IT'S A CROCUS HISTORY
Crocus has long been a symbol of youthfulness and cheerfulness.
The flower was used by ancient Greeks to ward off the fumes of liquor by weaving the crocus flower into wreaths for the head.
In Classical mythology, Crocus (Κρόκος) was a mortal youth who, because he was unhappy with his love affair with the nymph Smilax (Σμίλακος), was turned by the gods into a plant bearing his name, the crocus (saffron). Smilax is believed to have been given a similar fate and transformed into bindweed.
In another variation of the myth, Crocus was said to be a companion of Hermes and was accidentally killed by the god in a game of discus. Hermes was so distraught at this that he and Chloris transformed Crocus' body into a flower. The myth is similar to that of Apollo and Hyacinthus, and may indeed be a variation thereof.
Sources claim the crocus earned it name from the Greek word for thread after the golden fiber used to make saffron.
