Apollo loved Clytʹie, but forsook her for her sister Leucothʹoe. On discovering this, Clytie pined away; and Apollo changed her at death to a flower, which, always turning towards the sun, is called heliotrope. (Greek, “turn-to-sun.”)
⁂ According to the poets, heliotrope renders the bearer invisible. Boccaccio calls it a stone, but Solīnus says it is the herb. “Ut herba ejusdem nominis mixta et prœcantationibus legitimis consecrata, eum, a quocunque gestabitur, subtrahat visibus obviorum.” (Georgic, xi.)
“No hope had they of crevice where to hide,
Or heliotrope to charm them out of view.”
“The other stone is heliotrope, which renders those who have it invisible.”—Boccuccio: The Decameron, Novel iii., Eighth day.
