From 'Fontis Sacros':Apollo and Daphne

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The following is an excerpt from Dr. E. I. Sagona's (totally fabricated) Fontis Sacros: Sacred Springs and Wells In The Classical Era. The passage is quoted from The Castalian Spring, and is accompanied by a Paulo Veronese painting.

"[Apollo] mocked Cupid then, calling him childish for playing with a bow and arrows. In turn, Cupid took up two arrows: one of lead and one of gold, meant to incite hatred and love, respectively. With the lead arrow he shot the beautiful and chaste nymph Daphne, and with the gold he shot Apollo himself. Thus it came to be that Apollo fell in love with a woman who utterly abhorred him.

Yet he would not rest: he chased Daphne over field and plain, at first commanding then finally begging for her recognition and affection. Pure Daphne would not have it- she instead turned her prayers to her father Peneus, a river god, to aide in her escape. And aide her he did, for Daphne was thereby transformed into a laurel tree: her beautiful long hair stiffened into branches that pierced the sky, her fingers burst with leaves and her feet became rooted deep into the earth. Apollo reached out to embrace her, but even the tree shrunk away from his arms in revulsion.

Though he could not take Daphne as his wife, the laurel tree became sacred to Apollo. He would decorate victors with a crown of its leaves and through his power, they would never decay."
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