Violet
*The pansies are a large group of hybrid plants cultivated as garden flowers. Pansies are derived from Viola species Viola tricolor hybridized with other viola species, and pansy and violet belong to the same genus and family.
Flower Language:
Pansy (Victorian): “to think,” particularly of love.
If a maiden found a honeyflower and a pansy left for her by an admirer, it would mean "I am thinking of our forbidden love" in symbol rather than in writing.
However, it is considered a bad-luck gift to man.
Violet (Victorian): “modesty” hence the term "shrinking violet." However, based on color:
Blue: I'll always be true, faithfulness, watchfulness
White: Let's take a chance
Emblem:
State flower: Rhode Island, Illinois, New Jersey (common blue violet), Wisconsin (wood violet)
City flower: Osaka, Japan (pansy).
Sororities: Kappa Alpha Theta, Delta Delta Delta
Symbol of Free-thought: American Secular Union, Humanism, Freedom From Religion Foundation.
Mythology/ Folklore
The name pansy comes from the French word 'pensee,' which means 'thought,and was so named because the flower resembles a human face-- in August it nods forward as if deep in thought.' French believed that pansies could make your lover think of you.
The three colors of the original pansy-- purple, white and yellow-- were thought to symbolize memories, loving thoughts, and souvenirs-- all things that ease the hearts of separated lovers.
The three petals were thought to be representative of the Christian doctrine of the Trinity, and thus the flower was sometimes called herb trinity.
According to German and Scottish folktales, pansies were called stepmother: the large lower petal is the mother, the the two large petals to either side of her are the well-dressed daughters, and the two small upper petals are poor stepdaughters.
In another German story, the pansy at one time had a wonderfully strong, sweet scent. People would travel from miles around to smell this scent. In doing so, however, they would trample down the grasses surrounding the pansy. Because this ruined the feed for cattle, the pansy prayed to God for help. God gave the plant great beauty but took away the scent.
According to the doctrine of signatures, pansy leaves, which are heart shaped, were used to cure a broken heart.
Pansies were fortune tellers for King Arthur's Knights of the Round table. Plucking a pansy petal, the knights would look for secret signs. If the petal had four lines, this meant hope. If the lines were thick and leaned toward the left, this meant a life of trouble. Lines leaning toward the right signified prosperity until the end. Seven lines meant constancy in love (and if the center streak were the longest, Sunday would be the wedding day). Eight streaks meant fickleness, nine meant a changing of heart, and eleven signified disappointment in love and an early grave.
Flower Language:
Pansy (Victorian): “to think,” particularly of love.
If a maiden found a honeyflower and a pansy left for her by an admirer, it would mean "I am thinking of our forbidden love" in symbol rather than in writing.
However, it is considered a bad-luck gift to man.
Violet (Victorian): “modesty” hence the term "shrinking violet." However, based on color:
Blue: I'll always be true, faithfulness, watchfulness
White: Let's take a chance
Emblem:
State flower: Rhode Island, Illinois, New Jersey (common blue violet), Wisconsin (wood violet)
City flower: Osaka, Japan (pansy).
Sororities: Kappa Alpha Theta, Delta Delta Delta
Symbol of Free-thought: American Secular Union, Humanism, Freedom From Religion Foundation.
Mythology/ Folklore
The name pansy comes from the French word 'pensee,' which means 'thought,and was so named because the flower resembles a human face-- in August it nods forward as if deep in thought.' French believed that pansies could make your lover think of you.
The three colors of the original pansy-- purple, white and yellow-- were thought to symbolize memories, loving thoughts, and souvenirs-- all things that ease the hearts of separated lovers.
The three petals were thought to be representative of the Christian doctrine of the Trinity, and thus the flower was sometimes called herb trinity.
According to German and Scottish folktales, pansies were called stepmother: the large lower petal is the mother, the the two large petals to either side of her are the well-dressed daughters, and the two small upper petals are poor stepdaughters.
In another German story, the pansy at one time had a wonderfully strong, sweet scent. People would travel from miles around to smell this scent. In doing so, however, they would trample down the grasses surrounding the pansy. Because this ruined the feed for cattle, the pansy prayed to God for help. God gave the plant great beauty but took away the scent.
According to the doctrine of signatures, pansy leaves, which are heart shaped, were used to cure a broken heart.
Pansies were fortune tellers for King Arthur's Knights of the Round table. Plucking a pansy petal, the knights would look for secret signs. If the petal had four lines, this meant hope. If the lines were thick and leaned toward the left, this meant a life of trouble. Lines leaning toward the right signified prosperity until the end. Seven lines meant constancy in love (and if the center streak were the longest, Sunday would be the wedding day). Eight streaks meant fickleness, nine meant a changing of heart, and eleven signified disappointment in love and an early grave.
