067 Cyparissus' depressing hunting trip

I know, I know, another guy gets turned into a plant after a tragedy, but I swear this will be the last one for a while. It is also another story involving Apollo and a youth that he fell in love with. (You'd think after the 50 death of a lover that he would take it easy for a bit or at the very least not let anything bad happen to whoever he wanted to fuck that day) Anyway this is the story of Cyparissus and why we have Cypress trees.

Like I said, Apollo, god music and dance, loved the little boys (Think of him as the Michael Jackson of the Olympians)

Before I begin I must admit that this is going to be a rather short blog. Why? Well there isn't much I could find him on wiki- I mean my collection of papyrus texts from the Great Library of Athens that date to the bronze age! So again forgive me if this is a little short.

I do however know some thing about this Cyparissus fellow. First, he was the son of Telephus and grew up on the island Chios (5th largest Greek Island off the coast of Asia Minor) Who is Telephus you may ask? Oh he was the son of a certain famous Greek hero:

I'm back

That's right, Heracles was the father of Telephus and the grandfather of Cyparissus. Luckily for the two, Hera had long forgiven Herc and no longer had blood lust to destroy the lives of not only him, but his descendents. Along with having a famous papa, Cyparissus also had a famous lover, Apollo!

See Apollo had a relationship with Cyparissus and Hyacinth at around the same time. This relationship was known as Pederasty and it was fairly common in Ancient Greece as I have said in previous posts. Like the myth of Hyacinth, this story is often interpreted as reflecting the custom of Pederasty. This whole myths revolve around the process of initiation from boy to man. And as this story unfolds the parallels to pederasty customs will become apparent.

Women why do you look disgusted this is Ancient Greek Mythology for god's sake!

Like the story of Hyacinth, Apollo taught his young eromenos all that he knew. Music, archery, philosophy, and etc, but out of all these, Cyparissus loved hunting the most. Apollo may have been his lover, but hunting was his passion and soon he would find a companion that he would cherish almost as much as his divine erastes.

This companion turned out to be a fully grown stag given to Cyparissus by Apollo as a gift. (Plus it was fully trained, clearly Apollo had thought this one out) That's right his number one companion was a deer. (I give points for thinking outside the box and not just getting a dog) 

Now how could this possibly go wrong? Well I think he should have got a collar for his buck.

Noooooooooo! Why didn't I see his collar (Yeah apparently he did give his stag a collar, didn't help that it was brown)

One faithful day of hunting and Cyparissus was stalking for his prey, deer, in the forests of Chios. Eventually he found his quarry, a sleeping stag. He readied his hunting javelin (or bow and arrow) and shot it right at the unconscious ungulate (Wow I am really reaching for the alliteration aren't I?) Cyparissus' attack killed the stag, but it was upon further examination of the dead deer that he realized he killed his cherished Cervid companion. (Wohoo Triple Alliteration I am made of awesomeness!!!!!)

Now the use of a hunt and a companion animal in this myth reflect the Greeks pederasty traditions. Apollo represents the older man in this relationship who would give the younger man an animal. (This is often seen in vase paintings) The hunt also represents an initiation from being boy to being a man. 

 

Unfortunately Apollo exposed Cyparissus to the FEV and thus Bob was born.

So after killing his companion (He didn't even give it a name, aw) Cyparissus became perpetually grief stricken much to the sadness of Apollo. The god of the Sun came to his beloved and tried to soothe his pain and suffering, but it was to no avail. In fact Cyparissus asked Apollo to do one thing, to have his tears fall forever.

Thus the youth was metamorphosed into a new type of tree and its sap formed droplets that looked like tears on the trunk. This tree would be the first Cypress tree and it would forever be a symbol for mourning. (Even today the Cypress tree is a principal tree to grow in cemeteries) Oh an extra factoid, the species of Cypress tree associated with this myth is the Cupressus sempervirens (The Mediterranean Cypress)

Surprisingly there seems to be no hero cult associated with Cyparissus, though this could be lost to us from the erosion of time. Oh and just an excuse to post a Van Gogh, this is a Cypress tree:

God I love art

So that was the story of Cyparissus and dare I say it the last plant origin story I'm going to go over a while. This is because I will be gone beginning next this Thursday for my annual trip to Omaha, Nebraska to meet my mom's family and celebrate my cousin's wedding. I will not be bringing my laptop over so it'll be good not being constantly on a computer for a week.

That being said I want to say that I'll miss all you guys who read this on TGWTG, Lordkat.com, and even my own website on www.momentsingreekmythology.blogspot.com I'll be back soon enough and will be doing the story of Dionysus vs the Pirates!