Daphne: An exemplar for, “Be careful what you wish for.” Or, maybe, “Be precise in what you ask for.”
You remember Daphne. (I remembered Daphne as Diana. [Sorry, ma’am, I won’t make that mistake again, at least not until the next time.]) Anyway, she (Daphne, not Diana) was the one who prayed to Zeus to protect her from Apollo’s advances and got turned into a laurel for her efforts which was, I suspect, not precisely how she envisioned it playing out. If Zeus’s transformative activity were a curling shot, I’d be hard-pressed to score it any higher than one out of four. Apparently it didn’t occur to Zeus to fix the problem at source.
Why was I thinking of either goddess, or one goddess by either name? Because I opened a cupboard door, and there she was: Diana. Daphne. Who-ever.
Myths. Fantastical history written by men. Not that I’m bitter. Nope. Not me….
Mary – Just don’t pray to Zeus for help.
Brittanica equates the name Daphne with the Greek word for Laurel. Until you wrote, it would never have occurred to me to check the origins.
Now, I have a daphne bush growing outside my front door, but it doesn’t look anything like a laurel.Who got what wrong?
Jim T
Jim T – “Who got it wrong?” I don’t know. Maybe the same folks who called a huge North American thrush with a red breast a “robin,” using the same name as a delicate and petite songbird in Great Britain. Birders there are still annoyed, a few hundred years later.
If not Diana or Daphne, who were you expecting?
Barbara – Strictly speaking, no one. Maybe it’s like that ad for CapitalOne: Who’s in your cupboard?
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