"The heart that has truly loved, never forgets, But as truly loves on to the close; As the sunflower turns on her god when he sets The same look that she turned when he rose." ~Thomas Moore

Above you will discover first a pencilled character design I completed in 1999 of a woman named Eden.  Looking back on that sketch, I can see how close she resembles one of my favorite actresses, Gina Torres, whom I can only just imagine as Eden.  I often think of actors when I design characters and, when I write, I often imagine the action I'm writing about taking place on a television or movie screen.  But who is Eden, you ask, and what does she have to do with sunflowers?  For a long while I have been inspired by the story of the water nymph, Clytie, who was transformed into a Sunflower for her love of the sun god Apollo.  For seven years I've been working on a way to retell ancient stories in a fictional way to appeal to a new generation in a series of retro-futuristic-fairy-tale-world fables under the title GOSSAMER.  I do not know if this volume of work will ever be published, but if it does you will hear a lot about Clytie since she is one of its main characters. 

Besides my imaginary "mock-ups" of over laying Gina's face on a sunflower to summon the image of a modern day Clytie, I also included two other images of Clytie above.  This shows her traditionally as a skinny white woman who looks like she'd break in the wind.  I imagine Clytie as a strong, dark skinned, sun-worshipping woman who wasn't going to take Apollo's disregard for her for granted! 

In original Greek myth (adapted from Ovid), Clytie didn't just crush on Apollo, she was seduced by him.  After spending a one night stand with him, she could love no one else.  But Apollo didn't love Clytie like she loved him.  He was more interested in her sister, Leucothea (a sea nymph, also known as the white nymph or The White Goddess).  Clytie was so troubled by this that she betrayed her sister to their father, the king Orchamus.  Enraged at Leucothea for losing her virginity to the sun god, he had her buried alive in the sand.  By getting rid of her sister, Clytie only infuriated Apollo.  His heart hardened against her and she pined away for him for nine days, sitting naked on the rocks, with no food or water, til she was near death.  Either out of sympathy or out of punishment, Clytie was transformed into a sunflower or heliotrope which always turns its head into the direction of the sun.

As I study this story, I feel that Clytie's intentions were to just turn Apollo's attentions away from her sister onto her.  She didn't want her sister to be killed by their father.  She must have been devastated that her desire for her God cost the life of her sister and emotionally damaged her family.  She wasn't just pining away for Apollo, she was grieving, too.  I like to think that, despite her foolish envy and longing, that Apollo took pity on her and changed her into a flower so she can continue to worship him without causing her harm.  By becoming a sunflower, her family could visit her and care for her, too.  This way the family would not have lost both daughters.  I also like to think that Clytie's father was eventually punished for killing his daughter, too.  But I have to do further research to see what happened to Clytie's dad.

In my GOSSAMER fables, Clytie is an immortal sunflower celebrated in the early 20th century as an agricultural wonder at the 1904's World's Fair in St. Louis, Missouri.  She was stolen from what was claimed to be a "real" Garden of Eden.  What was most miraculous about Clytie the Sunflower was that she never wilted in winter and was larger and livelier than most sunflowers.  The man or company that stole Clytie from her sacred garden hoped to make money off her by finding out the secret of her immortality and using it to create a new kind of super crop to feed people.  No matter how good this guy's intentions were, behind it was greed and corruption.  Apollo would not have that.  He wanted Clytie to return to her garden and back under the tender care of his Greek monks (who have for centuries posed as Catholics). 

One of Apollo's favorite students was Basil Olwen, a British horticulturalist who ran away from his stuck-up old money family to the United States to start a new life.  Clytie the Sunflower catches Basil's eye.  Soon Basil finds himself in love with this flower and is compelled to try to get her out of the exhibition.  Clytie begins to fall for Basil as well.  It's been a long time since she has had feelings for anyone other than her God.  This does not displease Apollo, it's all part of his scheme to get Basil to take Clytie to a better place.  But instead of returning Clytie to Greece, Basil decides to steal Clytie for himself.  As a twist of fate, Clytie is allowed to transform back into her original human female form at night -- this is something that Apollo's sister, Diana, does to release Clytie from Apollo's curse.  Yet as long as the Sun is in the sky, Clytie cannot die.

But Clytie isn't the only nymph transformed into a plant who needs rescuing.  Clytie (later nicknamed Eden by Basil who is to become her mortal husband) and Basil set off on a series of adventures to retrieve the sleeping immortal nymphs locked inside immortal plants.  With Basil's family's money, they keep a secret botantical garden of nymphs.  Basil eventually dies a natural death, leaving Clytie-Eden to care for the garden.

As for an actor who could portray Basil, I could imagine Malcolm McDowell.

So does this sound like an interesting story or what?  Would you watch it if it were a show?