When you rest on your laurels, you are sitting on Apollo's heartbreak — the laurel tree was the transformed nymph Daphne, and its wreath crowned both poets and conquerors.
An evergreen shrub or tree with dark glossy leaves, especially the bay laurel; a wreath of laurel leaves worn as a symbol of victory or distinction in ancient Greece and Rome.
From Old French lorier (laurel tree), from Latin laurus (laurel, bay tree), of uncertain ultimate origin, possibly pre-Indo-European. The laurel wreath was sacred to Apollo and was awarded to victors at the Pythian Games and to poets, generals, and emperors. Key roots: laurus (Latin (possibly pre-Indo-European): "laurel, bay tree").
The phrases "resting on your laurels" and "poet laureate" both trace to the ancient custom of crowning victors with laurel wreaths. Laureate literally means "crowned with laurel." The baccalaureate (bachelor's degree) may derive from bacca lauri (laurel berry). The laurel was sacred to Apollo because, according to myth, the nymph Daphne was transformed