View source for Daphnis

== Mythology ==
According to tradition, his father was [[Hermes]] and his mother was a [[nymph]],<ref name="EB1911" /> despite which Daphnis himself was mortal. As an infant, Daphnis' mother [[Infant exposure|exposed]] him under a laurel tree, where he was found by some herdsmen who named him after the tree (Greek ''daphnē'') under which he was found. The cows that tended to him as an infant were said to be sisters to the [[Cattle of Helios|ones]] owned by [[Helios]]. He was also sometimes said to be Hermes' ''[[eromenos]]'' (beloved) rather than his son.<ref>[[Claudius Aelianus|Aelian]], [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A2008.01.0591%3Abook%3D10%3Achapter%3D18 ''Varia Historia'' 10.18]</ref> In some versions, Daphnis was taught how to play the [[panpipes]] by the god [[Pan (god)|Pan]] himself, and eventually the two also became lovers.<ref>{{cite book | title = Not the Classical Ideal: Athens and the Construction of the Other in Greek Art | first = Beth | last = Cohen | publisher = [[Brill Publications]] | date = November 22, 2021 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=uBlREAAAQBAJ | isbn =978-90-04-11618-4 | location = [[Leiden]], the [[Netherlands]] | pages = [https://books.google.com/books?id=uBlREAAAQBAJ&pg=PA170 169-170]}}</ref><ref>Also testified by [[Pope Clement I|Clement]] in ''[[Clementine literature|Homilies]]'' [https://books.google.com/books?id=7cIUAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA108 5.16]. Clement, a Christian pope, was trying to discredit pagans and their beliefs in his works, however other finds seem to support this particular claim.</ref>

Daphnis became a follower of the goddess [[Artemis]], accompanying her in hunting and entertaining her with his singing of pastoral songs and playing of the panpipes. A [[naiad]] (possibly Echenais or [[Nomia (mythology)|Nomia]]) was in love with him and prophesied that he would be blinded if he loved another woman. However, he was seduced, with the aid of wine, by the daughter of a king, and, in revenge, this nymph blinded him<ref name=EB1911/><ref>[[Diodorus Siculus]], [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Diodorus_Siculus/4D*.html#84.1 4.84.1]</ref> or changed him into stone.<ref>[[Ovid]], ''[[Metamorphoses]]'' 4.275 ff</ref><ref>Smith, s.v. Daphnis</ref>

Daphnis, who endeavoured to console himself by playing the flute and singing herdsmen's songs, soon afterwards died. He fell from a cliff, or was changed into a rock, or was taken up to heaven by his father Hermes, who caused a spring of water to gush out from the spot where his son had been carried off. 

Ever afterwards the [[Sicilian people|Sicilian]]s offered sacrifices at this spring as an expiatory offering for the youth's early death. There is little doubt that [[Claudius Aelianus|Aelian]] in his account follows [[Stesichorus]] of Himera, who in like manner had been blinded by the vengeance of a woman (Helen) and probably sang of the sufferings of Daphnis in his recantation. Nothing is said of Daphnis's blindness by Theocritus, who dwells on his amour with Nais; his victory over Menalcas in a poetical competition; his love for Xenea brought about by the wrath of Aphrodite; his wanderings through the woods while suffering the torments of unrequited love; his death just at the moment when Aphrodite, moved by compassion, endeavours (but too late) to save him; the deep sorrow, shared by nature and all created things, for his untimely end (Theocritus i. vii. viii.). A later form of the legend identifies Daphnis with a Phrygian hero, and makes him the teacher of Marsyas. The legend of Daphnis and his early death may be compared with those of [[Hyacinth (mythology)|Hyacinthus]], [[Narcissus (mythology)|Narcissus]], [[Linus (mythology)|Linus]] and [[Adonis]]—all beautiful youths cut off in their prime, typical of the luxuriant growth of vegetation in the spring, and its sudden withering away beneath the scorching summer sun.<ref>{{EB1911|wstitle=Daphnis|volume=7|page=826|inline=1}}</ref>