DAPHNIS, the legendary hero of the shepherds of Sicily, and reputed inventor of bucolic poetry. According to his coun tryman Diodorus (iv. 84), and Aelian (Var. Hist. x. 18), Daph nis was the son of Hermes and a Sicilian nymph, and was found by shepherds in a grove of laurels (whence his name). He won the affection of a nymph, who made him promise to love none but her, threatening that if he proved unfaithful he would lose his eyesight. He failed to keep his promise and was smitten with blindness. Daphnis, who endeavoured to console himself by playing the flute and singing shepherds' songs, soon afterwards died, or was taken up to heaven by his father Hermes, who caused a spring of water to gush out from the spot where his son had been carried off. Ever afterwards, the Sicilians offered sacrifices at this spring. In Theocritus, Id. I., Daphnis' appar ently has offended Eros and Aphrodite, and in return has been smitten with unrequited love ; he dies, although Aphrodite, moved by compassion, endeavours, but too late, to save him.
See H. W. Stoll in Roscher's Lexikon; and G. Knaack in Pauly Wissowa's Realencyklopddie.