Daphne curse made by the god Cupid, son of Venus, on the god Apollo (Phoebus), she became the unwilling object of the infatuation of Apollo, who chased her against his wish. Just before being overtaken by him, Daphne pleaded to her rivergod father for help, who transformed her into a laurel tree, thus foiling Apollo. Thenceforth Apollo developed a special reverence for laurel. At the Pythian Games which were held every four years in Delphi in honour of Apollo, a wreath of laurel gathered from the Vale of Tempe in Thessaly was given as a prize. Hence it later became customary
The Wood Nymph himself too much" in early "confessional" works, such as "En saga", "Lemminkäinen and the Maidens of the Island", and "The Wood Nymph". In the absence of any new information from Sibelius's papers, however, the reason why "The Wood Nymph" was never published ultimately "appears doomed to remain a subject of speculation". Even after the wave of publicity that followed its reemergence, "The Wood Nymph" remains rarely recorded compared to other early Sibelius works. It received its world premiere in 1996 under the BIS label with Osmo Vänskä leading the Lahti Symphony Orchestra. Some musical material was unavailable until the publication