In Europe during the late 1800s, the idea that flowers represented feelings grew into a system of communicating through flower arrangements. Code books guided those who wanted to compose or read floral messages. According to one book, the apple blossom meant “Will the glow of love finally redden your delicate cheeks?” Field clover signified “Let me know when I can see you again.” A red rose petal meant “Yes!”, a white one “No!” Spurge, a green flower, carried the message: “Your nature is so cold that one might think your heart made of stone.” Users of this elaborate language needed not only a code book but also the ability to recognize blooms.
In Asian mythology the lotus often symbolizes the female sexual organs, from which new life is born. Lotuses appear in both Hindu and Buddhist mythology. Hindus refer to the god Brahma (pronounced BRAH-muh) as “lotus-born,” for he is said to have emerged from a lotus that was the navel, or center, of the universe. The lotus is also the symbol of the goddess Padma (pronounced PAD-muh), who appears on both Hindu and Buddhist monuments as a creative force.
The holiness of the flower is illustrated by the legend that when the Buddha walked on the earth he left lotuses in his trail instead of footprints. One myth about the origin of Buddha relates that he first appeared floating on a lotus. According to a Japanese legend, the mother of Nichiren (pronounced NITCH-er-en) became pregnant by dreaming of sunshine on a lotus. Nichiren founded a branch of Buddhism in the 1200s. The phrase “Om mani padme hum,” which both Hindus and Buddhists use in meditation, means “the jewel in the lotus” and can refer to the Buddha or to the mystical union of male and female energies.
Narcissus The Greek myth about the narcissus flower involves the gods’ punishment of human shortcomings. Like the stories of Adonis and Hyacinth, it involves the transfer of life or identity from a dying young man to a flower.
Narcissus (pronounced nar-SIS-us) was an exceptionally attractive young man who scorned the advances of those who fell in love with him, including Echo (pronounced EK-oh), a nymph (female nature deity). His lack of sympathy for the pangs of those he rejected angered the gods, who caused him to fall in love with his own reflection as he bent over a pool of water. Caught up in self-adoration, Narcissus died—either by drowning as he tried to embrace his own image or by pining away at the edge of the pool. In the place where he had sat gazing yearningly into the water, there appeared a flower that the nymphs named the narcissus. It became a symbol of selfishness and coldheartedness. Today psychologists use the term “narcissist” to describe someone who directs his or her affections inward rather than toward other people.
P°ppy A type of poppy native to the Mediterranean region yields a substance that can be turned into opium, a drug that was used in the ancient world to ease pain and bring on sleep. The Greeks associated poppies with both Hypnos (pronounced HIP-nohs), god of sleep, and Morpheus (pronounced MOR-fee-uhs), god of dreams. Morphine, a drug made from opium, gets its name from Morpheus.
Rose The rose, a sweet-smelling flower that blooms on a thorny shrub, has had many meanings in mythology. It was associated with the worship of certain goddesses and was, for the ancient Romans, a symbol of beauty and the flower of Venus, the Roman goddess of love. The Romans also saw roses as a symbol of death and rebirth, and they often planted them on graves.
When Christians adopted the rose as a symbol, it still carried connections with ancient mother goddesses. The flower became associated with Mary, the mother of Christ, who was sometimes addressed as the Mystic or Holy Rose. In time, the rose took on additional meanings in Christian symbolism. Red roses came to represent the blood shed by the martyrs who died for their faith; white ones stood for innocence and purity. One Christian legend says that roses originally had no thorns. But after the sin of Adam and Eve—for which they were driven out of the Garden of Eden—the rose grew thorns to remind people that they no longer lived in a state of perfection.
Sunflower Sunflowers turn their heads during the day, revolving slowly on their stalks to face the sun as it travels across the sky. The Greek myth of Clytie (pronounced KLY-tee) and Apollo, which
The lotus flower's association with rebirth made it a prominent flower in ancient Egyptian tombs, as a way of promoting the rebirth of the dead into the afterlife. Here the wife of the Egyptian nobleman Nebamun is shown holding lotus flowers on a wallpainting in his tomb. WERNER FORMAN/ART RESOURCE, NY.
Exists in several versions, explains this movement as the legacy of a lovesick girl.
Clytie, who was either a water nymph or a princess of the ancient city of Babylon, fell in love with Apollo, god of the sun. For a time the god returned her love, but then he tired of her. The forlorn Clytie sat, day after day, slowly turning her head to watch Apollo move across
The sky in his sun chariot. Eventually, the gods took pity on her and turned her into a flower. In some versions of the myth, she became a heliotrope or a marigold, but most accounts say that Clytie became a sunflower.
Violet The violet, which grows low to the ground and has small purple or white flowers, appeared in an ancient Near Eastern myth that probably inspired the Greek and Roman myth of Aphrodite (pronounced af-ro-DYE-tee) and Adonis. According to this story, the great mother goddess Cybele (pronounced SIB-uh-lee) loved Attis, who was killed while hunting a wild boar. Where his blood fell on the ground, violets grew.
The Greeks believed that violets were sacred to the god Ares (pronounced AIR-eez) and to Io (pronounced EE-oh), one of the many human loves of Zeus (pronounced ZOOS). Later, in Christian symbolism, the violet stood for the virtue of humility, or humble modesty, and several legends tell of violets springing up on the graves of virgins and saints. European folktales associate violets with death and mourning.
World History
