Calendula

Wednesday Yellow @kalemandra

A bit of history about it

The calendula is a flower rich in history and symbolism and is quoted in many Greek texts. Many ancient writers, however, most of the time, exchanged it with chrysanthemum (chrysanthemum) calling it planted with golden flowers. Both for the Greeks and for the Latins, the fact that the flowers opened in the morning to close at sunset, was considered a symbol of submission and pain for the disappearance of the sun, this belief has meant that calendula was associated with Over the centuries, feelings of pain, boredom and pain.

The association of calendula to the feeling of pain appears and is well expressed in Greek mythology, according to the legend, in fact, the calendula was born from the tears of the Aphrodite goddess (Venus for the Latins) desperate for the death of his lover, Adonis was pierced by a wild boar against Ares (Mars for Latin), his jealous husband.

The aforementioned legend also has another version, Latin, far more complete but does not change the meaning of the calendula. It is said that Adon, son of Mirra and Tia, was raised by Venus (Aphrodite) since Mother (Mirra) had been transformed from Gods into a tree for punishment. Venus, who saw the young man grow up, was more and more enchanted by his beauty, so to provoke the husbands of his husband, Mars, who decided to send a wild boar to the young man, so that he would mortally wound him.

Adon was wounded, but Venus, to protect him, hid him inside a chest and entrusted him to the care of Proserpina, the queen of the Inferior. Proserpina, however, curious about the contents of the chest, decided to open it one day and, in the sight of Adonis, also fell in love with the handsome young man. Some time later Venus asked Proserpina to return the cash, but he refused, and Venus, irritated by the rejection, asked for help to all the Gods of Olympus. One day Zeus, tired of the dispute between the two Dees, decided that young Adonis should spend some of the year with Venus, among the living, and the other with Proserpina, among the dead. At the time of the passage between death and life, however, Adon's wound began to spill out of the blood, touching the ground caused a plant called Adonis to grow, while from tears poured out of Venus, when the young man returned to the underworld , a calendula plant was created that, like Adonis, would be destined for periods of life alternating with periods of death. For the belief that calendula was a symbol of sorrow, in ancient Greece, every depiction of pain was represented with a young man wearing a crown of calendula.

(The Garden of Time)