20 Ancient Greek Flower Myths

 

 

From birth to death, from innocence to passion, flowers have numerous interpretations and implications in myths and legends of ancient Greece.

Flowers often symbolize youth, beauty and pleasure but they may also personify fragility and the sudden transition from life to death.

Metamorphosis is a typical theme in Greek mythology, gods as well as mortals had the power to transform themselves into animals, birds, flowers or humans and repeatedly used this power to trick and manipulate.

Several flowers, such as the anemone, crocus and hyacinth, take their names from Greek myths.

 

Chloris

Greek Goddess of Flowers (The Roman goddess Flora)

 

 

In Greek mythology Chloris, meaning greenish-yellow, pale green, pale, pallid or fresh, was a nymph or goddess connected to spring, flowers and new growth.

Chloris was abducted by Zephyrus, god of the west wind, who turned her into a goddess and then married her.

 Together, they had a son, Karpos and it’s thought her home was the  Elysian Fields.

 

 

 Below are twenty flowers whose names derive from, or are associated with, twenty magical, sweet-smelling Greek myths.

 

1. Aconite

 

 

Aconite can grow up to a metre tall and bears purple or blue flowers.

They tend to grow on rocky ground rather than in earth and are extremely poisonous and that is exactly what the ancient Greeks used it for!

In Greek mythology, the goddess or witch, Hecate, is said to have invented the poison aconite which Athena then used to transform Arachne, a mortal, into a spider.

 

 

Arachne, a shepherd’s daughter, challenged Athena, goddess of wisdom and crafts, to a weaving contest.

Once Athena saw Arachne’s talent was much greater than her own she became consumed with rage and jealousy and beat Arachne around the head.

Ashamed, Arachne hanged herself, whereupon seeing this Athena declared:

“Live on then and yet hang, condemned one, but, lest you are careless in the future, this same condition is declared, in punishment, against your descendants, to the last generation!“

Athena then sprinkled Hecate’s poison over her.

As soon as the poison touched Arachne, her hair fell out, her nose and ears dropped off, her head shrank and her whole body became tiny.

Her fingers stuck to her sides as legs and the rest of her was one round belly from which she still spins a thread.

 

2. Anemone

 

 

Greek mythology links the anemone, sometimes called the windflower, to the death of Adonis, a handsome youth who was loved by two women, Persephone, queen of the Underworld  and Aphrodite (Venus), goddess of love.

 One day whilst out hunting alone Adonis was wounded by a wild boar.

 Aphrodite, upon hearing the cries of her lover, ran to his side only to witness Adonis bleeding to death.

 

 

 Red anemones sprang from the earth where the drops of Adonis’s blood fell, (In another version of the story, the anemones were white before the death of Adonis, whose blood turned them to red).

 Said to bring luck and protect against evil, legend has it that when the anemone closes its petals, it’s a signal that rain is approaching.

 

3. Aster

 

 

The name Aster comes from the ancient Greek word ἀστήρ (astḗr), meaning “star”.

The aster is a star-shaped, daisy-like wildflower.

When Zeus flooded the earth in order to kill off warring men, the goddess, Astraea, the ‘maiden’ of the zodiac sign Virgo,  was so upset that all she wished for was to become a star.

Her wish came true, however, upon seeing the destruction as the flood waters receded she wept for the loss of lives.

 As her tears fell to Earth the beautiful aster flower burst forth.

 

 

Another myth states that when King Aegeus’ son, Theseus, left to kill the Minotaur, he told his father he would change his black sail to white, when he sailed home to Athens, to announce his victory.

Theseus forgot to change his sail and sailed into Athens with a black sail.

 Believing his son dead, King Aegeus,took his own life.

 It is believed that asters bloomed where his blood soaked the earth.

Asters were sacred to the ancient Greeks and were used in wreaths placed on altars and they also burned aster leaves to ward off snakes and evil spirits.

The aster is also a symbol of Aphrodite (Venus), the goddess of love.

 

4. Campanula or Bellflower

 

 

 

 Campanula is also known as Venus’ looking glass and gets its name from a Greek myth in which Venus (Aphrodite, goddess of love, beautyand desire desire), misplaces her magic mirror which reflected nothing but beauty.

