But still with pompous woe and solemn state,
The Hyacinthian feasts they yearly celebrate.”—Ozell.
The solemnities called Hyacinthia lasted three days, during which the people ate no bread, but subsisted on sweetmeats, and abstained from decorating their hair with garlands, as on ordinary occasions. On the second day, a troop of youths entertained spectators by playing upon the harp and flute, and chanting choruses in honour of Apollo. Numbers appeared mounted upon richly-caparisoned horses, who sang rustic songs, and were accompanied by a throng dancing to vocal and instrumental music. Females engaged in chariot races, and the most beautiful maidens, sumptuously attired, drove about in splendidly adorned vehicles, singing hymns. Hundreds of victims were offered on the altars of Apollo; and the votaries with free-handed hospitality entertained their friends and slaves.——Many allusions are made by the poets to the mournful letters A I, supposed to be visible on the petals of
“The languid Hyacinth, who wears
His bitter sorrows painted on his bosom.”
Hunt, after entering into the vexed question as to the particular flower alluded to by Ovid, quotes a passage from Moschus, which he thus translates:—
“Now tell your story, Hyacinth, and show
Ai, Ai, the more amidst your sanguine woe.”
There has been much diversity of opinion expressed about the Hyacinth of the ancient poets. The claims of the modern flower to be the purple blossom that sprang from the blood of Hyacinthus are disputed, and the general opinion is that the Martagon Lily was the plant referred to by the poet. The Gladiolus and the Larkspur, however, have both been named as the flower bearing the expression of grief A I, A I, on the petals.——Homer mentions the Hyacinth among the flowers which formed the couch of Jupiter and Juno.
“Thick new-born Violets a soft carpet spread