The literary myth of hyacinth: the thing to come in our garden

While visiting Phipps Garden on March 17, I noticed our hyacinths are growing at the same pace with that of Phipps.  The one with a sign of Garden Hyacinth is from Phipps, the rest are all from our garden.

Last year I wrote “They call me hyacinth girl” ( http://doctorjytsai.blogspot.com/2011/04/they-called-me-hyacinth-girla-trip-to.html ) to insinuate homosexuality of T.S. Eliot.  In his The Waste Land we read,

You gave me hyacinths first a year ago;
The call me the hyacinth girl.

Hyacinth was a beautiful boy and lover of the god Appollo and the wind god, Zephyr in Greek mythology.  One day Apollo and Hyacinth took turn throwing the discus; the jealous wind god blew the wind causing the discus off course, hitting and killing Hyacinth.  Apollo made a flower, the hyacinth, from Hyacinth’s spilled blood.

Knowing this literary myth and the origin of the name of hyacinth, one will better understand why the two lines in his The Waste Land leads to such a speculation.  I wrote “Threes company” in which I also touched this subject.

http://doctorjytsai.blogspot.com/2011/01/threes-company-ts-eliot-vivienne-eliot.html