In the Classical period, a temenos (sanctuary) grew up around what was alleged to be his burial mound, which was located at the feet of a statue of Apollo.

As the youngest and most beautiful son of Amyclas and Diomede, daughter of Lapithes, Hyacinth was the brother of Cynortus,[5] Argalus,[6] Polyboea,[7] Laodamia[8] (or Leanira[9]), Harpalus,[10] Hegesandra,[11] and in other versions, of Daphne.

In Greek mythology, Hyacinthus was a Spartan prince of remarkable beauty and a lover of the god of the sun Apollo.

[17] However, based on its ancient description, the flower Hyacinth turned into is not the modern plant bearing that name.

[22] Pausanias has recorded that the throne of Apollo in Sparta had the depiction of bearded Hyacinthus being taken to heaven along with Polyboea by Aphrodite, Athena and Artemis.

[24] On the first day, people mourned his death by eating as little as possible and abstaining from singing songs, contrary to all the other festivals of Apollo.

As for the girls, some were carried in decorated wicker carts and others paraded in chariots pulled by two horses, which they raced.

[25] Every year the Laconian women wove a chiton for Apollo and presented it to him, a tradition similar to the peplos offered to Athena at Athens upon the occasion of the Panathenaic Games.

[33] The apotheosis of Hyacinthus indicates that, after attaining godhood, he represented the natural cycle of decay and renewal.

Moreover, Pausanias describes the monument at Amyclae as consisting of a rude figure of Apollo standing on an altar-shaped base that formed the tomb of Hyacinthus.

It is suggested that Hyacinthus would have spent the winter months in the underworld, or more suitably Hyperborea and returning to earth in the spring when the hyacinth flower blooms.

[42] However, this flower has been identified with another plant, the larkspur, or an iris, or perhaps gladiolus italicus rather than what we today call hyacinth.

Ancient Greeks associated with Apollo a deep blue or violet precious gem called hyacinth.

The people who visited Apollo's shrine, as well as his priests and the high priestess Pythia, were required to wear this gem.