Apollo and Daphne earth to enclose me, or change my form, which has brought me into this danger! Let me be free of this man from this moment forward!" Peneus answered her plea and “a heavy numbness [seized] her limbs; her soft breasts [were] surrounded by a thin bark, her hair [changed] into the foliage, her forearms [changed] into branches; her foot, just now swift, now [clinged] because of sluggish roots.” She was turned into a laurel tree. Apollo vowed to honor her forever: “Always my hair will have you, my lyres will have you, my quivers will have you, laurel tree. You
Nymph at the peak of sexual attractiveness, contrasting with "parthenos" () "a virgin (of any age)", and generic "kore" ( < ) "maiden, girl". The term is used by (human) women to address each other, so Iris addressing Helen, or Eurycleia addressing Penelope as "dear "nymph"" ("Il." 3.130, "Od." 4.743). Reduced to , the word remains the regular Modern Greek term for "bride". In Katharevousa, it is still , as in the refrain of the Marian hymn "Agni Parthene" (c. 1880), "hail, unwedded bride". The Doric and Aeolic (Homeric) form is . The "Iliad" (6.420) refers to "mountain nymphs, maidens of