Theogony

In the proem of Hesiod’s Theogony, the poet describes a fateful encounter with the Muses on the slopes of their home, Mount Helikon. Imbuing Hesiod with poetic talent, the Muses give him “a staff, a branch of good sappy laurel” (Line 31).

In antiquity the bay laurel tree was associated with Apollo, the god of art and prophecy who was often cast as the leader of the Muses. Apollo’s most important temple complex and oracular shrine, Delphi, was known for its many laurel trees. The Roman poet Ovid would later codify this connection between Apollo and laurel in Book 1 of his Metamorphoses, where Apollo’s relentless sexual desire for a nymph, Daphne, results in her transformation into a laurel tree. Apollo treasured laurel as his cultic symbol from that moment onward.

Laurel would go on to have special importance for creatives in the western canon. In ancient Greece, wreaths of laurel were presented to victors in music and poetry competitions. Its usage there has come down into modern English: To “rest on one’s laurels” is to fall back on one’s achievements, and a nation’s appointed poet is referred to as a “poet laureate.”