Laurel Wreath
The laurel wreath, woven from the leaves of the bay laurel tree, is the plant emblem of Apollo in Greek and Roman mythology and, through him, the standard crown for victors - first at the games held in his honor, and later for poets, generals, and emperors far beyond the mythological context that first attached the plant to him.
Sections on this page
In Practice
Its origin story is one of the more painful transformation myths in the corpus: it begins as a story about a woman fleeing a god rather than a story about a prize. Ovid's Metamorphoses tells the fullest version. Apollo, freshly proud after killing the serpent Python, mocks the god Eros for playing with weapons meant for real archers; Eros retaliates by shooting Apollo with a gold arrow that inspires love and the nymph Daphne with a lead arrow that inspires revulsion. Apollo pursues Daphne relentlessly through the forest, and as he is about to catch her, she prays to her father, the river god Peneus, to destroy the beauty that has caused her so much trouble. Her prayer is answered mid-flight: her limbs stiffen into wood, her hair into leaves, her arms into branches, and she becomes the laurel tree rooted in place. Apollo, unable to have her as a bride, declares that the laurel will be his tree forever - that its leaves will crown his hair, his lyre, and his quiver, and that they will crown the heads of victors as a reminder of triumph. That closing promise becomes literal practice at the Pythian Games, the second-most prestigious athletic and musical festival in the Greek world after the Olympics, held at Delphi in Apollo's honor. Pindar's victory odes, composed for actual Pythian champions, describe the crown of laurel gathered from Parnassus as the mark of a Pythian win, tying the mythological transformation directly to a real, datable institution rather than leaving it as an isolated story. From there the plant's symbolic reach only grew: Roman generals returning in a triumph wore laurel crowns as a sign of victory in war, and poets crowned with laurel as an honor for their work eventually gave English the word "laureate," still used for a nation's or field's most honored writer with no memory of Daphne required to use the term correctly. The laurel wreath therefore carries two connected but distinct meanings inherited from a single myth: grief and transformation in its origin story, and triumph in nearly every use the ancient and post-ancient world made of it afterward.
Why is the laurel tree associated with Apollo?
It is the transformed body of Daphne, a nymph Apollo pursued after being struck by one of Eros's arrows. Unable to escape him, Daphne prayed to her father, the river god Peneus, to destroy her own beauty, and she was turned into the laurel tree mid-flight. Apollo then declared the laurel his sacred tree, decreeing that its leaves would crown his hair, his lyre, and future victors.
Ovid, Metamorphoses 1.548-567
What happened to Daphne to make her become a tree?
Fleeing Apollo, who had been made to desire her by one of Eros's arrows, Daphne prayed to her father Peneus as Apollo was about to catch her, asking him to destroy the beauty that had drawn the god's attention. Her prayer changed her body immediately: her limbs stiffened into wood, her hair into leaves, and she became rooted as the laurel tree, escaping capture but losing her human form entirely.
Ovid, Metamorphoses 1.548-559
Why do winners get crowned with laurel?
Because Apollo, after losing Daphne, declared that laurel leaves would crown victors as well as his own hair and instruments. This became literal practice at the Pythian Games, held in his honor at Delphi, where Pindar's odes for actual Pythian champions describe the winner's crown as laurel gathered from Parnassus, directly connecting the myth to a real athletic and musical festival.
Pindar, Pythian Ode 8.19-20
Did Roman generals wear laurel wreaths too?
Yes. A victorious Roman general celebrating a formal triumph in Rome wore a laurel crown as one of the ceremony's central symbols, extending the plant's meaning of victory from Greek athletic and poetic competition into Roman military honor, and eventually into the English word "laureate" used for honored poets with no direct reference to Apollo required.
Is the laurel wreath only about winning, or does it have a sadder meaning too?
Both meanings exist side by side. Its origin story, Apollo's pursuit of Daphne and her desperate transformation to escape him, is a story of loss and violation rather than triumph. The wreath's later, far more common meaning of victory comes only from what Apollo decreed afterward, so the plant carries an unresolved tension between how it began and how it is used.
Ovid, Metamorphoses 1.548-567
Where This Appears
Referenced By
Sources
- Ovid, Metamorphoses 1.548-567
- Pindar, Pythian Ode 8.19-20