M/M: Apollo Mourns Hyacinthus, Faustus Sabaeus

Name: Faustus Sabaeus Date: 16th century CE   Region:  Brixia [Brescia, modern Italy] Citation:   Illustrated Myths of Ovid

While Apollo mournfully washed the blood off his hands

From the tragic accident and death of Hyacinthus,

The cruel loss of his loved one kept running in a loop through his mind.

He groaned the following words about such an awful loss:

“Already these lofty groves have grown, fertilized by the blood of my loved one,

And now the earth blossoms from a repeated loss,

and the river runs red with blood.”

Invita dum caede manus lavat amne cruentas

tristis Apollo: quibus perdidit Oebaliden:

fata suorum animo evolvens crudelia amorum

protulit in casus talia verba truces

iam creuere meo nemora alta cruore: et eodem

vulnere nunc humus est florida, et unda rubet.

Faustus Sabaeus [16th century, modern Italy] was a librarian of the Vatican library who composed numerous poems on mythology-based themes.