Hyacinth
in classical mythology, a Laconian youth, beloved by Apollo, who killed him undesignedly by a throw of a discus or quoit. The god transformed him into a flower (hyacinthus), on which, in memorial of his grief, he inscribed the Greek letters "alpha" and "iota." Scientifically viewed, the process should be reversed. The discovery of some plant with marks faintly resembling the Greek letters "alpha" and "iota" generated the myth of the youth Hyacinthus.
In botany, a genus of Liliacex, tribe Scilleæ, once so extensive as to include the common wild hyacinth (hyacinth of the woods) or blue-bell, then called Hyacinthus nonscriptus, next transferred to the genus Agraphis of Link, and called HYAENA Agraphis nutans, and now figuring as Scilla nutans.
In mineralogy, a precious stone, described by Pliny as of the color of a hyacinth, and also like an amethyst, but not so blue. Some consider it a kind of amethyst.