"Apollo detto" (see details) (see related A | B | C), 470- BC Uffizi Gallery, Florence, Tuscany, Italy

Apollo, a deity that illuminated darkness, was a fountain of music and harmony ... perhaps a source of our need to "apologize". Considered the most handsome and perfect male, he was nonetheless rejected by Daphne, who became a "bay" laurel tree or Laurus nobilis - Apollo honored Daphne by making her leaves the emblem of appreciation and admiration, a gesture to this day implicit when someone is grated "laurels" and becomes a laureate or baccalaureate.