The Sunflower's Story

Phaethon had been walking for a long while until he found a stream where he could fill up his canteen. Bending down to let the water flow better into the flask, Phaethon heard something on his right. He frowned as he looked around but all he saw was a sunflower that moved gracefully in the wind. Phaethon had never thought much about sunflowers. They didn’t smell sweet. They weren’t the most beautiful flower in the garden. They were just there, floating in the breeze. He placed the cap back onto the lid of his canteen trying to figure out what would be the best direction to go to find his dad, Apollo.

“He lives on Mount Olympus,” came a voice that made the young man jump back. He looked up at the sunflower again and gasped. The ordinary flower was talking to him. It took on no human features but Phaethon could feel the spirit inside of it as the flower spoke.

“Apollo, he lives on Mount Olympus with all the other gods,” the sunflower said, causing Phaethon to blink uncontrollably.

“How do you know?” Phaethon asked as he walked closer to the large flower. He had heard how heroes had been led by random things from the earth directing their path but he had never expected that he would have been led this way.

“I am a sunflower, which means I keep track of the sun. Apollo being the god of the sun, it means I watch him constantly,” the sunflower explained as it grew still when the wind was gone.

“Have you ever met my father? What is he like? Is it true that is the most handsome of all the gods?” Phaethon’s questions were fast and instant as he was starving for information about his father. The sunflower’s leaves shook, making Phaethon lean in even closer because he could tell this was going to be important.

“When I was human, my name was Clytie. I thought Apollo was going to be my husband because I loved him so much. He came to visit me often and told me the sweetest words. I listened intently thinking he meant every one of them.

“Then she came along. Her name was Leucothoe. Personally, I didn’t think she was as beautiful as I was. However, Apollo thought she was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. He stopped coming to visit me and I was devastated. I didn’t care if she was a king’s daughter; he had fallen in love with me first!

“So I decided that this relationship between Apollo and Leucothoe had to stop. I told her father that Apollo was disguising himself as her mother and then sneaking into their home to make love to her. It was true, of course. However, his anger surprised even me. He called for her to be buried alive. It was not what I had wanted; I had only wanted him to send her away. However, she was dead before Apollo found out about her death sentence.

“He came to me that day and pulled me back to where she had been buried. He was angry and upset but I didn’t care. I told him I could comfort him over her death. It was something we could cope with together.” The sunflower’s story stopped making Phaethon wait with bated breath.

“What happened after that?” he asked, begging to know how his father would have reacted in such a horrible situation.

“He touched the dirt that Leucothoe had been buried under and a myrrh tree grew. Everyone knows that the myrrh trees are the sweetest-smelling trees in all the land. Then he looked at me and I just knew we were going to be together forever now. But then, when he took my hand, I knew instantly that all my dreams were over. My body was gone and it was replaced with just a dull green stem. My head was turned into this bloom. I must face the sun constantly so that I may watch his every movement. It is a terrible fate,” the sunflower wept, her petals wilting until she had lost nearly all of them.

Phaethon watched the flower go into despair but he had no time to comfort her, especially after she had been so evil to a girl like Leucothoe. Placing his traveling bag on his shoulder, Phaethon headed on down the road next to the stream. He wasn’t sure how he felt about his father after the sunflower’s story. It only fueled his fire to truly find his dad and ask him all the burning questions that he had inside his head.

 
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