Artifact 3: Laurel Leaf

In Kline’s Phoebus Pursues Daphne, 473-567, Phoebus falls in love with Daphne and begins to pursue her. Daphne runs away from Phoebus as he begins to compliment her, resisting his words, “This is the was a sheep runs from the wolf, a deer from a mountain lion, and a dove with fluttering wings flies from the eagle” (Kline 505). Phoebus insists that he is a reputable partner for her saying “medicine is my invention; my power is in herbs’ (Kline 523). Daphne runs as fast as she can away from Phoebus, yet he begins to catch her. She begs her father to change her so that she is no longer beautiful, and Phoebus will stop chasing her: “Help me father! If your streams have divine powers change me, destroy this beauty that pleases too well” (Kline 547). Daphne is then turned into the laurel tree, and Phoebus claims her as his tree, “the metamorphosis into a laurel is the consequence of Daphne’s own request…” (Rees 253). This form of death is by Daphne’s own choice and can be considered a form of suicide. Although Daphne has morphed into a tree, which is another form of life, the life of the body she was in previously has ended by her choice. The laurel tree that she has turned into is a melancholy in that, although Daphne did not want to be with Phoebus, she also does not want to be stuck under ownership with him as an object. The laurel symbolizes death in the form of this suicidal rebirth, “The sudden transformation from one mode of existence to another… symbolizing a view of death as transformative within a totality rather than as a final end” (Rilke 116).

Laurel symbolizes healing and rebirth. For burials, laurels were places on the grave so that rebirth could occur following death, “The laurel was used in the rites practices on that occasion is shown by the fact that when other things which were employed were buried a laurel tree sprang from them” (Ogle 288). Throughout folklore and religion, the laurel was used to fend off evil spirits, as it was believed to have purification powers that kept evil spirits at a distance (Ogle 288). Army men were crowned with laurels to purify them from the ghosts of the men they killed. The laurel had abilities of healing and purification, but also intoxication and full of fire.

There is a contradiction to the laurel flower that death mimics. Although it can be virtuous and pure, it also can deceive. There is a direct association between the laurel and death, “The laurel leaf is darker green than other plants, connotes sorrow and death as the roots of life, whole at the same time it is an evergreen, demonstrating enduring life in its absence of seasons” (Rilke 116). The art in the laurel is that is has a beautiful dark green color, while also symbolizing the melancholy of death.