the Berads in Bombay the bride stands in a basket of millet, obviously because millet produces seeds in abundance.50 = 51 Nuts are the seeds of trees. Naturally only the kernels are eaten. Walnuts were employed at Roman weddings. Pliny (H.N. xv, 86) says that they have a twofold protection and that they are consecrated to marriage because their foetus (i.e. kernel seed) is safeguarded in so many ways. Hermesias, a concoction consisting of pine nuts and several other ingredients, was taken to ensure the creation of beautiful and healthy children.52 There was a story to the effect that the mother of Attis was impregnated by an almond,53 although another account says it was by a pomegranate.54 In the Roman bridal procession the bridegroom scattered nuts for the boys in the crowd.55 Apropos of this Smith's Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities remarks: "Though Catullus says that it signifies the putting away of childhood, it is much more likely that the nuts symbolised fruitfulness of marriage and plenty." Catullus was very probably trying to explain a custom the origin of which had been forgotten.56 In antiquity a poor or incorrect explanation of a practice was better than none. In Northern India the cocoanut used to be a sign of fertility.57 Mangoes play a part in many supernatural births 50 Folk-Lore, XIII, 235. operimento, pulvinati primum calicis, mox lignei putaminis. 52 Pliny, H. N. xxiv, 166. 53 Paus. VII, 17, 11. 54 Arnob. v, 6. 55 Verg. E. 8, 31; Catull. 61, 131; Festus, p. 179 (Lindsay). 56 Among the Greeks figs, dates, nuts, and other things were showered upon the bride. See Harpocration (ed. Dindorf), p. 171, 11; scholium on Ar. Plut. 768; Hesych. s.v. Kaтaxvoμaтa; Ath. xiv, 642 D. "The custom observed from India to the Atlantic Ocean of throwing grain and seeds of one sort or another over a bride, and apparently that of flinging old shoes, are intended to secure fecundity."-Hartland, Primitive Paternity, I, p. 109. Compare Westermarck, Marriage Ceremonies in Morocco, p. 216, n. Since, however, the Greeks threw dried fruits over newly bought slaves also, the act has been interpreted as intended to propitiate evil spirits. See Samter, Familienfeste der Griechen und Römer, p. 7; id. Geburt, Hochzeit und Tod, pp. 172-173. 57 Frazer, The Magic Art, II, p. 51. of Indian folk-tales.58 In one region of Brittany "the groomsman threw nuts to the husband all through the night, and the latter cracked them and gave the kernels to the bride to eat.' 1959 Trees which were not propagated from seeds and which bore no fruit were called “infelices . . . damnataeque religione."60 The Belgae called 'eunuch' (spadonium) a species of apple from which they had managed to eliminate the seed.61 A species of rosemary which bore no seeds was described as 'sterile.' 62 Ovid recommended burning mares oleae as firewood on the ground that they bore no fruit.63 The reference to the pomegranate in the story of Attis shows that this fruit too was endowed with fertilizing powers. The seed was the powerful element within it. The modern Greek bridegroom may be required to hurl down the pomegranate and scatter its seeds upon the floor.64 "In Turkey, when a bride throws its fruit to the earth, the seeds that fall out will indicate the number of her children, the significance of which practice was emphasized by the old masters, who show St. Catherine holding a pomegranate, as betokening the fruitage of the faith." 65 Khudadad, the sultan of the kingdom of Dijár Bakr, had many wives but no son. As the result of a dream he ate fifty pomegranate seeds, one to represent each of his wives. They gave birth to sons.66 Writers are in 58 Hartland, The Legend of Perseus, 1, p. 77. 59 Edward J. Wood, The Wedding Day in All Ages and Countries, II, p. 30. 60 Pliny, H. N. xvi, 108: cf. xxiv, 68, and also Cato ap. Fest. p. 81 (Lindsay); Fronto, ad Amic. 11, 7; Apul. Apol. 23. 61 Pliny, H. N. xv, 51. 62 Op. cit. XXIV, 99. 63 Fasti, IV, 741. 64 Lawson, Modern Greek Folk-Lore and Ancient Greek Religion, p. 559. There are many other references to the pomegranate in modern Greece as an emblem of fertility. See, for instance, Wood, op. cit. 1, p. 46. 65 C. M. Skinner, Myths and Legends of Flowers, Trees, Fruits, and Plants, pp. 221-222. 66 R. F. Burton's edition of the Arabian Nights, x, pp. 139–141. pretty general agreement that the pomegranate was a symbol of fruitfulness because of its numerous seeds.67 The idea that the eating of two grains or two seeds or twinfruit would lead to the conception of twins is common in folklore,68 but I have not found it in Greek or Latin. The seeds of apples were employed as love-oracles by the Greeks. If pips squeezed out from the finger tips struck the ceiling, success in love was indicated.69 There is a modern version of this: "Name apple seeds and shoot them at the ceiling. The one that hits the ceiling shows which one loves you best." 70 "The maidens in Durham have their own way of testing their lovers' fidelity. They will take an apple-pip, and, naming the lover, put the pip in the fire. If it makes a noise as it bursts with the heat, she is assured of his affection; if it burns away silently, she will be convinced that he has no true regard for her." 71 In the mountains of Kentucky apple seeds are counted when one wants to learn the number of children he will have.72 Such notions are still common in many lands. 67 Preller-Robert, Griechische Mythologie (1894), p. 763, n. 2; Farnell, Cults of the Greek States, 1, p. 216; Frazer on Pausanias, II, 17, 4; Boetticher, Der Baumkultus der Hellenen, p. 471. The pomegranate was likewise connected with ideas of blood and death, Boetticher, Archäologische Zeitung, xiv, 1856, 169-176. See 68 Several instances are cited by Harris, Boanerges, pp. 168, 386, 387. also Leland, Etruscan Roman Remains in Popular Tradition, p. 226, and Thomas, Kentucky Superstitions, nos. 593, 594. 