Dolls by Maria

Daphne was Apollo's first love. It was not brought about by accident, but by the malice of Eros. Apollo saw the boy playing with his bow and arrows, and being himself elated by his recent victory over Python, he said to him, "What have you to do with warlike weapons, saucy boy? Leave them for hands worthy of them. Behold the conquest I have won by means of them over the vast serpent who stretched his poisonous body over acres of plain! Be content with your torch, child, and kindle up your flames, as you call them, where you will, but presume not to meddle with my weapons."

Aphrodite's boy heard these words and rejoined, "Your arrows may strike all things else, Apollo, but mine shall strike you." So saying, he took his stand on a rock of Parnassus and drew from his quiver two arrows of a different workmanship, one to excite love, the other to repel it. The former was of gold and sharp pointed, the latter blunt and tipped with lead. With the leaden shaft, he struck the nymph Daphne, the daughter of the river god Peneus, and with the golden one, Apollo, through the heart.

Forthwith, the god was seized with love for the maiden, and she abhorred the thought of loving. Her delight was in woodland sports and the spoils of the chase. Many lovers sought her, but she spurned them all, ranging the woods, and taking no thought of Eros nor of Hymen. Her father often said to her, "Daughter, you owe me a son-in-law; you owe me grandchildren." She, hating the thought of marriage as a crime, with her beautiful face tinged all over with blushes, threw her arms around her father's neck and said, "Dearest father, grant me this favor, that I may always remain unmarried, like Artemis." He consented, but at the same time said, "Your own face will forbid it."

Apollo loved her and longed to obtain her, and he who gives oracles to all the world was not wise enough to look into his own fortunes. He saw her hair flung loose over her shoulders and said, "If so charming in disorder, what would it be if arranged?" He saw her eyes bright as stars; he saw her lips and was not satisfied with only seeing them. He admired her hands and arms, naked to the shoulder, and whatever was hidden from view he imagined more beautiful still.

He followed her; she fled, swifter than the wind, and delayed not a moment at his entreaties. "Stay," said he, "daughter of Peneus; I am not a foe. Do not fly me as a lamb flies the wolf, or a dove the hawk. It is for love I pursue you. You make me miserable, for fear that you should fall and hurt yourself on these stones, and I should be the cause. Pray run slower, and I will follow slower. I am no clown, no rude peasant. Zeus is my father, and I am lord of Delphos and Tenedos and know all things, present and future. I am the god of song and the lyre. My arrows fly true to the mark; but alas! an arrow more fatal than mine has pierced my heart! I am the god of medicine and know the virtue of all healing plants. Alas! I suffer a malady that no balm can cure!"

The nymph continued her flight and left his plea half uttered. And even as she fled she charmed him. The wind blew loose her garments, and her unbound hair streamed loose behind her. The god grew impatient to find his wooings thrown away, and, sped by Eros, gained upon her in the race. It was like a hound pursuing a hare, with open jaws ready to seize, while the feebler animal darts forward, slipping from the very grasp.

So flew the god and the virgin - he on the wings of love and she on those of fear. The pursuer is the more rapid, however, and gains upon her, and his panting breath blows upon her hair. Her strength begins to fail, and, ready to sink, she calls upon her father, the river god: "Help me, Peneus! Open the earth to enclose me, or change my form, which has brought me into this danger!" Scarcely had she spoken, when a stiffness seized all her limbs; her bosom began to be enclosed in a tender bark, her hair became leaves, her arms became branches, her foot stuck fast in the ground, as a root, and her face became a treetop, retaining nothing of its former self but its beauty.

Apollo stood amazed. He touched the stem and felt the flesh tremble under the new bark. He embraced the branches and lavished kisses on the wood. The branches shrank from his lips. "Since you cannot be my wife," said he, "you shall assuredly be my tree. I will wear you for my crown. I will decorate you with my harp and quiver, and when the great Roman conquerors lead up the triumphal pomp to the Capitol, you shall be woven into wreaths for their brows. And, as eternal youth is mine, you also shall be always green, and your leaf know no decay." The nymph, now changed into a laurel tree, bowed its head in grateful acknowledgement. - from Bulfinch's Mythology