Daphne, a famous band for fashionable shoes of girls, originates from a moving, tragic love story of Greek legends. Apollo was a handsome, strong and intelligent young man, who was the god of the sun, music, poetry, medicine, and prophecy. His first lover was Daphne, a beautiful nymph with rosy cheek, silvery voice and springy knees, however, the beauty despised his love and ran away from him every time she saw him even though she knew he fell in love with her desperately. Eventually her father, a river god, transformed Daphne into a laurel tree on her renewed pleadings when Apollo was about to grasp her. Haunted by her memories, the grieved Apollo then declared this tree’s leaves, laurels, were to become the god’s token of glory and to remain green year in and year out. From then on, laurels serve as the symbol of victory, success and distinction in western culture, as it did in the case of The Poet Laureate spread in the Buckingham Palace ever since the seventeenth century. Here is the story at length in Chinese version.
相傳希臘神話中林澤仙女達芙妮(Daphne)長得丰姿綽約，豔麗非凡。主管光明、青春、音樂和詩歌的太陽神阿波羅(Apollo)爲其美貌所傾倒，夜夜相思，追求攻勢相當熱烈，怎無奈流水有情落花無意，Daphne總是逃避他的追求。一天倆人河邊偶遇，姑娘一見拔腿就跑，太陽神在後窮追不捨，達芙妮跑得疲憊不堪，抱定寧爲玉碎不爲瓦全的決心，情急之下請河神父親就地把自己變成了一株月桂樹。阿波羅感傷無限，無限深情地表示：“願你的枝葉四季常青，裝飾我的頭，裝飾我的琴，裝飾我的心，讓你成爲最高榮譽的象徵”。他將月桂樹移植到自己的'神廟旁朝夕相處，取其枝葉編成花冠帶在頭上，以示對達芙妮的傾慕和懷念。於是阿波羅初戀的破碎記錄在月桂樹純潔的高雅上，以桂冠的形式被後人世代相傳其榮耀，且看至今仍流傳的三個典故吧：to win/gain laurels贏得聲望、獲得榮譽;to look to one’s laurels愛惜名聲、衛冕;to rest/retire on one’s laurels不求上進。
