Welcome to my latest queer history blog post! If you enjoy this article, make sure to sign up for my newsletter and stay up to date with my blog and Historical Fiction novels. Thanks for reading!
Several weeks ago, I wrote one of my favorite blog posts on a Rainbow Bouquet and the history of “queer” flowers (you can read about violets, pansies, carnations – oh my! – here). That blog post was one of my favorite queer history research projects yet, and yielded fascinating insights into how queer stories have been written into floral symbols for thousands of years.
But I quickly realized, even as I began my TikTok series on each of those fabulous flowers, that inevitably I would miss at least a few candidates for inclusion in the “queer garden”. Thankfully, a lovely friend on the Clock App highlighted one in particular they would love to see: the Hyacinth! So today, as the northern hemisphere moves toward the summer months, I bring you the long overdue recognition of the Hyacinth as a queer flower in my Rainbow Bouquet.
Hyacinths and Queer Mythology
The modern hyacinth flowers are native to Eurasia, the Mediterranean region, and southern Turkey.[1] Their perennial bulbs produce a large, single flower each Spring in an array of vibrant colors although its deep blue variations are the most famous.
Like that of violets, the story of hyacinths as gay symbolism begins in ancient Greece. But whereas Sappho was a real historical figure, Hyacinthus – the namesake of the flower – comes to us from the deep canon of mythology. Consequently, the queer connotations of this majestic bulb flower take us back millennia to the classical, Hellenic era.
According to Greek myth, Hyacinthus (or Hyakinthos) was an especially gallant young Spartan prince. In some versions of his tale, his father was either King Magnes of Magnesia or King Pieros of Pieria; in others, the god Apollo’s female lover Daphne was one of Hyacinthus’ siblings.[2]
This complicated family tree raises another question about the prince besides his semi-divine relationships, one which drives at the perhaps problematic nature of this mythological tale. Some interpretations of the mythology refer to Hyacinthus as a “boy” while there is general agreement across accounts that he lost his life in his “youth”. As I have explored in other blogposts covering ancient history, there was a wide range of Greek models of homosexual relationships among men (which my post on the Sacred Band of Thebes covers in more detail). Some of these, depending on the source material and city-state in question, involved older freeborn Greek men partnered with young men in their teens. These relationships were structured, and endorsed, within a given city’s social hierarchy to reinforce masculinity and supposed virtues across generations of freeborn male leadership.
Modern audiences (correctly) view this model as fundamentally unacceptable and outright abusive. That condemnation must also include heterosexual relationships of the same era and culture (and indeed, most cultures until the modern era). A Greek girl in this period, who may have heard the myth of Prince Hyacinthus throughout her life, would like marry in her mid-teenage years to a man in his thirties. She would have been expected to bear her first child well before her eighteenth birthday.
For the purposes of this mythological discussion, however, what was the nature of Prince Hyacinthus’s connection to Apollo? It is difficult to answer definitively, but context clues within the story suggest that the Prince was likely in his late teens. The central event, notably, is a discus training session – a competitive sport pursued by grown men and one of the earliest sports to feature in the ancient Olympic Games. It seems unlikely that a young child would have participated in this sort of training alongside a literal god. One version of the story even suggests that the Prince’s rash desire to outrun the god’s throw of the discus ultimately killed him; such a feat of physical strength would have been impossible if Hyacinthus was not already a skilled athlete and avid runner.
Moreover, as hinted earlier, the Prince was already at the center of two immortals’ affections and was presumably involved with both to some degree. This situation was not at all typical of the rigidly structured relationships between adult Greek men and youths. Hyacinthus is said to have been at the center of an especially tense queer love triangle. The trouble was that Hyacinthus’ rival lovers were Apollo himself and Zephyrus, the god of the west winds.
The Greek art presented on the vase (right) depicts Hyacinthus in a sensual embrace with Zephyrus, the latter represented with the wings of his trade. In the imagery on this vase, Hyacinthus appears to draw Zephyrus into his arms. Here, the Prince appears as approximately the same size and height as his winged partner (an adult immortal). These features, as well as the Prince’s athletic build, suggest that (to the Greeks representing him here) Hyacinthus is at least in his late teens (if not possibly older) prior to his untimely demise.
A Tragic Death – and Rebirth
One version of the story portrays Hyacinthus’ tragic demise as simply an accident borne out of a desire to amaze his other lover, Apollo. When the god, already enamored with Hyacinthus, offered to teach him discus, the young prince attempted to outrun the god’s discus throw as a means to impress him.[3] But another version suggests that Apollo’s rival for the prince, Zephyrus, became consumed with jealousy over Hyacinthus’ affair with Apollo. In a fit of rage, Zephyrus blew the discus off course while the pair was training, intervening in their sport with the explicit intent to harm Hyacinthus.
Both tales end the same: Hyacinthus was struck fatally in the head, with Apollo horrified at the loss of his lover. Devastated, Apollo refuses to allow Hades to carry Hyacinthus into the underworld and, in an act of love, sprouts a new type of flower from the prince’s shed blood.[4] These versions of the story add that the flower’s petals bore an inscription “AI” thought to mean “Alas” in recognition of Apollo’s terrible loss.[5] Some historians believe that the exact flower referenced in the myth may have actually been a larkspur, rather than the modern hyacinth. Regardless, the hyacinth as we know it today has retained the name of the fallen prince.
The Prince’s Legacy
Hyacinthus’ story became famous in ancient Greece but especially in Sparta, his reputed hometown. The Spartans named both a month, Hyacinthius, and their second-most important local festival, Hyacinthia, after the ill-fated prince. Appropriately, one source notes that, “[t]his festival was clearly connected with vegetation and marked the passage from the youthful verdure of spring to the dry heat of summer and the ripening of the grain.”
Today, however, Hyacinthus (and his eponymous flower) has taken on a wider symbolism for the LGBTQIA+ community. Like Achilles and Patroclus (whose equally tragic tale I covered here), Hyacinthus has achieved iconic status straight from the well-worn pages of Greek mythology. In this sense, the lovely flower which is permanently connected to his millennia-old story is an enduring symbol of the fragility of life and, depending on interpretation, the endurance of love.
[1] “Hyacinthus orientalis”, NC State University and N.C. A&T State University, https://plants.ces.ncsu.edu/plants/hyacinthus-orientalis/.
[2] The Theoi Project, “Hyacinthus,” https://www.theoi.com/Heros/Hyakinthos.html.
[3] GreekMythology.com, The Editors of Website. “Hyacinthus”. GreekMythology.com, August 1, 2015,
https://www.greekmythology.com/Myths/Mortals/Hyacinthus/hyacinthus.html.
[4] Ibid.
[5] Britannica, T. Editors of Encyclopaedia. “Hyacinthus.” Encyclopedia Britannica, Invalid Date. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Hyacinthus.