Daphne the slopes of Mount Cnacadion near the Spartan frontier, had her own sacred laurel trees. At Eretria the identity of an excavated 7th- and 6th-century BCE temple to "Apollo Daphnephoros", "Apollo, laurel-bearer", or "carrying off Daphne", a "place where the citizens are to take the oath", is identified in inscriptions. Daphne Daphne (; , meaning "laurel") a minor figure in Greek mythology, is a naiad, a variety of female nymph associated with fountains, wells, springs, streams, brooks and other bodies of freshwater. She is said by ancient sources variously to have been a daughter of the river god Peneus and
Apollo in the Forge of Vulcan the painter Peter Paul Rubens who had also visited Spain in 1629. Velázquez painted two large canvases in the house of the Spanish ambassador. These two canvases formed a pair and were brought back to Spain with his luggage: "Joseph's Tunic" and "Apollo in the Forge of Vulcan". The subject is taken from Roman mythology, specifically from Ovid's "Metamorphoses". Velázquez interpreted the scene into a strictly human version, with contemporary figures. Apollo is seen wearing a toga which leaves his torso exposed to view. Vulcan, in this picture, is just a blacksmith, as are his helpers, who are men from