Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Romantic Roman flowers for Valentine's Day


As a forerunner to Valentine's Day, and with my Roman books in mind, I thought I'd talk about some romantic Roman flowers. Some are surprising. Some are popular even today.

Sweet violet is a pretty, sweet-smelling flower used, like the anemone and the madonna lily, in garlands at Roman banquets. The scent was believed to ward off drunkenness! The Romans loved the scent of violets and even drank wine infused with violets and honey.

Vervain is a dull-looking plant but one which the Romans believed held magical proprieties. Believed to bring good luck, it was used in love potions.

Roman brides used mint for their garlands, and their faces may have been cleansed with a facepack made from the juice of yellow elecampane, because it was believed that Helen of Troy was collecting the flower when Paris abducted her.

Then as now however, the most popular romantic flower was the rose. Roses were grown in Campania for sale and the streets in Rome were red with rose garlands. They were known as flowers of seduction - Cleopatra was rumoured to have seduced Mark Anthony with rose petals. I'll leave it to your imagination as to how!

(Painting by Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema and drawings of sweet violet, elecampane and mint from Wikimedia Commons.)

5 comments:

Unknown said...

Your header pic is gorgeous. I just love learning new things. Thanks for taking the time!

Cindy K. Green said...

I just love this Lindsay. Thanks for posting.

Lindsay Townsend said...

Hi Adelle and Cindy. Thank you! I love the pictures of Alma Tadma - he was a wonder with ancient world subjects and painted women, sun, flowers and marble really well.

Linda Banche said...

What a great post. And I love your pictures, too.

Lindsay Townsend said...

Thanks, Linda!

 

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