The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #58211   Message #920906
Posted By: JohnInKansas
28-Mar-03 - 07:59 PM
Thread Name: Folklore: What was behind virgins wearing laurels?
Subject: RE: Folklore: What was behind virgins wearing laurels?
A rather brief text is at Daphne, which may at least provide an entry to researching the mythology.

Daphne was pursued by Apollo, but "didn't want to." She prayed to Gaia, who transformed her into a laurel, which was thereafter "sacred to Apollo." There are several ways one might come up with relationships between Apollo and virginity - I won't speculate.

As with most concise stories of this ilk, it's rather hazardous to accept web postings as "authentic," since there seems to be a lot of posting of "what we'd like to believe" mixed in with the what "they believed."

John