Calamus

Καλαμος

The son of the river-god Meander of Phrygia, his name means 'reed'. He was deeply in love with a youth of great beauty named Carpus who was the son of the god Zephyrus and one of the Horae. One day they were both bathing in the Meander and Calamus wanted to show his friend that he was the better swimmer, but in the competition which ensued Carpus was drowned. In his grief Calamus withered to such an extent that he became a reed by the river bank. Carpus (whose name means 'fruit') became the 'fruit of the fields' which dies and is reborn every year.

{E2 DICTIONARY OF CLASSICAL MYTHOLOGY}

Table of Sources
- Serv. on Virgil, Ecl. 5, 48
- Nonnus, Dion. 11, 370ff.

Calamus, the reed pen which the ancients used in writing, made of the stem of a reed growing in marshy places, of which the best were obtained from Egypt. The stem was first softened, then dried, and cut and split with a knife, as quill pens are made. To this day the Orientals generally write with a reed.

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Calamus, the traditional name of the sweet flag, which is no doubt the "calamus aromaticus" of Roman authors, and probably the sweet calamus and sweet cane of Scripture.

Entry from Everybody's Cyclopedia, 1912.

Cal"a*mus (?), n.; pl. Calami (#). [L., a reed. See Halm.]

1. Bot.

The indian cane, a plant of the Palm family. It furnishes the common rattan. See Rattan, and Dragon's blood.

2. Bot.

A species of Acorus (A. calamus), commonly called calamus, or sweet flag. The root has a pungent, aromatic taste, and is used in medicine as a stomachic; the leaves have an aromatic odor, and were formerly used instead of rushes to strew on floors.

3. Zool.

The horny basal portion of a feather; the barrel or quill.

© Webster 1913.