Punishment of Orchis

Orchis,
Son of nymph and satyr,
Strayed into the forest
And to his delight
Came upon much merrymaking,
Revellers celebrating the festival of Dionysus,
God of the grape harvest, winemaking and wine,
Of ritual madness and ecstasy.

Orchis made merry and drank,
But succumbed to evil,
And tried to rape a priestess.
In rage did the partygoers
Turn upon him
And tear him limb from limb.

His father's pleas that Orchis be restored
Fell upon deaf ears.
Instead, the gods changed him
Into a flower.

A vaguely poetic rendering of the Greek myth behind the naming of the orchid. More prosaicly, the name comes from the Greek word for testicle (órkhis), because of the shape of the root. The plant was named orchid in 1845 by John Lindley in School Botany. One of their main distinguishing features is that orchids have zygomorphism, or bilateral symmetry to most of us. Fabulous word.

I've chosen a slightly soft focus to reflect the gentle pastels of the flower.

Backblip.