Alpheus and Arthusa

Arethusa, yet another huntress who loved the comfort of the deep woods. She detested love and marriage and vowed never to marry.

One day, as she was tired and hot from the chase, she came upon a crystal-clear river deeply shaded in silvery willows. She undressed and bathed in the river, which was a place that was perfect for bathing. For a while, she swam to and fro, until she began to feel something below her. She sprang up from the river and stood on the bank, as she heard a voice that said "Why such haste fairest maiden?" Without looking back she fled in terror. With all the speed that she could muster up, she kept running and running, but still she was pursued by one stranger, he told her he was the god of the river, Alpheus, and that he was following her only out of absolute love. But she wanted no part of him and yet he unsparingly followed. Arethusa called to her god, Artemis, she changed her into a spring of water, and split the earth so a tunnel was made under the sea from Greece to Sicily. Arethusa plunged down and emerged in Ortygia, where the place in which her spring bubbles up is holy ground, sacred to Artemis.

But it is said that she is still not free of Alpheus. The story is that the god changed back into a river, followed her through the tunnel and the now his water mingles with hers in the fountain. They say that often Greek flowers are seen coming up from the bottom, and that if a wooden cup is thrown into the Alpheus in Greece, it would reappear in Arethusa's well in Sicily.

Daphne

Once the god Apollo made fun of Eros, equivalent to cupid the god of love. Eros was angry, and shot a golden arrow at Apollo, making him fall in love with the nymph Daphne the virgin. But Eros shot Daphne with a leaden arrow so she could never love Apollo back. So Apollo followed her while she ran away, until she came to the river of her father Peneus. Apollo is jealous and puts it into the girl's mind to stop to bathe in the river Ladon; there, as all strip naked, the ruse is revealed, as in the myth of Callisto. There she wanted help from Peneus, who turned her into a laurel tree so she would be safe from Apollo. Apollo was sad, and made himself a laurel wreath (a circle made of laurel that you put on your head) from the tree, and the laurel tree became sacred to Apollo and is used by emperors within the culture. After the crown was used for all the winners at his games and great heroes in the years to come would be crowned with laurel leaves. He also vowed that she, like him, would have eternal youth where her leaves would never turn brown or fall but would always stay lush and green. Apollo loved that laurel with all of his heart.

Endymion

Endymion was a handsome shepherd boy of Asia Minor, the mortal lover of the moon goddess Selene..Each night he was kissed to sleep by her. She begged Zeus to grant him eternal life so she might be able to embrace him forever. Zeus complied, putting Endymion into eternal sleep and each night Selene visits him on Mt. Latmus, near Milete, in Asia Minor. The ancient Greeks believed that his grave was situated on this mountain. Selene and Endymion had fifty daughters.

Baucis and Philemon

Baucis and Philemon were a pious Phrygian couple who unwittingly entertained Zeus and Hermes in their cottage. The gods rewarded them by saving them from the flood with which they punished the other Phrygians for their lack of hospitality. The couple’s cottage became a temple, of which they were the priests, and their prayer that they be allowed to die together was answered when they simultaneously were turned into trees, an oak and a linden.

Pygmalion and Galatea

A gifted young sculptor of Cyprus, named Pygmalion, was a woman-hater. Detesting the faults beyond measure which nature has given to women he resolved never to marry. His art, he told himself, was enough for him. Nevertheless, the statue he made and devoted all his genius to was that of a woman. Either he could not dismiss what he so disapproved of from his mind as easily as from his life, or else he was bent on forming a perfect woman and showing men the deficiencies of the kind they had to put up with. However that was, he labored long and devotedly on the statue and produced a most exquisite work of art. But lovely as it was he could not rest content. He kept on working at it and daily under his skillful fingers it grew more beautiful. No woman ever born, no statue ever made, could approach it. When nothing could be added to its perfections, a strange fate had befallen its creator: he had fallen in love, deeply, passionately in love, with the thing he had made. It must be said in explanation that the statue did not look like a statue; no one would have thought it ivory or stone, but warm human flesh, motionless for a moment only. Such was the wondrous power of this disdainful young man. The supreme achievement of art was his, the art of concealing art. But from that time on, the sex he scorned had their revenge. No hopeless lover of a living maiden was ever so desperately unhappy as Pygmalion. He kissed those enticing lips - they could not kiss back; he caressed her hands, her face - they were unresponsive; he took her in his arms - she remained a cold and passive form. In the end he gave up. He loved a lifeless thing and he was utterly and hopelessly wretched.
This singular passion did not long remain concealed from the Goddess of Passionate Love. Venus was interested in something that seldom came her way, a new kind of a lover, and she determined to help a young man who could be enamored and yet original.

Ceyx and Alcyone

Ceyx, the son of the morning star was the king of the Greek city of Trachis. He was married to Alcyone, whose father Aeolus was the keeper of the winds. They are married happily until the day when Ceyx decides to journey across the ocean. Knowing the dangers of the sea, Alcyone begs him not to go, or at least to take her with him. But Ceyx declines her offer and sets out without her. On the first night of the journey, a storm ravages his ship, and Ceyx dies with Alcyone's name on his lips. Alcyone continues to wait for her husband, making him cloaks and praying fruitlessly to Hera for his safe return. Hera pities the woman and asks Somnus, god of Sleep, to tell her the truth about her husband's death. Somnus sends his son Morpheus to break the news in a dream, so Morpheus takes the form of the drowned Ceyx. Alcyone wakes from the terrible dream and knows her husband has died. She goes into the ocean to drown herself and be with him, but she sees his body floating towards her. She dives in but, miraculously, flies over the waves instead of sinking into them. The gods have turned her into a bird. The body of Ceyx disappears, and Ceyx turns into a bird as well. They are still together, flying and in love.

Orpheus and Eurydice

Orpheus was a legendary musician, poet, and prophet in ancient Greek religion and myth. It is not told where he met his wife and how he courted her, but it is known that no maiden Orpheus desired could have resisted the power of his music. Sadly immediately after the wedding as Eurydice, his wife, walked in the meadow with her bridesmaids, a viper stung her and she died. Orpheus' grief was so great that he vowed to go down to the world of death and try to bring Eurydice back. He traveled to the underworld and by his music softened the hearts of Hades and Persephone (he was the only person ever to do so), who agreed to allow Eurydice to return with him to earth on one condition: he should walk in front of her and not look back until they both had reached the upper world. He set off with Eurydice following, and, in his anxiety, as soon as he reached the upper world, he turned to look at her, forgetting that both needed to be in the upper world, and she vanished for the second time, but now forever.