(Ὑάκινθος).

1. The youngest son of the Spartan king Amyclas and Diomede (Apollod. 3.10.3; Paus. 3.1.3, 19.4), but according to others a son of Pierus and Clio, or of Oebalus or Eurotas (Lucian, Dial. Deor. 14; Hyg. Fab. 271.) He was a youth of extraordinary beauty, and beloved by Thamyris and Apollo, who unintentionally killed him during a game of discus. (Apollod. 1.3.3.) Some traditions relate that he was beloved also by Boreas or Zephrus, who, from jealousy of Apollo, drove the discus of the god against the head of the youth, and thus killed him. (Lucian, l. c; Serv. ad Virg. Eelog. 3.63; Philostr. Imag. 1.24; Ov. Met. 10.184.) From the blood of Hyacinthus there sprang the flower of the same name (hyacinth), on the leaves of which there appeared the exclamation of woe AI, AI, or the letter Υ, being the initial of Ὑάκινθος. According to other traditions, the hyacinth (on the leaves of which, howeve those characters do not appear) sprang from the blood of Ajax. (Schol. ad Theocrit. 10.28; comp. Ov. Met. 13.395, &c., who combines both legends; Plin. Nat. 21.28.) Hyacinthus was worshipped at Amyclae as a hero, and a great festival, Hyacinthia, was celebrated in his honour. (Dict. of Ant. s. r.)