Plants with Mythical and Historical Uses
When Prometheus stole fire from Mount Olympus to give to humans, he hid it in a stalk of giant fennel. Ancient Greeks preparing to commune with the oracles used cannabis as part of their cleansing rituals. Infusing wine with mandrake intensified the frenzy of Dionysus’s followers. And ancient Greek women took control of their reproductive health with pennyroyal, mugwort, and rue.
Greek mythology is full of stories about humans, immortals, and plants, many of which you can grow today even if you don’t live on Mount Olympus. Some are edible, some are medicinal, and all of them have fascinating stories to tell.
Here are five of my favorites…
1. Acontium napellus (aconite)
This underappreciated perennial is often banned from modern gardens due to its exaggerated reputation for toxicity. If I had a dollar for every time someone told me it was toxic to touch aconite, I’d be a wealthy gardener indeed. So please allow me to bust this myth. While individual allergies are always a possibility, it is generally safe to touch aconite. Many gardeners (myself included) have done so for years. But please note: It is most definitely NOT safe to consume!
It is said that aconite arose from the vomit of Kerberus (guardian dog of Hades) when he was exposed to the light of day. The plant has several common names, many of which offer clues as to how it was used in antiquity: devil’s helmet, wolfsbane (i.e., killer of wolves), woman-killer (do I need to explain this one?), and queen of poisons, to name a few.
Medea was one of the most famous witches in Greek mythology, and she knew how to use aconite. After helping Jason steal the Golden Fleece, then being abandoned by him (and killing their children in revenge), Medea married Aegeus, king of Athens, and had his son.
Ah, but Aegeus already had a son: Theseus. Aegeus left Theseus’s mother to raise Theseus alone, and told her that if Theseus could retrieve his father’s sword from under a boulder, he should come to Athens and claim his throne. Theseus did exactly that, but his father didn’t recognize him when he arrived in Athens. Medea, however, knew just who he was.
She had no intention of letting Theseus usurp her son’s inheritance, so she whispered in Aegeus’s ear and convinced him to allow her to add aconite to Theseus’s wine cup at the evening banquet. But just as Theseus raised the cup to his lips, Aegeus recognized his own sword and knocked the poisoned beverage from Theseus’s hand. Medea and her son fled, and Theseus lived to rule Athens.
Don’t let fear prevent you from planting this beauty. It’s perfectly safe to touch, and with its finely cut foliage and tall stems of gorgeous purple-blue flowers, it’s a great garden plant for sun to part shade.
2. Narcissus (daffodil)
Once upon a time, an arrogant young man named Narcissus fell in love with his own reflection. As he wandered through the woods, he stopped to drink from a pool of water and saw himself reflected in its surface. He was mesmerized. One version of the story says he didn’t realize he was looking at himself and that he stayed there until he wasted away, longing to meet the man in the mirror. Another version says he realized he was looking at himself and understood his love could never be reciprocated, so he killed himself. In both versions, the narcissus flower sprang from his dead body.
A less familiar story tells how Zeus (king of the gods) helped his brother Hades (king of the underworld) kidnap Persephone so Hades could make her his queen. Zeus created a magical narcissus with 100 flowers to captivate Persephone. As she reached to touch it, the ground beneath her opened, and Hades rushed up in his chariot, grabbed Persephone, and carried her beneath the earth.
Persephone’s mother was Demeter, goddess of the harvest. Her father was Zeus, who apparently had no problem organizing his own daughter’s kidnapping. Demeter was devastated when her daughter was taken; she caused all plants to die and allowed no seeds to germinate. Very quickly, Zeus realized that without plants, humans would starve, and without humans, no one would be left to worship the gods. So Zeus commanded Hades to return Persephone, which he did. But first, Hades tricked Persephone into eating a few pomegranate seeds.
For every seed she ate, Persephone was forced to spend a month underground as Hades’s queen. And that’s why we have a growing season and a dormant season. When Persephone is in the underworld, Demeter grieves and allows nothing to grow. When Persephone returns, Demeter rejoices, and the growing season begins again.
3. Morus species (mulberry)
Did you know the story of Romeo and Juliet is based on an ancient myth? The story of Pyramus and Thisbe is told in Ovid’s Metamorphoses. (Yes, Ovid was Roman, but he wrote in Greek, and I say that counts.) Pyramus and Thisbe grew up as neighbors in Babylonia (modern-day Iraq), but because their families were enemies, they were forbidden to meet.
But children are curious, and they couldn’t help but hear each other over the wall that separated their houses. They discovered a crack in that wall, and came there to talk with each other, where “their warm breath touched from lip to lip.” They fell in love and made a plan to meet at a nearby mulberry tree.
Thisbe disguised herself with a veil and snuck out of her house. She arrived at the tree first, and as she waited, a lion, fresh from the kill, came to drink at a nearby pool. Thisbe fled (smart girl), dropping her veil. The curious lion picked up the veil in its bloody jaws, then dropped it and moved on.