69 Poll. IX, 128; Hor. Sat. II, 3, 272–273. 70 Thomas, Kentucky Superstitions, no. 207. For other lore of apple seeds and love see nos. 204-210. Compare also nos. 376-377. 71 Henderson, Folk-Lore of the Northern Counties, p. 106. Folk-Lore Record, 1, 30, records an English custom in which the popping of nuts is significant: "The nuts are placed in a bright fire side by side, the one of them belonging to a youth, the other to a maiden, who, after thinking of the loved name, repeat to themselves these words varying the pronoun according to sex, 'If he loves me, pop and fly, Contrast with this, however, Burns' "Halloween," stanza 7, according to which the nuts have to burn quietly side by side in order to make a good omen. 72 Thomas, op. cit. no. 211. Compare no. 302. We have seen that many forms of vegetation were associated with fertility by the ancients. In nuts it is obviously the kernels that cause growth. I believe that originally in the case of fruits the flesh corresponded to the shell or hull and that it had nothing to do with the popular ideas about the seat of life. It merely acted as a container for the seeds, which possessed the life-giving properties. Seeds are, so to speak, the eggs 73 of a plant or fruit. They are the productive or reproductive parts. As one may acquire, by sympathetic magic, the bravery or other qualities of a man or animal by eating the heart, so by eating seeds, or things containing seeds, one may acquire fertility. It would seem, therefore, that originally it was because of the seeds that certain fruits and other forms of vegetation were linked with life-giving divinities.74 I have no doubt that the function of seeds was understood long before the nature of human parentage. 75 I believe, therefore, that it was seeds that rendered fruits eligible to become symbols of love. What was it then that gained for the apple its leading position in the lore of courtship? 73 The Phrygians and the Lycaonians believed that the eggs of the partridge, a particularly salacious bird, were productive of fecundity if they were eaten after due ceremony (Pliny, H. N. xxx, 131). Among the Greeks eggs were regarded as productive of semen (Ath. II, 65 A). The following sentence is found in a description of a Jewish ceremony by E. J. Wood, op. cit., I, p. 21: "A hen ready dressed, and a raw egg, were then placed before the bride, as emblems of prolificness, and for an omen that she should bear many children." "A Polish tale represents a Gipsy woman as counselling a noble, but barren, lady to catch a fish full of roe in the sea, and to eat the roe at sunset at fullmoontide. Her chambermaid, however, tastes it also, and, like her mistress, bears a son."-Hartland, The Legend of Perseus, 1, p. 74. For other illustrations see also pages 74-76, 115, and Primitive Paternity, 1, pp. 57-60, by the same author. 74 We find Lucan (x, 208) associating seeds even with the planet Venus: “At fecunda Venus cunctarum semina rerum possidet." 75 It is noteworthy that children have been and are still regarded as fruit or seed of marriage. See Preller, Demeter and Persephone, pp. 354 ff. For references to a povpa used "metaphorically of a woman as receiving seed and bearing fruit," see Liddell and Scott. A passage in Plutarch 76 shows that the purpose of the bride's eating the quince on the nuptial night was the conception of children. The fact that the quince was also a symbol of love 77 shows incidentally that in the case of the apple it was no idea of sweetness or blushing redness or any other sentimental association that caused its selection.78 In the Symposiacs (v, 8, 1) of Plutarch the question is raised why the apple tree is called ȧyλαóκαρяois, 'bearing fair fruit.' One banqueter explained that "the particular excellencies that are scattered amongst all other fruits are united in this alone. As to the touch it is smooth and clean, so that it makes the hand that touches it odorous without defiling it: it is sweet to the taste, and to the smell and sight very pleasing; and therefore there is reason that it should be duly praised, as that which congregates and allures all the senses together." "79 It is pertinent to recall here that the fruit which Sappho puts on the topmost branch out of the reach of the harvesters is the apple.8 80 It seems clear, therefore, that fertility was symbolized by growths with several or many seeds 81 and that it was because the apple was so popular that it gained first place among fruits in "the office and affairs of love." 76 Solon, 20, 3. 77 See Stesichorus, Epithalamium of Helen (frag. 29, Bergk, 1882); Plut. Mor. 138 D, 279 F; Prop. III, 13, 27; Ath. II, 81 D. Plutarch's explanation in the Moralia of the reason why the bride ate a quince is a pure makeshift. 78 It is interesting to note, however, that Artemidorus, 1, 73, does say that to dream of sour apples betokens love of strife and sedition. 79 From the translations of Plutarch's Miscellanies and Essays, as corrected and revised by W. W. Goodwin. 80 Frag. 93 (Bergk). See Longus, Daphnis and Chloe, 111, 33-34, and compare I, 24; III, 25. 81 The only exception I have found to this is in the case of seeds of the willow, which were recommended to be taken in drink as a method of causing sterility. See Ael. N. A. iv, 23; Pliny, H. N. xvi, 110; Isidore, Orig. XVII, 7, 47. The reason for this belief may be inferred from Theophr. H. P. 111, 1, 13, who says that the willow is reputed to shed its fruit early before it is matured and quotes Homer, Od. x, 510, who calls it "fruit-losing." Arist. Gen. Anim. I, 18, 727, a, 6, quotes a popular delusion to the effect that no semen at all is produced by the willow. |