Note 582 — BOOK IX.
William Julius Mickle translation
The hyacinth bewrays the doleful Ai.—Hyacinthus, a youth beloved of Apollo, by whom he was accidentally slain, and afterwards turned into a flower:—
"Tyrioque nitentior ostro Flos oritur, formamque capit, quam lilia: si non, Purpureus color huic, argenteus esset in illis. Non satis hoc Phæbo est: is enim fuit auctor honoris. Ipse suos gemitus foliis inscribit; et Ai, Ai, Flos habet inscriptum: funestaque littera ducta est." Ovid, Met.