- Susan wrote:yes, you're right. In Metamorphoses book IV, it's called
xw wrote:> Leucothea:為Apollo所愛,Apollo在她死後把她變為香料樹。I think she is pursued/raped by Helios (Phaethon's father) the Sun God, not Apollo the Sun God. Helios and Apollo are used ambiguously or even interchangeably, but they have distinctive characters and different collection of girlfriends. :-)
sun-god, but, book I, it's called 'Appollo and Daphne'...
Here is it:
The Sun-god and Leucothoe
"But Venus never
Forgot that spy, and took her vengeance on him.
She had her turn at getting even, spoiling
A love affair for him, the one who spoiled
A love affair for her. Of what avail
Was all that beauty, brightness, radiant light?
The god, whose fire lights all the world, was burning
Himself with foreign fire. The god, who should have
Looked equally on all created creatures,
Saw nothing but one girl, Leucothoe,
Turning on her alone the eyes, whose province
Belonged to all the world. He would rise too early
From the Eastern sky, would sink too late to Ocean,Would lengthen the winter hours by long delaying
To look at her, sometimes would fail entirely
Because the darkness in the heart turned outward,
A darkness terrible to human beings.
That was no wanness from the moon's reflection
Between him and the earth; it was love that caused it.
He loved Leucothoe alone: Clymene
Held him no longer, nor that girl of Rhodes,
Nor Circe's lovely mother, nor even Clytie,
Scorned but devoted still, wounded, and loving.
All were forgotten for the sake of her,
Leucothoe, whose mother was the fairest
In all that land of aromatic fragrance,
Eurynome, her name was, and her daughter
Grew up to be more beautiful than her mother,
As much so as her mother outshone all others.
King Orchamus, her father, seventh in line
From ancient Belus, ruled the Persian cities.
Under the Western skies the meadows lie
Where the Sun's horses feed. No common grass
Regales them, but ambrosia, so their bodies
Tired from their daily toil take strength again,
New every morning. While they were tethered here,
And The Moon went her rounds, the Sun-god entered
The room of his beloved, putting on
Eurynome's appearance. He saw the girl
Among a dozen handmaids, spinning wool,
Gave her the kind of kiss a mother might have,
Adding: 'We have a little private business:
Go away, girls!' And they obeyed; the room
Was left without a witness. Then the Sun-god
Revealed himself: 'I am the one who measures
The long year out, I see all things, and all men
See everything through me, the eye of the world.
I love you; do not doubt it.' She was frightened,
Let fall the spindle and distaff, but even her fright
Was most becoming. He delayed no longer,
Turned to his true appearance, the bright splendor,
And she, still fearful of the sudden vision,
Won over by that shining, took his passion
With no complaint.
"But Clytie, jealous, burning
No less for the Sun-god's love, and spurred by anger
Over this rival, made the affair as public
As ever she could, and went to special trouble
To tell Leucothoe's father. He had no pity,
He would not heed her prayers, her arms, uplifted
To the light of the sun, her cry He made me do it!
Deep in the earth he buried her and gave her
For tomb a heavy weight of sand. The Sun-god
Burned part of this away, so the poor girl
Might lift her head, and breathe, but all too late.
Leucothoe was only a lifeless body
Smothered and crushed. No sight more pitiful
Had dimmed the Sun-god's eyes since Phaethon
Fell to his blazing death. He tried in vain
With all the strength of his warm rays to bring
Her death-cold limbs to life again, and found
Fate was too powerful for all his trying,
And so, on body and ground he sprinkled nectar,
And mourned for her. 'But still you will reach Heaven,'
He said, and the body, under the heavenly nectar,
Melted away, and filled the earth around
With aromatic fragrance. And a shrub
Arose, the frankincense, with roots deep-driven
Into the earth, and the crest rising slowly
Above the burial-mound.
"And as for Clytie,
Love might have been a reason for her sorrow,
And sorrow for her telling tales, but never
Would the light-giver come to her again
To use her in the way of love, and so,
Since she was used to love, and almost crazy
For lack of it, she pined away; she hated
Her sisters; under the open sky, by day,
By night, she sat alone, bareheaded,
Naked, unkempt. For nine whole days she sat there,
With neither food nor drink, her hunger wanting
Nothing but dew and tears, unstirred, unstirring.
But still she watched his going, and her gaze
Followed him on his way across the Heaven.
Her limbs took root, and her wan color changed
To a wan leafing, with a little brightness
Where once her face had been; she was a flower,
Rooted, but turning always toward the sunlight,
Changed, but forever keeping love unchanging."
===
Leucothoë now is a famous plant genus:
