Kalamos (; ) is a Greek mythological figure. He is son of Maiandros, the god of the Maeander river. Mythology A story in Nonnus's Dionysiaca tells about the love of two youths, Kalamos and Karpos, the son of Zephyrus and Chloris. Karpos drowned in the Meander river while the two were competing in a swimming contest. In his grief, Kalamos allowed himself to drown also. He was then transformed into a water reed, whose rustling in the wind was interpreted as a sigh of lamentation. Walt Whitman's "Calamus" poems in Leaves of Grass may have been inspired by this story. Etymology of the word Kalamos Similar words can be found in Sanskrit (कलम kalama, meaning "reed" and "pen" as well as a type of rice), Hebrew (kulmus, meaning quill) and Latin (calamus) as well as the ancient Greek Κάλαμος (Kalamos). The Arabic word قلم qalam (meaning "pen" or "reed pen") is likely to have been borrowed from one of these languages in antiquity. The Swahili word kalamu ("pen") comes from the Arabic qalam. The Greeks also used the term for various wind instruments, especially but not necessarily reed instruments, including the aulos, or the plural kalamoi for the syrinx. From the Latin calamus come a number of modern English words: calamus (aka Sweet Flag), a wetland reed calamari, meaning "squid", via the Latin calamarium, "ink horn" or "pen case", as reeds were then used as writing implements calumet, a French, colonial-era word often used for a Native American ceremonial pipe shawm, a medieval oboe-like instrument (whose sound is produced by a vibrating reed mouthpiece) chalumeau register, the lower notes of a clarinet's range (another reed instrument) See also Qalam, Arabic pen References Nonnus of Panopolis, Dionysiaca translated by William Henry Denham Rouse (1863-1950), from the Loeb Classical Library, Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press, 1940. Online version at the Topos Text Project. Nonnus of Panopolis, Dionysiaca. 3 Vols. W.H.D. Rouse. Cambridge, MA., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1940-1942. Greek text available at the Perseus Digital Library. Children of Potamoi LGBT themes in Greek mythology Fictional LGBT characters in literature Metamorphoses into plants in Greek mythology