In Praise Of A Cult Classic

The hyacinth was one of the most celebrated flowers in the Classical world, but later, like its compatriot the tulip, it ‘went from cult, to craze, to commonplace’. Mark Griffiths traces the rise, fall and rise again of an anciently revered bloom and Jacky Hobbs visits a remarkable National Collection.

HYAKINTHOS (in Greek, or hyacinthus in Latin) was a princely youth from sparta. Apollo became infatuated with him and, setting aside his customary pursuits such as poetry, joined him in some spartan athletics. The god threw a discus; it landed, rebounded, hit hyakinthos and killed him. From his spilt blood, there arose a new plant: the hyacinth. Grief-stricken, Apollo inscribed letters on its flowers. These were either ai (alpha, iota), as in the cry of lamentation ‘ai, ai’, or ya (upsilon, alpha), the first two letters of hyakinthos when written in the Greek alphabet. 

In another myth, this same plant sprang from the blood of ajax when he committed suicide. Here, the ai marks on its petals were both the aforementioned wail and the first two letters of Aias, the Greek spelling of Ajax.

The ancients were in no doubt that such plants existed; they knew, gathered and grew them. The ocritus, Virgil, Ovid, Pliny the Elder, Columella, Pausanias and Palladius are among many Classical authors who mentioned them in poems and works on natural history, horticulture and geography. Here’s a profile I’ve assembled from such sources.

These hyacinths were found from South-West Europe to the Near East. Their leaves were sword-shaped. Opening in spring and summer, their flowers were deep purple, bright crimson or blush and trumpet- or funnel-like, described as similar in general shape to those of Paradisea liliastrum or Lilium candidum, but smaller than the latter. Their petals bore markings that resembled A, I or Y, formed either by actual veins or by vein-like streaks of colour.