telling her love to the chaste Luna who however
looked cold and prudish, and would not hear of such complaints. It came
to pass that once she passed by the house of Leucothoe and noticed how
a brilliant light came through all the slits. Out of curiosity she
crept up and placed her eye to a crack. Oh, how her heart sank within
her, and how she cried in bitter dismay, for she saw the Sun-God
sitting within near Leucothoe, holding her hands und telling her the
most beautiful stories, whilst Leucothoe in an entrancement of
happiness gazed into his glorious godlike face and beauteous shining
eyes. Then Klytia fell into a rage, for she imagined that her playmate
alone was the cause of the Sun-God's never looking at her or noticing
her love. 'Look at what your daughter is doing,' she called out in the
ear of Leucothoe's father, 'she is sitting in her room alone with a
strange young man.' Just as the God was hurrying out, called by
Hesperus, the strict parent entered Leucothoe's room; in vain she
prayed for mercy. When Apollo returned, he saw before the house of his
beloved a freshly made grave, which the servants were just levelling
down. In this lay the poor maiden, whom they had buried alive. The hard
father thought that by doing this his honor was avenged, and the
despised Klytia imagined that now the Sun-God would turn to her. But
men only run after maidens who flee from them, and despise those who
are too froward. So Klytia became now totally unbearable in the eyes of
the Sun-God. His looks were always fixed on the home of his former
love, and as he gazed in hotter and hotter grief on the grave of the
poor Leucothoe, a rare plant sprouted out of the heart of the dead
maiden and broke through the earth. This was the Juniper, which filled
the air with its fragrance in the sun-light, and breathed its soul out
in the beams of the God. Thus the maiden by her death refreshed all the
senses and renewed the health of all who drew in her breath. Klytia
however, punished by the God with a look of fiery contempt, shrivelled
up, her beauty died, and she turned into a wayside plant, trodden by
every passer-by under foot. That which was best and strongest in her
however, her love for the Sun-God brought forth a blue flower
resembling the Sun in shape and when the God arises, it turns its
flower-face yearningly towards him, following his course by day, and at
night sinking down its wearied head. That is the story of the poor
Klytia."