M/M: In Honor of Cyparissus; Faustus Sabaeus

Name: Faustus Sabaeus Date: 16th century CE   Region:  Brixia [Brescia, modern Italy] Citation:   Illustrated Myths of Ovid

To the Sun:

Cherish this tree you see before you

upon this shore blossoming with flowers

beside these clear waters.

O Creator of All Things,

Who Knows What Fate holds,

Who Moves the Heavens of each solstice,

I consecrate this tree.

I beg you to defend the Cypress [Cyparissus] 

let neither the heat of summer

nor the ice of winter harm him.

May this beloved tree endure

formerly cherished by you, now even more so cherished by me. 

Ad Solem.

Hanc tibi, quam cernis, radiantem floribus oram,

propter aquae fluvium lucidioris habe.

Consecro, cunctorum o genitor, quae circuit orbis:

quae fati, et variant conscia signa poli.

Solstitiis utrisque, precor defende Cupressum;

ne noceant aestus, ne glacialis hiemis.

arbor enim Chariti nostrae dilecta perennet:

quondam cura tui, nunc mage cura mei.

Faustus Sabaeus [16th century, modern Italy] was a librarian of the Vatican library who composed numerous poems on mythology-based themes.

M/M: Apollo Mourns Cyparissus

Cyparissus still weeps, mourning his slain stag.

When he saw his lover's limbs covered in bark,

Apollo exclaimed, "O forest, why do you double my pains?

You have my Daphne, you have my Cyparissus."

--Act. Syncerus. Sannazarii, published in Picta Poesis Ovidiana (1580)

Flebat adhuc maerens cervo Cyparissus adempto:

quum sua conspexit cortice membra tegi.

Delius exclamat: quid nostro silva dolore

crescis? tu Daphnen, tu Cyparisson habes.

M/M: Cyparissus and Apollo. Lactantius Placidus Narr. 10.3

Name: Lactantius Placidus Date:  5th or 6th century CE Region:    Unknown Citation:  Plots of Ovid’s Myths, Book 10, Story 3

Cyparissus, the son of Amycleius, from the island of Cea. Apollo loved him and when he had tried to kill himself over the death of a pet stag he’d accidentally killed, Apollo snatched him from danger and turned him into a tree with the same name (Cypress tree).

Cyparissus, Amyclei filius, ex insula Ceae. hunc Apollo dilexit et propter cervum patientem manus, quem per inprudentiam sagitta transfixum interemerat, manus adferentem sibi periculo eripuit et protinus in arborem genetivi nominis vertit.

Lactantius Placidus [5^th or 6^th century CE] is the name of the author attributed to a prose summary of Ovid’s Metamorphoses, but little is known about the author or his time period.

M/M: The Story of Cyparissus, Vatican Mythographers 2.177

Cyparissus, Beloved By the Gods

Name:  Vatican Mythographers Date:   10th century CE Region:   Unknown Citation:   Vatican Mythographers 2.177

While the handsome lad Cyparissus was hunting in the forest, Apollo fell in love with him. Apollo gave him a beautiful and tame pet stag as a gift. Cyparissus loved the deer. Growing drowsy, he dozed off under a tree. When he was woken up by a sudden noise, he saw a deer far off, and shot it with an arrow, thinking it was a wild deer. Once he realized what he had done, he panicked, and starved himself to death. As he died, Apollo pitied him, and turned him into the tree that shares his name [the cypress tree]. 

Cyparissus, Beloved By the Gods

Cyparissus speciosus puer dum in silva venaretur, in amorem sui Apollinem compulit. A quo accepit munus cervum pulcherrimum et mansuetum: quem cum diligeret, lassus somnum sub arbore carpere coepit. Subito excitatus strepitu cervum longe vidit; quem credens silvestrem, missa sagitta eum interemit: agnitoque in tantum extabuit, ut ab omni cibo et potu abstineret. Quo tabescente, Apollo misertus eius, vertit eum in arborem sui nominis cupressum.

Vatican Mythographers [10th century CE?] Little is known about the author or origin of the collection of myths known as the Vatican Mythographers, but the work’s first editor Angelo Mai found the collection on a manuscript dating back to the 10th century CE. This volume is a collection of three different mythographers who have assembled various Greco-Roman myths; although many of these myths are basic summaries in Latin, some of them are either analyzed as allegories or compared to Christian thought.

