Cyparissos was a handsome young man who lived in Arcadia, and was the son of King Telephus. The god Apollo, who loved Cyparissos very much, gave him a tame sacred deer as a companion.

 This deer was his favourite animal, and the two of them spent many hours together, playing and running around the green meadows.

On a hot summer day, Cyparissos went hunting in the forest. At that time, his deer was asleep, lying in the shade of the bushes and branches. 

Cyparissus, not realizing that it was his favorite animal, mistook it for prey. He raised his spear, aimed it and killed it by mistake.

When he approached the injured animal and realized his mistake, his heart was filled with sadness. He burst into tears and begged the gods to let him die, 

because he could not bear the pain and grief of losing his dear friend. He asked for his tears to flow forever.

Apollo, seeing Cyparissus' desperation, took pity on the young man and decided to help him. 

He transformed him into a beautiful tree, the cypress, to relieve him of his pain. This tree became a symbol of sorrow and memory.  

Since then, people have honoured the cypress and associated it with death and memory. In the ancient Greeks, when a loved one died, they would hang cypress branches outside their doors and decorate the bodies of the dead with them. 

Even today, we plant cypress trees next to graves and temples to honour the memory of our loved ones.