 A poor shepherd boy found it but would not give it back because he had become entranced with his own image.

Aphrodite orders her son, Eros (Cupid), to go and look for it, which he does but in his haste Eros struck the shepherd’s hand and the mirror shattered into a thousand pieces.

It’s said that anywhere a piece of the shattered mirror landed a Venus-looking-glass flower began to grow.

 

 

5. Crocus

 

 

 (This Greek myth is the same as the hyacinth myth, only the characters differ.)

One version, the most popular, of this Greek myth has Crocus, a mortal, as a lover of the God Hermes.

One day as the lovers were throwing discus, a discus thrown by Hermes hit Crocus on his head killing him outright.

Overcome by sadness Hermes transformed crocus into a flower, the three drops of blood which had fallen from the head of Crocus became the stigmata of the crocus flower.

 

Crocus and Similax

 

 

Another variant of the Crocus tale has it that the mortal Crocus was in love with a nymph, Smilax.

The fact that Crocus, a mere mortal, became disenchanted with his love for Similax enraged the gods, who turned him into a flower.

Smilax also did not escape the wrath of the gods and was given a similar fate, she was transformed into bindweed.

 

6. Dianthus

Flowers of the Gods

 

 

 Dianthus comes from the Greek words dios, meaning god and anthos, meaning flower.

The Greek botanist, Theophrastus, deemed this the perfect match of words for the name of the flower dianthus.

Dianthus may have originated from the myth of Artemis (Diana) but as in nearly all Greek myths there are a few variations of this story.

 

 

One interpretation is that Artemis, goddess of the hunt, was on her way home after a disappointing hunting trip when she chanced upon a shepherd playing a flute.

She immediately blamed his music on her unsuccessful hunt.

 In a fit of anger Artemis gouged out his eyes but as soon as her rage had passed she felt remorse and vowed that

where his eyes fell red carnations would grow as sign of innocent blood.

Others suggest the name carnation comes from the word corone (flower garlands) or coronation as carnations were used prolifically in Greek ceremonial crowns.

 

7. Delphinium or Larkspur

 

 

The name delphinium derives from the Ancient Greek word δελφίνιον (delphínion), which means dolphin, owing to its dolphin-shaped flowers.

In Greek mythology after the death of Achilles during the Battle of Troy, Ajax and Ulysses fought with each other who would have his body.

They finally agreed each would have parts of him, however they could not agree on who should have the arms.

 

 

After some deliberation, it was decided Ulysses should have the arms of Achilles.

Upon hearing the decision, Ajax in fit of rage, took his life with his own sword resulting in his blood pouring onto the ground.

The larkspur, also known as knightspur, bloomed where Ajax’s blood had fallen.

 The letters A I A, the initials of Ajax, are believed to appear on the petals of the flowers as a remembrance of Ajax.

 

8. Hellebore

 Christmas Rose

 

 

In Greek mythology hellebore was used by the ancients for a variety of medicinal purposes including treating paralysis, gout and even insanity.

 

 

 Melampus, a soothsayer and healer and his brother Bias used hellebore to cure the madness of King Proetus of Argos’s three daughters, Lysippe, Iphinoe and Iphianassa and other Greek women, whom, after being cursed by Dionysus, god of wine, lost their minds and went on the rampage through the mountains and desert of Tiryns believing they were cows!

As payment Melampus and his brother Bias amassed a third of the wealth of Argos when they married the princesses they had cured, thus claiming their dowry.

 

9. Hyacinth

 

 

 (This Greek myth is the same as the crocus myth, only the characters differ.)

Known for his great beauty, Hyacinth (Ὑάκινθος Huákinthos), a Spartan Prince, was a lover of Apollo, the sun god.

However, Hyacinth was also much admired by the West wind Zephyrus who was so jealous of Apollo that he was just biding his time until an opportunity came along to put Apollo out of the running.

 

 

One afternoon the opportunity arose when Apollo and Hyacinth were throwing a discus around.

 Showing off to his lover, Hyacinth ran to catch the discus, Zephyrus saw his chance and blew the discus off course causing it to strike Hyacinth on the head, felling him instantly.

 As Apollo wept over Hyacinth, his tears, which dropped on the ground, turned into the beautifully scented   flowers, the hyacinths.

