The girl who became a flower
Long ago, the people in Greece believed that the sun was a god named
Helios, who drove across the sky in a chariot pulled by four horses.
There is a Greek tale about a girl named Clytie who fell in love with
Helios. She loved him so much that all she wanted to do was watch as
Helios drove across the sky.
All day long, Clytie sat on the ground, watching the sun. She never
looked at anything else. She never moved. Even when night came, she
stayed where she was, just waiting for the sun to rise.
For nine days and nine nights Clytie did not eat any food. She drank
only her tears and the dew from the leaves of nearby plants. And on the
tenth day her body took root in the ground. It became a flower stem. Her
face became a flower that turned slowly on its stem, still watching the
sun move across the sky.
The flower is named the heliotrope. In Greek, this means “turning toward
the sun.” And true to its name, the beautiful, sweet-scented heliotrope
blossom always turns toward the sun.
heliotrope
In Greek legend, this flower was once a girl.
