Half-divine son of the Muse Clio by the mortal Pierus; the Apolline beloved whose accidental death and flower-metamorphosis became the central etiology of the Spartan Hyacinthia festival. The dominant tradition has Zephyrus the west wind, jealous of Apollo's favored status, blow the discus back to kill Hyacinthus during athletic play; the Apollodoran variant has Apollo throw it accidentally without divine interference. The hyakinthos flower (likely a larkspur or fritillaria in ancient Mediterranean botany, not the modern hyacinth) bore the lettering AI AI on its petals to commemorate Apollo's grief — the etiological flower-from-blood pattern shared with Adonis (anemone) and Narcissus (narcissus). Cult continued at Spartan Amyclae through the imperial period; the Hyacinthia was one of the major annual rites of the Spartan religious calendar.