Ontario Wildflowers

Lore: Followers of Napoleon used the violet as a symbol of their leader, because, while he was in exile he vowed to return in the Spring with the violets.

The Greek word for violet, ion, is traced to a story of Zeus and a water nymph named Io who were secret lovers. In order to hide his affair and protect Io from his wife Hera, Zeus turned Io into a white Heifer. Io was quite distraught with her new identity and particularly with the fact that she had to eat rough grass all day long. After crying for quite some time Zeus felt bad for her and created violets from her teardrops. Reference: laurentiancenter.com