M/M: The Myth of Cyparissus, Ovid, Meta. 10.106-142

Name:     Ovid Date:       43 BCE – 17 CE Region:   Sulmo [modern Italy] Citation: Metamorphoses 10.106-142

A cone-shaped cypress tree stood among the rest. It's a tree now, but it once was a youth beloved by the god who mastered bow-strings and lyre-strings.
Once upon a time, there was a stag sacred to the nymphs who dwelled in Carthaea. It was huge, and had giant antlers upon its head. These antlers glimmered in gold, and a gem encrusted collar hung upon its neck. A silver bulla dangled from its forehead, attached with leather thongs. Jeweled earrings glittered from its twin ears. Lacking a natural fear of man, it would roam from house to house, looking for people to pet it.
But Cyparissus, the loveliest of Ceans, loved it above all else. Cyparissus, you walked it from pasture to pasture, you led it to water, you wove flower-crowns for its antlers, and you rode upon it, bareback, with a purple bit in its mouth.
But one day, in the heat of midday, the tired deer lay down in the leafy shade. Cyparissus foolishly shot it with his deadly aim, and when he saw it dying, he wanted to die, too.
What words of comfort were left unsaid, Phoebus, to lighten the lad's grief?
But the teenager mourned and begged for one last gift from the gods: that he be allowed to mourn for all time. And now, his blood mixed with his tears, his limbs began to lighten into shades of green, and when his hair became shaggy and bristly, pointed their graceful tips to the starry heavens.
In sorrow, the god vent his grief, saying, "I shall mourn you, and you shall mourn others, you will be present when others grieve, too."

Adfuit huic turbae metas imitata cupressus,
nunc arbor, puer ante deo dilectus ab illo,
qui citharam nervis et nervis temperat arcum.
namque sacer nymphis Carthaea tenentibus arva
ingens cervus erat, lateque patentibus altas               
ipse suo capiti praebebat cornibus umbras.
cornua fulgebant auro, demissaque in armos
pendebant tereti gemmata monilia collo.
bulla super frontem parvis argentea loris
vincta movebatur; parilesque ex aere nitebant               
auribus e geminis circum cava tempora bacae;
isque metu vacuus naturalique pavore
deposito celebrare domos mulcendaque colla
quamlibet ignotis manibus praebere solebat.
sed tamen ante alios, Ceae pulcherrime gentis,               
gratus erat, Cyparisse, tibi: tu pabula cervum
ad nova, tu liquidi ducebas fontis ad undam,
tu modo texebas varios per cornua flores,
nunc eques in tergo residens huc laetus et illuc
mollia purpureis frenabas ora capistris.               
     Aestus erat mediusque dies, solisque vapore
concava litorei fervebant bracchia Cancri:
fessus in herbosa posuit sua corpora terra
cervus et arborea frigus ducebat ab umbra.
hunc puer inprudens iaculo Cyparissus acuto               
fixit et, ut saevo morientem vulnere vidit,
velle mori statuit. quae non solacia Phoebus
dixit et, ut leviter pro materiaque doleret,
admonuit! gemit ille tamen munusque supremum
hoc petit a superis, ut tempore lugeat omni.               
iamque per inmensos egesto sanguine fletus
in viridem verti coeperunt membra colorem,
et, modo qui nivea pendebant fronte capilli,
horrida caesaries fieri sumptoque rigore
sidereum gracili spectare cacumine caelum.               
ingemuit tristisque deus 'lugebere nobis
lugebisque alios aderisque dolentibus' inquit.

Ovid [Publius Ovidius Naso; 43 BCE – 17 CE, modern Italy] was one of the most famous love poets of Rome’s Golden Age. His most famous work, the Metamorphoses, provides a history of the world through a series of interwoven myths. Most of his poetry is erotic in nature; for this reason, he fell into trouble during the conservative social reforms under the reign of the emperor Augustus. In 8 CE he was banished to Bithynia [modern Turkey], where he spent the remainder of his life pining for his native homeland.

M/M: The Myth of Sylvanus and Cyparissus, Vat. Myth. I.6

Name:  Vatican Mythographers Date:   10th century CE Region:   Unknown Citation:   Vatican Mythographers 1.6

Sylvanus was the god of the forest. He loved a youth named Cyparissus who had a pet doe. When Sylvanus unintentionally killed it, Cyparissus died of grief. Silvanus transformed him into a cypress tree and is said to carry its branches as a mourning token

Sylvanus deus est silvarum. Hic amavit puerum Cyparissum nomine qui habebat mansuetissimam cervam. Hanc cum Silvanus nescius occidisset, puer extinctus est dolore. Quem amator deus in cypressum arborem nominis eius convertit quam pro solatio portare dicitur.

Vatican Mythographers [10th century CE?] Little is known about the author or origin of the collection of myths known as the Vatican Mythographers, but the work’s first editor Angelo Mai found the collection on a manuscript dating back to the 10th century CE. This volume is a collection of three different mythographers who have assembled various Greco-Roman myths; although many of these myths are basic summaries in Latin, some of them are either analyzed as allegories or compared to Christian thought.