Smilax (mythology)
In Greek mythology Smilax (/smɪ.lɑːks/; Greek pronunciation: [z.m.îː.l.a.k.s]; Greek: Σμῖλαξ, translit. Smílax, lit. "bindweed"[1]) was the name of a nymph who was in love with Crocus[2] and was turned into the plant bearing her name (the bindweed). Ancient sources with information about her and her tale are few and far in between.
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Mythology
Details of her story are vague and sparse. Pliny writes that Smilax was turned into bindweed shrub for loving the young Crocus.[3] Ovid writes that the smilax and crocus both tell a love story,[4] and Nonnus also mentions Crocus' love for Smilax, the "airgarlanded girl".[5]
See also
- Clytia, another nymph turned into plant out of unfulfilled love.
Notes
- Liddell & Scott (1940), A Greek–English Lexicon, Oxford: Clarendon Press, "σμῖλαξ"
- William Smith, Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology Crocus
- Pliny the Elder, Natural History 16.63.1
- Ovid, Metamorphoses 4.283
- Nonnus, Dionysiaca 12.86
References
- Publius Ovidius Naso, Metamorphoses translated by Brookes More (1859-1942). Boston, Cornhill Publishing Co. 1922. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
- Publius Ovidius Naso, Metamorphoses. Hugo Magnus. Gotha (Germany). Friedr. Andr. Perthes. 1892. Latin text available at the Perseus Digital Library.
- Pliny the Elder, Pliny – Natural History, 10 volumes. Translated by Rackham, H.; Jones, W. H. S.; Eichholz, D. E. Loeb Classical Library. 1938–1962.
- Nonnus of Panopolis, Dionysiaca translated by William Henry Denham Rouse (1863-1950), from the Loeb Classical Library, Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press, 1940. Online version at the Topos Text Project.
- Smith, William, Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, London (1873). Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
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