[5] The name comes from Greek mythology: Hyacinth was killed by Zephyrus, the god of the west wind, jealous of his love for Apollo, who then transformed the drops of blood into flowers.

The genus Hyacinthus is considered native to the eastern Mediterranean from southern Turkey to the region of Palestine, including Lebanon and Syria, and on through Iraq and Iran to Turkmenistan.

[5] It is widely naturalized elsewhere, including Europe (Bulgaria, France, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Sardinia, Sicily and former Yugoslavia), Cyprus, North America (California, Pennsylvania, Texas), central Mexico, the Caribbean (Cuba, Haiti) and Korea.

[5] The Dutch, or common hyacinth, of house and garden culture (H. orientalis, native to Southwest Asia) was so popular in the 18th century that over 2,000 cultivars were grown in the Netherlands, its chief commercial producer.

The name ὑάκινθος (hyakinthos) was used in Ancient Greece for at least two distinct plants, which have variously been identified as Scilla bifolia or Orchis quadripunctata and Consolida ajacis (larkspur).

—Yet when we came back, late, from the Hyacinth garden, Your arms full, and your hair wet, I could not Speak, and my eyes failed, I was neither Living nor dead, and I knew nothing, Looking into the heart of light, the silence.

[20] American rock band The Doors released a song entitled "Hyacinth House" which appeared on their 1971 album L.A. Woman, the last to feature lead singer Jim Morrison.