 

Iris

 

 

The Iris takes its name from the Greek word for a rainbow, ίριδ- irida, which is also the name for the Greek goddess of the rainbow, Iris.

The iris means eye of heaven and is named after the Greek goddess of the Rainbow, who was said to carry messages between Earth and the god Zeus and goddess Hera.

 

 

Iris was thought to use the rainbow, which some say was her mulit- coloured robe, as a bridge between heaven and earth.

The most common colours for the iris are purple or blue, although they are found in yellow, pink and red.

The ancient Greeks planted purple iris flowers on the graves of women believing they would entice the Goddess Iris to lead their loved ones in their journey to heaven.

 

11. Lily

 

 

The lily was dedicated to the goddess Hera, the goddess of women, marriage, family, and childbirth and the wife of Zeus, ruler of all the gods on Mount Olympus.

Zeus, not the best of husbands, was having a thing with Alceme, a mere mortal, the end result being he fathered the the Ancient Greek hero Hercules.

 

 

Zeus, as any father, wanted only the best for his baby son and knew that nothing was more nourishing than the milk of Hera, his wife, when it came to raising Greek gods.

 How though, could he persuade Hera to nourish the child of her husband’s illicit affair?

There was only one thing for it, Zeus drugged Hera, waited for her to fall into deep slumber and placed Hercules at her breast.

Startled, Hera awoke and flung the poor baby from her.

The milk gushing from her breast sprayed across the heavens, forming the Milky Way whilst the few drops which fell to Earth sprang up as lily flowers.

The lily symbolizes purity and beauty and depending on the colour or type, sends different messages.

White is for modesty and virginity, orange is for passion and yellow for joy.

 

12. Lotus

 

 

 The Greek name for lotus is λωτός-lotos.

In Greek mythology the lotus-eaters (λωτοφάγοι, lotofagi), were a race of people living on an island dominated by the Lotus tree.

The lotus fruits and flowers were the primary food of the island and were a narcotic, causing the inhabitants to sleep in peaceful apathy.

Herodotus, the fifth century BC Greek historian, was convinced that the lotus-eaters were not a myth but reality and existed in his day, on an island off the coast of Libya.

In Homer’s the Odyssey, Odysseus and his men, after escaping from the island of the witch, Circe, take refuge upon the land of the Lotus Eaters.

The inhabitants of the island  existed exclusively on a diet of lotus flowers.

Odysseus once they had dropped anchor at this mysterious island sent some of his men to look for supplies and to check out the locals.

 

 

The locals, being of a generous and laid back nature, at once, upon meeting these strangers, offered them lotus flowers which the sailors happily accepted.

Ten minutes later they had not a care in the world.

Time passed, Odysseus became increasingly worried about his men and dispatched another group of men to see what was going on.

Again, time passed and Odysseus, thinking to himself ‘if you want a job doing properly, do it yourself’, set out to find his men.

He came across them chilling with the natives and at once he realized what had happened.

Refusing the native’s offer of these magical, intoxicating lotus flowers, he rounded up his men and herded them back to the ship.

Once aboard ship the men began to regain their senses and upon remembering the friendly island people, wanted to head back.

Odysseus, who by now had had enough of these goings on, tied up his men and set sail immediately, never to return.

 

13. Narcissus

 

 

 The Greek myth about the narcissus flower is a cautionary tale about the imperfections of humans.

 Narcissus had the looks to make any Greek god jealous and in his neighborhood was considered quite the catch.

All the village girls dreamed of being the one to take his fancy.

Narcissus though had no time for girls,  he was too taken up with himself and scorned the advances of all, including the poor nymph, Echo (who could talk the hind legs off a donkey), who was head over heels in love with him.

 

 

Echo tried her best to gain the attention of Narcissus, but to no avail.

At her wits end, seeing him alone in the woods one day, Echo drew up her courage and threw her arms around him.

Narcissus, taken by surprise, exclaimed “Hands off I would rather die than you should have me“!

Mortified with shame Echo ran to hide in the woods and from that time on lived in a cave.

Her body wasted away from sadness, her bones changed into rocks and  there was nothing left but her voice, with which she repeated anything she heard called out by passersby.

She had become her namesake, Echo.

