Daphne and the Laurel Wreath - Jasa Harris

So Apollo decides to mock Eros and his arrows, and understandably, Eros grows upset. So Eros creates two arrows, one with a tip of gold and the other with a tip of lead. The gold one will fill the stricken person with lust while the lead one will fill the stricken person with hate for everything romantic. Apollo is hit with the gold tipped arrow and falls completely in love with Daphne. And of course, Daphne is hit with the lead tipped arrow, so she will have nothing to do with Apollo, so she runs to evade him. Eventually, Daphne grows tired of running so she begs to Peneus, her father and the river god, who agrees to transform her into a laurel tree. But not even this is enough to deter Apollo and his unappeasable lust. He acknowledges that Daphne will never be his wife, but he notes that she will always be his. He weaves her leaves into a laurel wreath that Apollo wears as a crown, and he blesses her with eternal youth so that her leaves will always remain green and never decay.

The idea of eternal youth is intriguing, but at the same time just kind of boring. Being young is amazing, you are filled with so much life, you look great and you can get away with so much, but after a while it would lose its greatness. I always say I don’t want to be old, but honestly if I never got old I would feel completely lost. I would watch all of my friends move on to the next chapters in their lives, and I would just be stuck. What makes being young so great is that it’s just this small part of your life where you feel free and don’t worry and you can have nonstop fun, but that would get so tiring to me. It would be amazing if there could be an extended youth, I just wouldn’t want an eternal one.   

"Mythography | The Greek Lovers Apollo and

Daphne in Myth and Art."Mythography | The Greek Lovers Apollo and Daphne in Myth and Art. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Oct. 2014. http://www.loggia.com/myth/daphne.html