How carnations, the traditional Mother’s Day flower, got their name and what they have do to with gouged-out eyes

• The carnation’s genus name, Dianthus, references the macabre Graeco-Roman legend, involving a goddess gouging out a shepherd’s eyes
• Some have postulated that the name ‘carnation’ derives from the Latin carnem, ‘flesh’, while others say it could be from a misreading of the Arabic ‘qaranful’