Lacedaemonian festival knwn as the Hyacinthia, which took place in the summer of every year at Amyclae in southern Sparta.

Int he most common version of the story, Giacinto is the son of a king of Sparta, Amyclas or Oebalus.

Giacinto is the youngest and handsomest of the king's son, and a god, Apollo (or, in other versions, Zephyrus or Boreas) falls in love with him.

Attic potters were fond of representing him with Zeffiro in a recumbent attitude, rather than standing up.

Apollodorus reports an original version that contrasts with other genealogies, which are generally Laconian and somewhat artificial.

Giacinto, Apollodoro says, is the son of the Thessalian Piero and the muse Clio.

Apollodoro goes on to say that Thamyris, a legendary bard, of Tharcian origin according to the "Iliad", fell in love with Giacinto.

Desperate after the death of Giacinto, Apollo is said to have caused a plant to grown out of the blood that flowed from his wounds.

The 'giacinto' (probably not the same as our 'giacinto'), whose petals are marked with letters, either the hero's initial, "Y" in Greek, or Apollo's cry of lamentation, "AI".

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