In Classical mythology, Krokus was a mortal man who, unhappy with his love affair with Smilax, was turned by the gods into a plant bearing his name: the crocus Saffron. Smilax is believed to have been given a similar fate and was transformed into bindweed. In one variation of the myth, Krokus was said to be a companion of Mercury and was accidentally killed by the god in a game of discus. Mercury was so distraught at this that he transformed Krokus' body into a flower. The myth is similar to that of Apollon and Hyakinthos, and may indeed be a variation thereof. In his translation of Nonnos' Dionysiaca, W.H.D. Rouse describes the tale of Krokus as being from the late Classical period and very little is known about it.
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