hyacinth

Any of a group of bulb-producing plants belonging to the lily family, native to the eastern Mediterranean and Africa. The cultivated hyacinth (H. orientalis) has large, scented, cylindrical heads of pink, white, or blue flowers. (Genus Hyacinthus, family Liliaceae.)

The water hyacinth, a floating plant from South America, is unrelated.

Hyacinth

In Greek mythology, the son of Amyclas, a Spartan king. Beloved by the god Apollo, he rejected the love of Zephyrus, god of the west wind, who killed him in jealousy by blowing Apollo's discus against the youth's head. The purple hyacinth flower sprang from his blood.

Originally a pre-Hellenic earth deity, Hyacinthus was worshipped at Amyclae in Sparta as a hero; the Hyacinthia, the second most important Spartan festival, was held in his honour.