Powered By Blogger

Welcome to Villa Speranza.

Welcome to Villa Speranza.

Search This Blog

Translate

Sunday, July 8, 2012

Handsome Hyacinthus

Speranza

Giacinto is a young ephebe remarkable for his beauty.

Lucian, in his "Dialogues", refers to Giacinto as one of the handsomest men of antiquity of whom tradition had preserved the memory.

The plant that grew from his blood was adduced as further proof of this: it is the "loveliest flower of all flowers."

Hence it is easy to understand why Giacinto was loved by so many.

Among those who becvame enamoured with him were Thamyris, the musician, two of the wind gods, and Apollo.

---

Giacinto was of royal blood.

His father, in the Laconian tradition, was a king of Sparta, either Oebalus or Amyclas.

In Apollodorus's version, Giacinto's father is Piero, son of Magnes.

---

Loved by a man and three gods, Giacinto was the paradigm for the eromenoi of the human generations to come.

Correspondingly, his lovers are typically erastai.

Apollo is the god to whom the largest number of masculine loves is attributed.

Vanquiser of the monster who watched over the sanctuary of Delphi, Apollo is the eternally young 'kouros', yough, in all the splendour of his virility.

And accomplished initiate, Apollo is the model, the teacher par excellence, of the adolescents of legend.

As for Zeffiro, according to a tradition traceable to the Attic potters of the classical era, he was a great lover of young men.

Besides Giacinto, Zeffiro also loved Cyparissus, and this was often depicted in pottery.

A very late tradition has Zeffiro the father of a hero in large part inspired by Giacinto and his images: he was named "Carpus", fruit, and was loved by Calamus, "reed", son of the river Maeander.

But Carpus drowned while competing in a swimming race with his lover Calamus.

In despair, Calamus withered away on the river bank -- a motif from the Narciso story.

Carpus becvame the "fruit of the fields", which every year die and are reborn.

No comments:

Post a Comment