find laura
Laura is the feminine of Laurel, the sweet bay tree
Rest on laurels?
The laurels that are being referred to when someone is said to 'rest on his laurels' are the aromatically scented Laurus Nobilis trees or, more specifically, their leaves. The trees are known colloquially as Sweet Bay and are commonly grown as culinary or ornamental plants. That is the plant that laurel wreaths are made from. The origins of the phrase lie in ancient Greece, where laurel wreaths were symbols of victory and status.
The pre-Christian Greeks associated their god Apollo with laurel. The reason for that association takes us into the myth of Apollo's love for the nymph Daphne, who turned into a Bay tree just as Apollo approached her. Undeterred, Apollo embraced the tree, cut off a branch to wear as a wreath and declared the plant sacred. Their belief in the myth caused the Greeks to present laurel wreaths to winners in the Pythian Games, which were held at Delphi in honour of Apollo every four years.
https://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/rest-on-his-laurels.html
This opens the door to Delphi and the oracle, Apollo and Python
With laurer corouned as a conquerour
And there he lyueth in ioye and in honour .[With laurel crowned as conqueror
There he lived in joy and honour]Geoffrey Chaucer, The Knight's Tale
Meanwhile, Apollo and Daphne
hey! now we're getting somewhere! this is starting to look good!
Daphne the river nymph
(josie the wood nymph tick is a branch!)
…
Well, there's the story of the wood nymph Syrinx who ran away from Pan, and got turned into a reed, from which Pan made a flutehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syrinx
And there's a mountain nymph who was turned into a pine tree, called Pitys
laurels dance..
long hair like leo!
In Ovid's Metamorphoses, there is the story of Apollo and Daphne
The myth is in five parts, beginning with Apollo slaying the Python and ending with the creation of the Pythian Crown.
Apollo and Daphne's story takes place right after the great snake that terrorized mankind is slain by Apollo. Apollo pierced the Python with 1,000 arrows and then founded the sanctuary of Delphi atop of the Python's dead body.
This sanctuary became home to the famous oracle, Pythia, and the sacred Pythian Games were held to celebrate his victory. The winners were, at first, honored with oak wreaths, since the laurel didn't yet exist.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_and_Daphne#Ovid's_version
Daphne liked to hang out in the woods by herself.
One day, Apollo spots her in the woods and wants her and falls in love with her.
Apollo rushes to her and tries to take her but she immediately flees "swifter than the lightest breath of air" and resists his words calling her back again.
He mentions that, even though he is a master archer and patron of medicine, "an arrow truer than mine, has wounded my free heart! ... But love cannot be healed by any herb..."
Apollo continually followed her, begging her to stay, but the nymph continued to reject him. They were evenly matched in the race until Eros intervened, urging Apollo on until he is at full speed. He reaches out to grab her, but she manages to escape his grasp and quicken her pace. Eros further assists Apollo by giving him wings, then hangs onto Daphne's shoulders in an attempt to slow her gait.
They were soon within sight of her father's waters. Exhausted, overcome by the efforts of her escape, and sensing that she was about to be caught, she ran toward the banks and cried out, "Help me father! If your streams have divine powers change me, destroy this beauty that pleases too well!" No sooner than the cry left her mouth she felt "a heavy numbness seized her limbs, thin bark closed over her breast, her hair turned into leaves, her arms into branches, her feet so swift a moment ago stuck fast in slow-growing roots, her face was lost in the canopy."
She had become the laurel tree.
