Daphnis. In Greek mythology, Daphnis was a Sicilian shepherd who was said to be the inventor of pastoral poetry.
According to tradition, he was the son of Hermes and a nymph, despite which fact Daphnis himself was mortal. Daphnis was also described and shown as an eromenos.
His mother was said to have exposed him under a laurel tree, where he was found by shepherds and named after the tree under which he was found. He was also sometimes said to be Hermes' favourite or beloved rather than his son.
A naiad was in love with him and promised to be faithful to him. However, he was seduced, with the aid of wine, by the daughter of a king, and, in revenge, this nymph either blinded him or turned him to stone.
Pan also fell in love with him and taught him to play the pan pipes. Daphnis, who endeavoured to console himself by playing the flute and singing shepherds' songs, soon afterwards died. He fell from a cliff, or was changed into a rock, or was taken up to heaven by his father Hermes, who caused a spring of water to gush out from the spot where his son had been carried off. Ever afterwards the Sicilians offered sacrifices at this spring as an expiatory offering for the youth's early death. There is little doubt that Aelian in his account follows Stesichorus of Himera, who in like manner had been blinded by the vengeance of a woman and probably sang of the sufferings of Daphnis in his recant
According to tradition, he was the son of Hermes and a nymph, despite which fact Daphnis himself was mortal. Daphnis was also described and shown as an eromenos.
His mother was said to have exposed him under a laurel tree, where he was found by shepherds and named after the tree under which he was found. He was also sometimes said to be Hermes' favourite or beloved rather than his son.
A naiad was in love with him and promised to be faithful to him. However, he was seduced, with the aid of wine, by the daughter of a king, and, in revenge, this nymph either blinded him or turned him to stone.
Pan also fell in love with him and taught him to play the pan pipes. Daphnis, who endeavoured to console himself by playing the flute and singing shepherds' songs, soon afterwards died. He fell from a cliff, or was changed into a rock, or was taken up to heaven by his father Hermes, who caused a spring of water to gush out from the spot where his son had been carried off. Ever afterwards the Sicilians offered sacrifices at this spring as an expiatory offering for the youth's early death. There is little doubt that Aelian in his account follows Stesichorus of Himera, who in like manner had been blinded by the vengeance of a woman and probably sang of the sufferings of Daphnis in his recant
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