Myrrha
Μύρρα
The princess who became a tree after a forbidden love, and bore Adonis in a tree's body.
A princess of Cyprus, made to love her own father by the wrath of Aphrodite.
Ovid opens this episode with a warning to his readers: "Daughters, fathers, stand back from this tale."
Exposed and fleeing, she begged the gods and became the myrrh tree; the tree's trunk split open and Adonis was born. The fragrant resin the tree weeps came to be called the tears of Myrrha.
SourcesOvid, Metamorphoses
Commonly confused
The word myrrh does not come from this myth. A Semitic word meaning "bitter" came first; Greek myth borrowed the name and made it a person.