When Pyramus arrived and found the bloody veil, he assumed the worst. He blamed himself, and in despair, he killed himself with his sword. Blood spurted upwards onto the tree, turning the white mulberry fruit red.
Thisbe returned to the tree just in time to cradle the dying Pyramus in her arms. Then she grabbed his sword and plunged it into her heart. But before she died, she prayed to the gods to unite their families and to allow her to be buried with Pyramus.
This myth handily explains how the fruit of the white mulberry tree is mutable. Sometimes it’s white, sometimes it’s red, and sometimes it ripens to a dark purple. Fortunately, no bloodshed is required.
While mulberries are popular in some parts of the world, they have never been grown as a commercial fruit in the USA. This is primarily due to their short shelf life and the fact that fallen fruit can be messy. What a shame! Mulberry fruit makes a delicious jam, a tasty fruit leather, and can easily and quickly be harvested in abundance. And while the white mulberry is considered invasive in some states, the red mulberry is native to many parts of the East Coast and the Midwest. Surely this tree deserves more appreciation.
4. Hedera helix (ivy)
The ivy plant is closely associated with Dionysus, the god of wine. Statues of Dionysus often include ivy leaves, and both Dionysus and his followers carried staffs made of giant fennel stalks twined with an ivy vine. The very first mention of Dionysus associated with ivy can be found in his origin story. Dionysus was the son of Zeus, born from his thigh (tragic tale involving Zeus’s infidelity and the consequent wrath of his wife Hera). The baby was given to nymphs in Crete, where he would be safe from Hera, who wanted to kill the illegitimate child. The nymphs hid baby Dionysus, covering his cradle with ivy leaves as camouflage.
As a young god, Dionysus travelled the earth, often in disguise. One day, he hitched a ride with some pirates sailing the Mediterranean, and, not realizing he was a god, those pirates made the fatal mistake of thinking they could kidnap Dionysus for ransom. They took him prisoner and tied him to the mast of their ship. Suddenly, an ivy vine burst from the mast and began to grow, twining around the oars and sails, making it impossible for the ship to move. Dionysus brandished a spear, also twined with ivy, and the crew jumped overboard, where they drowned.
Today, ivy is considered invasive in some states and has a reputation for destroying a building’s exterior with its vines, which are held in place by teeny-tiny suction cups. But if a structure is sound, the ivy’s suction cups won’t be a problem. If there are cracks in stucco, wood, or masonry, the suction cups may indeed create further damage. Don’t want to risk it? Try ivy as a houseplant. It’s an easy plant to grow in bright indirect light.
5. Cydonia oblonga (quince)
The quince is rarely grown in American gardens, and that’s a crying shame. Perhaps that’s because it requires a long growing season to ripen into the gloriously fragrant and delicious fruit that it is. If you find them on sale anywhere, buy them! You will not be sorry. Straight off the tree, the fuzzy, lumpy quince is too hard to bite into. But the application of heat turns it into one of the world’s most delectable fruits. Try poaching it in a little white wine and your favorite warm spices, and you’ll see what I mean.
In ancient Greece, the quince was better known by a more familiar name: the apple. “But how can that be?” you ask. “We have a totally different fruit called the apple.” Well, in ancient Greece, the word meelon (mhlon) referred to all tree fruits except nuts, just as the word corn referred to all grains in British English. Like the apple, the quince is in the family Rosaceae.
It was a quince that started the Trojan War, not a golden apple. The goddess of discord (angry that she hadn’t been invited to a very important wedding) threw a “golden apple” into the crowd, inscribed with the words “For the Fairest.” Immediately, Aphrodite, Hera, and Athena claimed the golden fruit as their own. How to decide?
No god dared be the judge, so Zeus chose Paris, a prince of Troy, to make the decision. Each goddess offered Paris a bribe. Athena vowed to make him the greatest of warriors. Hera promised he would be king of all Europe and Asia. Aphrodite promised him the most beautiful woman on earth as his bride. That was Helen of Troy, who was already married to Menelaus, king of Sparta.
Whether Helen left with Paris of her own free will or was kidnapped doesn’t matter much to the story, although it probably did matter to Menelaus. All the leaders of Greece promised to help retrieve Helen, and off they sailed to Troy, where it took ten years for the war to end. All because of a quince fruit.
These five plants played an essential role in Greek mythology, and knowing their stories lets us appreciate them even more than we already do.
Can you picture a mythological garden? Quince and mulberry trees provide fruit, underplanted with ivy. Daffodils fill the empty spaces in spring, followed by aconite in late summer.
Written by: Ellen Zachos
Author of: Mythic Plants: Potions and Poisons from the Gardens of the Gods.
“This post is provided as an educational/inspirational service of the National Garden Bureau and our members. Please credit and link to National Garden Bureau and the author member when using all or parts of this article.”