History/ Modern Use
The Celts made a tea from the dried leaves and used it as love potion.
Pansy has dozens of common names, such as Johnny-jump-up, and the faces created by the patterns on the petals give rise to names like monkey faces, peeping Tom, and three faces in a hood.
Its supposed magical powers in the ways of love resulted in names such as cull-me—to-you, tickle-my-fancy, love-in-idleness, kiss-her-in-the-pantry, and heartease.
Nicholas Culpeper, a seventeenth century English writer, said that a syrup made from the flowers was used as a cure for venereal disease.
The Ancient Greeks considered the Violet a symbol of fertility and love, they used it in love potions.
Pliny recommended that a garland of violets be worn above the head to ward off headaches and dizzy spells.
Literature/Arts
In William Shakespeare's play A Midsummer Night's Dream, the juice of a pansy blossom ("before, milk-white, now purple with love's wound, and maidens call it love-in-idleness") is a love potion: "the juice of it, on sleeping eyelids laid, will make a man or woman madly dote (fall in love) upon the next live creature that it sees." (Act II, Scene I)
*Legend says that at one time all pansies were white, and it was not until they were pierced by cupid's arrow that they gained the purple and yellow colors. With the colors, however, came the magic power to be used in love potions.
From time immemorial, violet has been the emblem of constancy.
“Violet is for faithfulness,/ Which in me shall abide, / Hoping likewise that from your heart/ You will not let it hide” -Proverb-
"There's pansies, that's for thoughts", Ophelia in Hamlet (Act IV, Scene V)
In Hamlet, Laertes wishes that violets may spring from the grave of Ophelia: “Lay her in the earth,/ And from her fair and unpolluted flesh/ May violet spring” (v.I)
In 1926, Georgia O'Keeffe created a famous painting of a black pansy called simply, Pansy. She followed with White Pansy in 1927.
D. H. Lawrence's Pansies: Poems by D. H. Lawrence was published in 1929.
Pansy was the name of a beloved Epiphone Elitist Les Paul Custom guitar with an Alpine White finish, played by guitarist Frank Iero (whose nickname, coincidentally, is also Pansy) of the band My Chemical Romance. Pansy was unfortunately broken during a show.
Disney's classical animated adaptation of Alice in Wonderland features a chorus of singing pansies.
The Celts made a tea from the dried leaves and used it as love potion.
Pansy has dozens of common names, such as Johnny-jump-up, and the faces created by the patterns on the petals give rise to names like monkey faces, peeping Tom, and three faces in a hood.
Its supposed magical powers in the ways of love resulted in names such as cull-me—to-you, tickle-my-fancy, love-in-idleness, kiss-her-in-the-pantry, and heartease.
Nicholas Culpeper, a seventeenth century English writer, said that a syrup made from the flowers was used as a cure for venereal disease.
The Ancient Greeks considered the Violet a symbol of fertility and love, they used it in love potions.
Pliny recommended that a garland of violets be worn above the head to ward off headaches and dizzy spells.
Literature/Arts
In William Shakespeare's play A Midsummer Night's Dream, the juice of a pansy blossom ("before, milk-white, now purple with love's wound, and maidens call it love-in-idleness") is a love potion: "the juice of it, on sleeping eyelids laid, will make a man or woman madly dote (fall in love) upon the next live creature that it sees." (Act II, Scene I)
*Legend says that at one time all pansies were white, and it was not until they were pierced by cupid's arrow that they gained the purple and yellow colors. With the colors, however, came the magic power to be used in love potions.
From time immemorial, violet has been the emblem of constancy.
“Violet is for faithfulness,/ Which in me shall abide, / Hoping likewise that from your heart/ You will not let it hide” -Proverb-
"There's pansies, that's for thoughts", Ophelia in Hamlet (Act IV, Scene V)
In Hamlet, Laertes wishes that violets may spring from the grave of Ophelia: “Lay her in the earth,/ And from her fair and unpolluted flesh/ May violet spring” (v.I)
In 1926, Georgia O'Keeffe created a famous painting of a black pansy called simply, Pansy. She followed with White Pansy in 1927.
D. H. Lawrence's Pansies: Poems by D. H. Lawrence was published in 1929.
Pansy was the name of a beloved Epiphone Elitist Les Paul Custom guitar with an Alpine White finish, played by guitarist Frank Iero (whose nickname, coincidentally, is also Pansy) of the band My Chemical Romance. Pansy was unfortunately broken during a show.
Disney's classical animated adaptation of Alice in Wonderland features a chorus of singing pansies.
