Daphne to demonstrate the power of love's arrow. Eros also shot Daphne, but with a leaden-tipped arrow, the effect of which was to make her flee from Apollo. Elated with sudden love, Apollo chased Daphne contuinally. He tried to make her cease her flight by saying he doesn't wish to hurt her. When she continued fleeing, Apollo lamented that even though he had the knowledge of medicinal herbs, he had failed to cure himself from the wound of Cupid's arrow. When Apollo had caught up with her, Daphne prayed for help to her father, the river god Peneus of Thessaly, who
The Wood Nymph to be "really a tone painter and poet" in the mold of the symphonic poems of Liszt. In "The Wood Nymph", Sibelius adheres closely to the narrative structure of Rydberg's poem, so much so that at the 1895 premiere, audience members were provided with copies of the source material, indicating the centrality of Rydberg's plot to the performance. Due to its programmatic qualities, musicologists commonly describe "The Wood Nymph", although in one movement, as consisting of four informal sections or "dramatic "tableaux"", each of which corresponds to one of the poem's four stanzas: Björn, "a tall and handsome lad", is