In antiquity, bay leaves or laurel was widely revered. It was considered to be the plant of the god Apollo, portrayed as a young man with wavy hair adorned with a laurel wreath. The legends state that Apollo, god of the sun, fell in love with the nymph Daphne, who was changed into a laurel tree. Pythia, the oracle at Delphi spoke her prophecies apparently because she chewed laurel leaves and sat on a three-legged stool shrouded in laurel. Young doctors in the Middle Ages, upon successfully finishing their studies received laurel wreaths. They called themselves "Bocca laureati" which in time became "baccalaureate", or bachelor. Poets, artists and prophets were decorated with laurel wreaths and addressed with the honorific laureate, a term still used today.