Mythology and Plants
A short bit on botanical language and stories. Ancient Roman Gardens, Part II.
I’m keeping to this food & garden theme and I love every minute of the writing and research. If you’re interested supporting me as I explore what we eat, plants, nature and the culture behind it all, here’s the link:
Naming Flora: It’s all about the inside jokes
The joy of naming a baby is the freedom you get to ascribe some meaning or traits into a being that is new to the world. Similarly, if you have the fortune to find a new plant you also get to name it.
Binomial nomenclature
While reading about the scientific names of plants, it really struck me how the system could have been based on anything. It’s a formal system for sure, and it works, but it’s grounded in what used to be a common thing for Western academics and intellectuals: a basic education in and familiarity with Latin and Greco-Roman mythology.
“Many taxonomists believed, and still believe, that plants are entitled to fantastic names if the specimen offers exaggerated growth forms, organs, colors, and odors. After all, when we enter the world of Greco-Roman myth voluntarily we are expected to leave our common sense on the doorstep. Therefore, use art when life imitates art.”
For something so scientific, the naming was artistic!
To those that are interested in naming a plant after yourself: sorry, that’s not really a thing with botanists. But you can name a plant after someone else! Imagine if you found a plant that happened to have a plant that sparkled in the sun and attracted many many pollinators all at once, to the point where other bees couldn’t even find a spot to land. You could name something along the lines of Swiftaea grandus, or Swiftia odorata after Taylor Swift. This would please many people with your reference and possibly lead to many people adopting your new plant’s name, but possibly folks 500 years from now would just know that tree or flower by the name without the full context of the pop star.
So Many Stories, so little time.
Are Here are just 3 flowers with myths or a god/goddess attached to their name.
Anemone Cornonaria Poppy Anemone : Venus and Adonis fell in love. Adonis got killed by wild boar. Blood dripping from Adonis fell to the ground, and up from those drops arose the red anemones.
Narcissus Poeticus Narcissus : Everyone wants Narcissus. He is just irresistible. Youth, beauty, and just enough stupidity to think he’s immune to what everyone else can’t resist. Stares into pond, wastes away. Turns into a flower.
Malus domestica Apple : There are 3 apple myths!
Heracles asks Atlas to gather golden apples that are guarded by a serpent, and while Atlas is out fetching apples Heracles has to carry everything (the heavens, earth too?) (This myth kind of feels like a non-event).
The Trojan war was started by a vengeful goddess that brought an apple “for the fairest”; the three goddesses that all thought they were the fairest (Hera, Aphrodite, and Athena) fought about it, and Aphrodite had the best bribe - Helen of Troy. Queue fighting among men.
Atalanta will only pair up with a guy that can outrun her, which is really hard to do. Almost impossible. So Hippomenes gets these irresistible golden apples and kept tossing them aside during the race, and Atalanta can’t resist those cute golden apples, and due to this Hippomenes wins the race and the girl.
Some Interesting tidbits
The Muses supposedly had hair the color of violets
Water lilies are really… really… old. They’re one of the most primitive and ancient of the flowering plants out there