

y 



7 



Hbe fragrant 1Rote Book 



Pelion and Ossa. This you know was before Pelion 

 and Ossa were piled up to form the grand staircase. 

 Enter now 



" The hyacinthine boy, for whom 

 Morn well might break and ApriJ bloom." 



Hyacinth, beautifiil as the dawn and ready to run or toss 

 the discus with Apollo. Enter also Zephyr, equally beautiful 

 and equally ready to toss things about. Apollo was so 

 foolish as to show that he liked Hyacinth the better of the 

 two, and Zephyr, resenting the choice, blew an extra puff 

 with his west wind while the discus was in the air, deflecting N. , 

 it so that it struck Hyacinth to the ground and the Olympic ^ 

 game came to a sudden stop. So much did Apollo regret the 

 loss of his playmate, according to one version, that he 

 commanded a beautiful flower to spring from the flowing 

 blood, and inscribed upon its petals the words, "Ai, Ai, " 

 (alas, alas) ; and so the little prince of Sparta lives on and on 

 until now we can almost rejoice in the spnng in his untimely 

 and tragic end which, with its recurring promise of life, 

 brings us "The lettered hyacinths of darksome hue." Nor 

 was Apollo the only one who mourned. Sparta mourned, 

 and commemorated the son of Amyclas in the great Hya- .^ 

 cinthian festival which opened in mourning for Sparta's 

 loss and advanced by stages to the hymning of Apollo. With 

 all of these associations before us, how easy then for us to 

 understand the emotions of the ancient Greek as he watched 



^ 



