La Dafne prominent figure throughout the composition, at times adding to the action of the story and at other times, providing reflective commentary. The prologue is delivered by the poet Ovid as he sings the text: When the opera proper begins, the god Apollo slays the Python, a monster which has been terrifying the Greek island of Delos. Cupid and Venus are unimpressed by Apollo’s boasting and about his conquest and his feelings of being invincible. Because of this, they plot revenge on Apollo. Cupid shoots two arrows, the first of which makes Apollo fall in love with the nymph Daphne, daughter
Lotus tree sub-evergreen tree native to Africa that grows to about 25 feet bearing yellowish green flowers, as well as "Ziziphus lotus", a plant with an edible fruit closely related to the jujube, native to North Africa and the islands in the Gulf of Gabes such as Jerba. In Ovid's "Metamorphoses", the nymph Lotis was the beautiful daughter of Neptune, the god of water and the sea. In order to flee the violent attention of Priapus, she invoked the assistance of the gods, who answered her prayers by turning her into a lotus tree. The Book of Job has two lines (),