A Book of Myths, by Jean Lang - Umnet

trample on them, is coming to look like a faded flower!" And, as she
spoke, the hearts of the other immortal dwellers in Olympus were
stirred with pity.
"A flower she shall be!" they said, "and for all time shall she live, in
life that is renewed each year when the earth stirs with the quickening
of spring. The long summer days shall she spend forever in fearless
worship of the god of her love!"
And, as they willed, the nymph passed out of her human form, and took
the form of a flower, and evermore--the emblem of constancy--does she
gaze with fearless ardour on the face of her love.
"The heart that has truly loved never forgets, But as truly loves on to
the close; As the sunflower turns on her god when he sets The same
look that she turned when he rose."
Some there are who say that not into the bold-faced sunflower did her
metamorphosis take place, but into that purple heliotrope that gives an
exquisite offering of fragrance to the sun-god when his warm rays
touch it. And in the old walled garden, while the bees drowsily hum,
and the white pigeons croon, and the dashing sunflower gives Apollo
gaze for gaze, and the scent of the mignonette mingles with that of
clove pinks and blush roses, the fragrance of the heliotrope is, above all,
worthy incense to be offered upon his altar by the devout lover of a
god.
THE CRANES OF IBYCUS
"For murder, though it have no tongue, will speak With most
miraculous organ."
Shakespeare.
Ibycus, the poet friend of Apollo, was a happy man as he journeyed on
foot through the country where the wild flowers grew thick and the
trees were laden with blossom towards the city of Corinth. His tuneful