 

 

When, Nemesis, the goddess of revenge heard of Narcissus’s abominable behaviour towards Echo, she wanted retribution.

She enticed Narcissus to a pond where he saw his own reflection and instantly fell madly in love with it.

Totally absorbed in his reflection in the water Narcissus lost his footing and tumbled into the pond where he drowned.

In the spot where Narcissus had sat gazing at himself in the water there appeared a flower, the narcissus, a flower symbolizing selfishness and cold-heartedness.

Today psychologists use the term narcissist to describe someone who thinks only of themselves.

 

14. Orchid

 

 

The name Orchid comes from the Ancient Greek ὄρχις-orchis, meaning testicle.

Orchis, a demi-god, was the son of a nymph and a satyr who during the wild and crazy Dionysian celebrations, high on goodness knows what, committed the unspeakable act of attempting to ravage a priestess.

His punishment was to be ripped limb from limb by wild beasts.

Where his body parts fell an extraordinary fleshy plant took root; the flowers portrayed Orchis’ beauty, while the two bulbous root tubers symbolized the sin which brought about his misfortune.

 

 

Theophrastus, the most famed botanist of ancient Greece (4-3 century B.C.), pupil of Aristotle and Plato immortalized Orchis in his Historia Plantarum, by attributing his name to the flower species.

He accredited the name Orchis to the rounded two tubers, which looked similar to human testes, which gave to the accepted belief that orchids were an aphrodisiac.

 Greek women used the Orchid roots in order to determine the gender of their babies; if the father ate large, new tubers, the child would be male; if the mother ate small tubers, the child would be female.

 

15. Peony

 

 

The peony is named after Paeon (also spelled Paean), a student of Asclepius and the Greek god of medicine and healing.

There are two conflicting Greek myths surrounding the peony, this explains how some consider the peony to symbolize compassion, whilst others think the peony is an unlucky flower.

 In one tale, peonies take their name from the Greek word Paeon, also used in a general sense to refer to anyone who could save people from evil or calamity or had the power to deliver men from the sorrow and pains of living.

 Paeon was also physician to the gods who quite unintentionally drove his teacher, Asclepius, into a rage, after he succeeded in healing Pluto with a milky liquid which he had extracted from the root of a peony.

 

 

How could Asclepius, god of medicine and healing, be outsmarted by his pupil?

In a fit of jealousy he threatened to kill Paeon .

Zeus, king of all gods, jumped in at the nick of time and saved the day, feeling compassion for Paeon, who had intended no wrong, he saved him by turning him into a beautiful flower, the peony.

The second myth associates the name peony to an alluring nymph named Paeonia, whose beauty caused Apollo to swoon at her feet.

Aphrodite, goddess of love, not known for her loyalty, was at the time, even though married to Hephaestus, Greek god of blacksmiths, having a fling with Apollo, the sun god, out of spite turned the nymph Peaonia into a flower.

This myth is probably the one which gave the peony a bad name as the bringer of bad luck.

 In ancient Greece peonies were highly regarded for their medicinal properties and were seen as a symbol of healing.

The root, bark, seed and flowers were all believed to have medicinal uses and were used to treat stomach pains, bladder issues, jaundice and even nightmares.

 

16. Poppy

 

 

 The Greek word for poppy is παπαρούνα–paparouna.

In Ancient Greece the poppy was a symbol of sleep and death, associated with Morpheus, God of dreams, and Demeter, Goddess of agriculture.

Morpheus slept in a cave full of poppy seeds while shaping dreams and this is why the opium – based medication, used for insomnia, as well as pain, is known as morphine.

 

 

It is said that Demeter, goddess of the harvest, created the poppy so she could sleep.

Theocritus, a Sicilian poet, c. 300 BC, described one of Demeter’s earlier roles as that of a goddess of poppies and in many myths poppies were used as offerings to the dead as their bright scarlet colour was thought to signify the promise of resurrection after death.

In a clay statue from Gazi , Crete, ‘The Minoan poppy goddess’ wears poppy seeds in her crown, thought to be sources of nourishment and narcosis.

Some sources say, Rhea, the mother of goddess’ and her daughter, Demeter, brought the poppy from her Cretan cult to Eleusis and it is almost certain that in the Cretan cult circle, opium was derived from poppies.

