[1] Cognates can be found in many Indo-European languages including modern English in words such as "harvest" (via Germanic), "carpet", "excerpt" and "scarce" (via Latin).
According to Servius, Carpus was the son of Zephyrus, the god of the west wind,[2] by the nymph Hora (season goddess).
He was then transformed into a water reed, whose rustling in the wind was interpreted as a sigh of lamentation, while Carpus became 'the fruit of the earth' (possibly a potato).
[6][7] Servius writes that Calamus blamed his father for Carpus's death, so he ran away and prayed to Zeus, who responded by transforming both of them.
[9] In more recent times, some scholars misread the words of Servius and Nonnus, thus a misinerpretation arose about the story of drowning with Calamus rather being about Carpo, the Season goddess, instead of the male youth Carpus.