The curse of Apollo, the God of the Sun and music, was brought onto him when he insulted the young Eros for playing with bows and arrows.
The petulant Eros took two arrows, one of gold and one of lead. With the leaded shaft, to incite hatred, he shot the gracious nymph, Daphne, and with the golden one, to incite love, he shot Apollo through the heart."
The myth of Apollo and Daphne has been examined as a battle between chastity (Daphne) and sexual desires (Apollo).
As Apollo lustfully pursues Daphne, she is saved through her metamorphosis and confinement into the laurel tree, which can be seen as an act of eternal chastity. Really important to me was also to encompass the dismay and desperation of Peneus (Daphne’s father), forced to shapeshift his daughter and thus prevent himself from her future human presence.
Daphne is forced to sacrifice her body and become the laurel tree as her only form of escape from the pressures of Apollo’s constant sexual desires.
Apollo takes Daphne’s eternal chastity and crafts himself a wreath out of her laurel branches, turning her symbol of chastity into a cultural symbol for him and other poets and musicians.
