Anemone
Blooms: Fall
Language:
Wild anemone-- brevity and expectation (for the flower blooms for such a short time)
Garden flower-- forsaken, referring to the myth of its origin.
Mythology/ Folklore
Anemone comes from anemos, the greek word for wind, thus giving Anemone the name wind flower.
Greek: Anemone was the name of nympho who was loved by Zephyr, the god of the west Wind. Flora, goddess of the flowers, became jealous and changed Anemone into a flower that always bloomed before the return of spring. Zephyr preferred her as a nymph and abandoned her to Boreas, god of the North Wind. Anemone never learned to love Boreas, but her aroused emotions led her to always bloom too early and fade
Another Greek Myth said that the anemones were formed from Venus's tears when she cried over the body of Adonis.
The scarlet anemone, was thought to be representative of the scarlet robes of Solomon. Some considered it to be the lilies of the field mentioned in the Song of Solomon.
In Palestine the flower is sometimes called “blood drops of Christ,” for it was thought to have grown under the cross.
History/ Modern Use
The name anemone comes from the Sanskrit word anti, which means “he breathes.” Pliny wrote that the anemones would open only at the bidding of the wind.
In the Near East they were a symbol of disease, and it was thought that the flowers sometimes actually carried the disease.
The Egyptians, and later the English, used these flowers as charms against disease and often wore them around their necks and arms.
Literature/ Arts
In Ovid's Metamorphoses (book X), Venus transforms the blood of her dead lover, Adonis, into an Anemone. One implication is that the blood-red petals are symbolic of her lost love because, as the verses conclude, they cling too loosely to the stem and are easily lost in the wind.
In the New Testament, Jesus says that even “Solomon in all his glory is not arrayed “as beautifully as an anemone.” Although the traditional English translation (King James Version) is usually rendered as “lilies of the field”, the original Greek κρινα (krina) is anemone. --Matthew 6:29; Luke 12:27
Language:
Wild anemone-- brevity and expectation (for the flower blooms for such a short time)
Garden flower-- forsaken, referring to the myth of its origin.
Mythology/ Folklore
Anemone comes from anemos, the greek word for wind, thus giving Anemone the name wind flower.
Greek: Anemone was the name of nympho who was loved by Zephyr, the god of the west Wind. Flora, goddess of the flowers, became jealous and changed Anemone into a flower that always bloomed before the return of spring. Zephyr preferred her as a nymph and abandoned her to Boreas, god of the North Wind. Anemone never learned to love Boreas, but her aroused emotions led her to always bloom too early and fade
Another Greek Myth said that the anemones were formed from Venus's tears when she cried over the body of Adonis.
The scarlet anemone, was thought to be representative of the scarlet robes of Solomon. Some considered it to be the lilies of the field mentioned in the Song of Solomon.
In Palestine the flower is sometimes called “blood drops of Christ,” for it was thought to have grown under the cross.
History/ Modern Use
The name anemone comes from the Sanskrit word anti, which means “he breathes.” Pliny wrote that the anemones would open only at the bidding of the wind.
In the Near East they were a symbol of disease, and it was thought that the flowers sometimes actually carried the disease.
The Egyptians, and later the English, used these flowers as charms against disease and often wore them around their necks and arms.
Literature/ Arts
In Ovid's Metamorphoses (book X), Venus transforms the blood of her dead lover, Adonis, into an Anemone. One implication is that the blood-red petals are symbolic of her lost love because, as the verses conclude, they cling too loosely to the stem and are easily lost in the wind.
In the New Testament, Jesus says that even “Solomon in all his glory is not arrayed “as beautifully as an anemone.” Although the traditional English translation (King James Version) is usually rendered as “lilies of the field”, the original Greek κρινα (krina) is anemone. --Matthew 6:29; Luke 12:27
