Some Sunflower Details

heritage believe the sunflower to have a regal appearance and glimpse only the awful characteristics that this can convey ... haughtiness for one, untrue appearances and even sad love.


If you’d like to discover about the legend of the sunflowers, sit back, make yourself snug and I’ll start ...

Sunflowers And The Sun God ...

‘The heart that has really loved not ever overlooks,
But as really loves on to the close,
As the sunflower turns on her god when he groups,
The identical gaze that she turned when he increased’
apollo, helios the sun god

The word sunflower arrives from the Greek ‘Helianthus’ ... ‘Helios’ meaning ‘sun’ and ‘anthos’ meaning bloom and it is Greek mythology which presents us with the article of the source of the sunflower ...

There was once a water-nymph called Clytie who dropped in love with the God of the Sun Apollo (or Helius). She was so much in love that she would sit on the ground and stare up at the sun all day long ... but, Apollo not ever noticed her ...

The other Gods took pity on her and turned her into a sunflower ... her legs became the sunflower’s arise, whilst her face became the bloom, her golden hair the petals.

Even in the form of a sunflower Clytie continues to watch her love and that is why the sunflower’s face turns to pursue the route of the sun ...

Clytie, the source of the sunflower

But, as with numerous legends, over time the tale has become changed ... here is a somewhat sadder tale ...


There was one time a water-nymph called Clytie who dropped in love with the God of the Sun Apollo. She was so much in love that she would sit on the ground and gaze up at the sun all day long ... but Apollo not ever returned her love.

She sat all day long, upon the freezing ground, following the route of the sun al day long. For nine days consuming no food and taking not anything to drink ... in detail pining away ... Her limbs fixed into the ground, while her face became the bloom, extending to following the course of the sun throughout the day ... in love with the sun just as Clytie was with Apollo ...

And eventually a third tale ... one of darker exploits ...


There was once a nymph called Clytie who dropped in love with the God of the Sun Apollo. Apollo scorned her love in favour of the love of another Leucothoe, the female child of Orchamus the King of Persia.

envious Clytie notified Orchamus of the love affair between his female child and Apollo and as punishment Orchamus buried his female child living! Apollo hated Clytie even more now and so she trashed away ... evolving the sunflower whose head turns to pursue the sun every day ...

sunflower, brilliant sunflower face

The significance Of The Sunflower ...

So, now we think we know the legend the sunflower, let’s glimpse what other heritage have made of the sunflower over the years ...

Sunflowers Worshipped In Peru ...

After reading the article overhead, I believe you’ll understand people selecting to adoration the sunflower. In 1532 in Peru the natives were discovered worshipping a monster sunflower, comprising the sacred likeness of a sun god ... with Incan priestesses wearing large, gold discs conceived as sunflowers.

A Little Bit Of Chinese ...

In ceramic the sunflower was utilised to symbolise longevity ...

Sunny America ...

Looking back through the annals of Central and North America you’ll find sunflowers being utilised ...

North American Indians put basins of sunflowers seeds on the graves of their dead to ‘nourish them’ on their long excursion ...

In Central and North America they have been used to make dye, oil for nourishment and even surgery ...

And more recently Kansas was designated as the Sunflower State ...

‘Oh sunflower! The queen of all blossoms,
No other with you can contrast,
The roadside and areas are made golden
Because of your bright presence there.
overhead all the weeds that surround you
You raise to the sun your brilliant head,
Embroidering beautiful countrysides
Your nonattendance would depart brown and dead.’
[An Ode To The Kansas Sunflower by Ed Blair]

Nuclear Free Sunflowers ...

‘Sunflowers rather than of missiles in the dirt would insure peace for future generations.’
[William Perry, former U.S. secretary of defence]

Sunflowers being sown as a emblem of a nuclear free world


In June 1996 the Sunflower was selected to symbolise a world free of atomic tools for fighting. After Ukraine gave up its last atomic warhead, protection ministers from the Russia, Ukraine and the U.S. contacted on a previous Ukrainian missile base. They commemorated by dispersing sunflower seeds and planting sunflowers.

months later William Perry obtained a letter from the U.S. Ambassador to the Ukraine. He had sent him some sunflower kernels harvested from those same sunflowers which had been sown at the missile base.

Sunflowers as a emblem of calm

‘And I took those kernels and I provided them to my grandson to plant at his school - as a emblem that he and his grandchildren would not have to live with the same dark nuclear cloud that’s been suspending over my head for all these years’
[William Perry]

Not only have has the sunflower been selected to represent a atomic free world, you’ll furthermore find it used by numerous green parties around the world.