 

17. Rose

 

 

 The Greek word for rose is τριαντάφυλλο-triadafilo, or ρόδο-rodo.

In Greek mythology the rose, the Queen of flowers, is said to have been created by the goddess of flowers, Chloris, who was said to breathe roses as she spoke.

 One day as Chloris was wandering through the woods she came upon the lifeless body of a breathtakingly beautiful young nymph.

Chloris was greatly saddened by the loss of such exquisite beauty and feeling compassion for the poor nymph transformed her into a flower so that her beauty may live on.

 

 

Chloris summoned her friends, Aphrodite (Venus), goddess of love, and Dionysus, the god of wine to assist her.

As her gift Aphrodite gave the flower beauty, Dionysus offered nectar to give it a sweet scent, Zephyrus, god of the West Wind, blew away the clouds, allowing the sun of Apollo, the sun god, to shine through and help the flower bloom.

The rose, the flower of passion and love, is also associated with Aphrodite the goddess of love.

When her tears fell to the ground, whilst weeping over the mortally wounded Adonis, they became the superb flower which we today call the rose.

According to the poet, Anacreon, white roses appeared from the sea foam which fell from Aphrodite’s (Venus) body as she arose from the sea.

The white colour symbolized her innocence and purity.

Later in her life Aphrodite bled on a white rose whilst trying to heal the wounded Adonis which resulted in the red roses becoming a symbol of passion and desire.

 

18. Sunflower or Heliotrope

 

 

 The Greek word for sunflower is ηλιάνθου, Helianthus, from the words sun and flower.

The Greek myth of how the Sunflower or Heliotrope came to be tells the story of the sea nymph, Clytie, a tale of unrequited love.

Clytie, daughter of the titan sea-god Oceanos, was madly in love with Helios, who draws the sun across the sky each day.

Unfortunately for Clytie Helios had his eye on Leucothoe, another sea nymph and abandoned Clytie, who, hurt and angered at the loss of her love, Helios, told Leucothea’s father, Orchamus, of what his daughter was up to.

Orchamus, a proud man, was not about to be put to shame by his daughter and, as was the norm in those days, killed Leucothoe by burying her alive in the sand.

 

 

Now Leucothoe was out of the way Clytie fully expected Helios to return to her but what she had done to poor Leucothoe, only hardened his heart against her.

Desolate Clytie stripped off her clothes and sat naked on a rock, without food or drink, for nine days, watching Helios as he pulled the sun across the sky.

Eventually, after nine days, Clytie was transformed into the sunflower, or heliotrope, which continuously turned its head, to look wistfully at Helios’ chariot of the sun.

 

19. Violet

 

 

The Greek word for violet is βιολέτα, violeta, or ιόχρους-iochrous.

The tiny, humble violet has given me more trouble than all the other nineteen flowers put together, what a plethora of information, where to begin?

The ancient Greeks loved this delicately perfumed flower indeed, I’ll just list the best of what I unearthed!

The Greek word for violet is io, which was also the name of the daughter of Inachos, the first King of Argos.

 

Io and Violets

 

Io was a mortal and a priestess of the goddess Hera, goddess of women and wife of Zeus, king of the Greek gods.

Zeus, a known philanderer, loved Io deeply but was wary of the legendary wrath of his wife, Hera, and on no account wished for her to discover his affair.

In order to elude Hera, Zeus turned Io into a white heifer (some versions of the myth have it that Hera herself transformed Io).

 

Zeus did at least think a little about Io’s well-being and created the sweet-scented flowers, violets, for her to eat.

I’ll quickly tell you the rest of the plot as Io has a happy end!

Zeus’ plan backfired, somehow, probably using her magical skills, Hera discovered what her husband was up to and begged Zeus to give her the cow as a present.

Having no excuse to refuse, he had no other choice and Io, the cow, became the property of Hera.

Hera prevented Zeus from visiting the cow by sending Hermes to distract Argus Panoptes, a giant with one hundred eyes, whom Hera had employed to watch over the cow.

However, Zeus freed Io, (Still in the form of a cow).

 

 

Hera then sent a horse-fly to sting Io, driving her to wander the world without respite, during her wanderings Io came across Prometheus, who advised Io how she would be restored to human form and become the ancestress of the greatest hero of all times, Heracles.

