The Legend of the Orpheus Flower

According to ancient legends, after the Maenads attacked Orpheus, the conspirators pelted him with stones and threw spears at him. One of them, armed with a bronze sword, severed his head, and his body was torn apart. From each drop of blood that fell on the grass, a remarkable flower grew – the Orpheus flower.
The image of this flower even appears on a coin minted in Rome, and thus I discovered the Orpheus flower near the village of Gela in the Smolyan region. Botanists from Hungary, Russia, and Bulgaria conducted experiments with it: they uprooted the plant with its roots, kept it in a herbarium for two and a half years, and then replanted it back in its natural environment. The flower took hold and restored its life, unfolding and blooming once again. The Orpheus flower is unique because it is the only one in the world that enters a state of hibernation (false death) and possesses the secret of immortality, being a relic from the Ice Age.
The Romans depicted this flower on coins, and emperors came to the Rhodope Mountains to pay homage to it. The air of the Rhodopes was infused with music and love.
In his treatise "On Rivers," Pseudo-Plutarch (3rd century) writes: "In Mount Pangyus, there grows a plant called the lyre for the following reason. The women, after tearing Orpheus apart, threw his parts into the river Hebrus (Maritsa). His head, by the will of the gods, took the form of a serpent, and his lyre, by the will of Apollo, became a star. From his flowing blood, a plant called lyre was born. During the Dionysian festivals, it emitted the sound of a lyre."
The Orpheus flower grows in crevices of rocks and blooms from June to August. Over the centuries, it has had six different names: lyre, stiraka, shap, Rhodope saxifrage, Haberlea rhodopensis, and Orpheus flower. Its stems reach about 15 centimeters in height, and its flowers, colored white (Orpheus color) with purple shades, resemble small bells, usually three or five in number. This flower is extremely sensitive – if a cloud shadows the sun and its shadow falls on it, it instantly closes its flowers. However, as soon as the sun shines again, the Orpheus flower opens, as if absorbing the light. It is like a verse and music, created by the same Rhodope nature that gave birth to Orpheus. The ancient Thracians knew the healing properties of the plant. In his book "Magical Botany," Orpheus passed this knowledge on to the initiated.
The centenarian Albena Churalska from the village of Vodni pad has preserved the folk memory of the Orpheus flower, but she calls it "shapiva bilka" because it was used to treat livestock for the disease known as "shap." She recounts: "Long ago, the old people used shapiva bilka. We used it to adorn cradles – so that children would not be cursed, not be afflicted, and live long. It was also used to adorn ponies – so that they would multiply and not diminish. With shapiva bilka and other flowers, garlands were made. Girls secretly made garlands for their beloved. And secretly gave them to their chosen ones, so that their love would be eternal."
An expedition to discover the Orpheus flower was conducted in 1834 by Hungarian botanist Emerich Frivaldszky. He found the flower along the Chaya River near Bachkovo and recorded: "The most interesting plants were obtained from the mountain range between the Rhodopes and Stanimaka (Asenovgrad). Here, among the new and rare species, was the plant that in 1835 I named Haberlea rhodopensis, in honor of my teacher, the distinguished botanist Haberle Carol." Later, science reversed the two words, and the flower became known as Haberlea rhodopensis.