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 Cypress 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 “‘ coffins ” 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, 
