Daphne was Apollo's first love. This did not happen by chance, but through Cupid's malice. Apollo saw the boy playing with bow and arrows; and being himself elated at his recent victory over Python, said to him: "What have you to do with weapons of war, impertinent boy? Leave them in hands worthy of them, see the conquest I have achieved through them on the vast serpent that stretched his venomous body over acres of plain! Be content with your torch, son, and light your flames, as you call them, wherever you will, but do not dare to meddle with my weapons." The boy from Venus heard these words and replied: "Your arrows can hit anything, Apollo, but mine will hit you." Saying this, he stopped on a rock on Parnassus and took out from his quiver two arrows of different designs, one to excite love, the other to repel it. The first was gold and pointed, the second blunt and lead-tipped. With the lead rod he struck the nymph Daphne, daughter of the river god Peneus, in the heart, and with the golden one Apollo. Immediately the god was filled with love for the girl, and she abhorred the thought of loving. His joy lay in woodland sports and the spoils of the hunt. lovers sought her, but she rejected them all, wandering through the woods, without thinking of Cupid or Hymen. Her father often told her, "Daughter, you owe me a son-in-law; you owe me grandchildren." She, detesting the thought of marriage as a crime, with her beautiful face all red, threw her arms around her father's neck and said: "Dearest father, grant me this favor, that I may always remain single, like Diana." He agreed, but at the same time said: "Thy very face shall hinder... middle of paper... all her limbs; her breast began to enclose in a tender bark; her hair became leaves" her arms they became branches; his foot stuck in the ground, like a root; his face became the top of a tree, retaining nothing of himself but his beauty, Apollo was amazed. He touched the trunk and felt the flesh tremble under the new bark. He hugged the branches and covered the wood with kisses. The branches retreated from his lips. I will wear you as my crown; I will decorate my harp and quiver with you; and when the great Roman conquerors bring the triumphal pomp to the Capitoline Hill, you will be woven into garlands for their foreheads. And, since my eternal youth is mine, you too will always be green, and your leaf will know no decay." The nymph, now transformed into a laurel tree, bowed her head in gratitude.