The Black Rose
There was once a red, shinning rose, the only one of its kind, in the garden of a palace ruled by King Midas. After doing Dionysus, the god of wine, a favor King Midas was granted the golden touch; experimenting the gift he touched the elegant rose and turned it into solid gold. King Midas, needing the flower no more offered it to Zeus, the god of the sky and leader of the gods, as a gift.
Zeus accepted the gift and showed it off to all of the other gods. Pan, the god of the wild, was disgraced with Zeus for thinking that turning any living creature into gold was a good thing. So one night Pan snuck out and stole the golden rose from Zeus. Afterwards, he cleansed the rose in the freshest and cleanest waters of this earth. After dipping it in the water the golden rose lived again, but now its color had changed to a bright orange.
Pan later gave the flower to Aphrodite, the goddess of love and beauty. Aphrodite didn't have too many clothes that matched with that shade of orange in her closet (which was the size of the Gods' throne room) so she lost it on purpose. Aphrodite was a selfish god so she didn't really care.
Zeus eventually found the flower and recognized it. He put it in a box and later completely forgot about it. For about a century the rose was alone until Zeus put hope and all the chaos in the world in that box too.
For the next eon or so the flower remained in the box somehow alive, but now Zeus had given the horrid box to a young lady. This young maiden was married to the brother of a titan who gave humans fire. Since Zeus had not allowed it this was to be the titan's punishment. When Pandora, the young lady, opened the box out of curiosity she let loose all chaos, sin, disease, and other evil things into the world. The only things remaining in the box were hope and the flower, now a florescent tone of yellow.
Pandora gave the flower to Nemesis, the goddess of revenge. The rose served as an offering to get revenge for what Zeus had done to her family. Nemesis took the flower and later helped Pandora with her problem.
A century later, Persephone, the daughter of Demeter taken against her will by Hades, came to Nemesis to get revenge. Persephone saw the yellow rose in Nemesis's hair and asked if she could have it. Nemesis gave the flower to Persephone and when she touched it the yellow rose turned a glittering white.
Persephone took the flower back to the underworld and wore it all the time, because it was all the life and light in the dark, horrid, deadly blackness of hell. Hades, a man of no love, soon grew annoyed with the brightness of the white rose. So one day, he took it from Persephone. But as soon as he touched the rose, it started to die. As soon as she realized what had happened Persephone snapped it back and the rose lived, though now it turned black.