Io escaped, was restored to human form by Zeus, gave birth to his son, Epaphus and a daughter Keroessa and went on to marry  the Egyptian king Telegonus.

Their grandson, Danaus, eventually returned to Greece with his fifty daughters, the Danaids, and they all lived happily ever after.

 

Attis and Cybele

 

Attis, a shepherd and son of Cybele, Mother of the gods, was either gored to death by a wild boar whilst resting under a pine tree, or, depending on which myth you read, he castrated himself and bled to death.

 Violets are said to have sprung from his blood and in memory of Attis, the priests of Cybele ritually self-mutilated themselves in the same way.

 

 

 During the spring festival of Cybele and Attis, a pine tree was felled, brought to the temple and covered with violets.

During the third day of the festival the ‘Day of Blood’, the high priest would cut his arms and offer the blood as a sacrifice, while his acolytes would castrate themselves underneath the violet-covered tree.

 

The Violet

A symbol of the city of Athens

 

 

The ancient Athenians considered the violet a symbol of the city of Athens.

Ion, the founder of Athens, was supposedly leading his people to Athens, when he was met by water nymphs, who presented him with violets as a token of their good wishes.

The violet became the city’s emblem and one would be hard put, to find an Athenian house, or temple, which was not adorned with violets.

 

Random Violet myths

 

Aphrodite (Venus) got into an argument with her son Eros (Cupid), over who was more beautiful,  herself, or a nearby group of girls, Eros, without thinking, replied, ‘the girls’, which sent Aphrodite into such a rage that she beat the girls until they turned blue and purple, and became violets.

In mythology, Eros’s (Cupid), arrow, accidentally hit the violet, turning the flower’s juice into an erotic love portion.

Greeks, decorated banquet tables with violets, believing the flowers could prevent drunkenness, and violet wreaths were used to cure hangovers, when too much violet wine had been consumed.

Violets were also placed on graves of young children, as the flower lent hope of resurrection of young souls.

Another myth tells us that violets first appeared on the spot where Orpheus laid his enchanted Lyre.

 

20. Yarrow

 

 

 Yarrow – Achillea millefolium – Achilles’ thousand-leaved plant, the Greek word for yarrow is μυριόφυλλο-myriofyllo.

Yarrow, ‘the plant of a thousand leaves’, in Greek mythology, said to have protective powers, is the plant which Thetis, sea nymph and goddess of water, is said to have added to the bath water, when bathing her son, the ancient Greek hero, Achilles, in order for its protective powers to cover his skin and make him invincible, a sort of bullet-proof jacket, so to speak.

 

 

Now the above myth confuses me slightly but then nothing seems to be straightforward when it comes to Greek mythology, which, by the way, is never-ending.

As to my knowledge, Thetis, dipped Achilles, into the River Styx, whose waters were said to bring about invulnerability but as she held him tightly by the heel, whilst dipping him in the river, the water never touched his heel.

 As a result, Achilles was invulnerable everywhere except his heel, which proved to be his downfall; this is where the idiom, ‘Achilles Heel’, comes from.

Sadly, Achilles did not have his coveted yarrow at hand, which he used to treat his wounded soldiers, when he was mortally wounded during the Trojan Wars.

Apparently some heard him say, “oh, If only I had some yarrow, I would surely survive “.

 

 

Yarrow leaves have been used in many battlefields to treat injured soldiers which brought about commonly used names for yarrow such as  ‘soldier’s woundwort’ or ‘warrior plant’.

 Yarrow has been used for treating wounds, especially bleeding wounds from iron weapons, since the Middle Ages.

The leaves are effective in slowing bleeding so that the blood will clot.

Yarrow also has rich in antibiotic properties.

Yarrow is a symbol of lasting love, owing to the fact that it takes two or more years to propagate from seed before becoming established but once established yarrow is a strong and lasting perennial which can endure conditions and neglect which would kill many other plants.

 

Spare a Thought

 

 The next time you admire a narcissus, nodding its delicate head in the wind, or bend to smell the intoxicating aroma of the hyacinth, or admire that exquisite orchid, spare a thought for those poor Greek youths of ancient Greece, who gave their lives, so that we, today, may enjoy the beauty of these flowers.

 

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