Apollo chided Cupid for using a bow to ignite love. Apollo claimed that the bow was his creation and best suited for his purposes, not the games of the love. Cupid avenged his slighted honor by shooting Apollo with a golden-pointed arrow that induces love and shooting Daphne, daughter of the river Peneus, with a lead-pointed arrow that repels love. Apollo fell in love with Daphne, but she wanted to be like Diana, virgin goddess of the hunt. So when Apollo called out to her, she ran away from him. He chased her and kept trying to explain who he was and that he was in love with her, but Daphne refused to stop running.
As she ran through the brambles and brush of the forest, her skin was scratched, and Apollo called out to her to run carefully so that she would not hurt herself. Apollo followed only a few steps behind her and she was losing strength. Then she saw her father the river ahead and called out to him to change her and destroy her beauty that had brought such a plight upon her. Peneus changed his daughter into a laurel tree. Apollo still loved her and because she could not be his wife, he made the laurel his sacred tree. He wrapped his bow and lyre in laurel wreaths and wore it in his hair. He also made it the honorary decoration of the conquering lords of Rome.
