Bernini’s marble, ‘Apollo and Daphne’ (1622-25), depicts the moment that Daphne’s transformation begins. |
Daphne
Personification of the laurel tree
Daphne was a beautiful river nymph who was transformed into a laurel tree to escape the unwelcome advances of the god Apollo.
Apollo had angered the god of love, Eros, by claiming that his bows and arrows were warlike and thus superior to the other god’s darts of love. In revenge, and to prove the power of his weapons, Eros shot a golden arrow into Apollo’s heart so that he fell hopelessly in love with Daphne, but penetrated her heart with a leaden arrow so that she despised all men.
Apollo pursued Daphne so relentlessly that she asked her father, the river god Peneus, to protect her. He transformed her into a laurel tree. The remorseful Apollo adorned himself with some of its leaves and adopted the tree as his personal symbol. Thereafter, the laurel was appropriated for poets and, in Rome, for triumphs.