Krokus (mythology)

In Classical mythology, Krokus was a mortal man who, unhappy with his love affair with Smilax, was turned by the gods into a plant bearing his name: the crocus Saffron. Smilax is believed to have been given a similar fate and was transformed into bindweed. In one variation of the myth, Krokus was said to be a companion of Mercury and was accidentally killed by the god in a game of discus. Mercury was so distraught at this that he transformed Krokus' body into a flower. The myth is similar to that of Apollon and Hyakinthos, and may indeed be a variation thereof. In his translation of Nonnos' Dionysiaca, W.H.D. Rouse describes the tale of Krokus as being from the late Classical period and very little is known about it.

ee also

*Hermeticism