156 CYPRESSES AND JUNIPERS 



regions regarded the " beautiful " and the " virtu- 

 ous " as the same thing and convertible terms. 



Like many other trees, shrubs, and flowers, mytho- 

 logy allotted to the Cypress a human pre-existence. 

 Of this particular specimen of plant life the story 

 runs that Apollo took on a youth named Cuparissos 

 as his companion in sporting enterprises. Tradition 

 describes this youth as a '' clever hunter," but inas- 

 much as he contrived to shoot a pet stag, presumably 

 in mistake for a wild one, we cannot but opine that 

 he hardly justified the renown. Unfortunately for 

 him this pet stag was the property of what would be 

 described in modern-day parlance as the senior 

 partner of the sporting venture, and this happened 

 to be no more or less than the great Grecian divinity 

 Apollo himself. Cuparissos was evidently a young 

 man who allowed trifles to prey upon his mind. 

 Shortly after this little mistake of identification he 

 sickened, and, like his victim, died. On Apollo's part 

 there seems to have been no ill-feeling cherished of 

 any kind, for he turned the lifeless clay of the hapless 

 free-shooter into a C3^press tree, and assigned to it 

 (or to him that was) the special function of shading 

 the graves of those who have been greatly beloved 

 in life. In the annual processions of Pan-Athenaic 

 fame, the goddess Venus never appeared without a 

 Cypress bough made manifest in her retinue, a symbol 

 expressive of her grief upon the death of Adonis. 



The " Serviceable " was another cult worshipped — 

 if we remember aright — by the academic Athenian. 

 As a utilitarian timber tree, the Cypress must have 

 been far-famed in olden days, since the words '' cof- 

 fers " and " cofiins " were both derived from its name, 

 and both from that day to this have become house- 

 hold words of recognized expression, as well as 

 customary receptacles of their different suggested 

 consignments. 



