Myrtle is a shrub of the Mediterranean scrub with small glossy leaves, white flowers crowned by a cloud of stamens, and dark berries. Its scent is intense yet delicate. For the ancients it was the plant of love and beauty, and around it a surprisingly rich symbolism grew up, stretching from Greek mythology to the weddings of our own day.
The plant of Venus
Myrtle was sacred to Aphrodite, whom the Romans identified with Venus. Ovid, in the Fasti, tells how the goddess, surprised by some satyrs while drying her hair after bathing, hid behind a myrtle bush. That is why, the poet explains, the plant was dear to her, and at her festivals women bathed crowned with myrtle.
The bond between myrtle and the goddess of love rests on several elements:
- it is a plant of the shoreline, like Aphrodite born from the sea foam;
- it is evergreen and fragrant, an image of beauty that does not fade;
- its white flowers, full of stamens, evoke a generous blossoming.
Myrtle in Rome
Pliny the Elder reports a tale from Rome's origins: when the Romans and Sabines, after the war that followed the rape of the Sabine women, decided to make peace, they purified themselves with myrtle branches at the spot where the shrine of Venus Cloacina later stood. Myrtle, in this version, is the plant of reconciliation: the war ends with a gesture of purification entrusted to the plant of love.
The crown of the ovation
Myrtle also had a precise role in military ceremonies. Alongside the triumph, with its laurel crown, there was a lesser honour, the ovation, granted for less important victories or those won without great bloodshed. The general celebrating an ovation entered the city on foot or on horseback, not in the chariot, and wore a crown of myrtle.
The distinction is telling: laurel marked full victory, myrtle a milder, almost peaceful one. The plant of Venus crowned success that had not required the full violence of war.
The initiates of Eleusis
In the Greek world myrtle also appeared in worship. Initiates of the Eleusinian Mysteries, devoted to Demeter and Persephone, wore myrtle crowns during the processions. In Athens, too, magistrates wore crowns of this plant while performing certain functions.
The passage from the cult of Aphrodite to the Mysteries of Eleusis shows an extension of the symbol: myrtle signifies not only human love but also the purity required of those who approach the sacred.
One of the four species
In the Jewish tradition myrtle, hadas in Hebrew, is one of the four species waved during the festival of Sukkot, together with the palm branch, the willow and the citron. The prophet Isaiah, describing the rebirth of the land, announces that instead of the nettle the myrtle shall grow. The plant thus becomes an image of a renewed world.
Rabbinic tradition has offered various readings of the four species; a very well-known one links them to different kinds of people, and myrtle, which has scent but no fruit, would represent those who perform good deeds.
The bride's plant
Its bond with love made myrtle, in many regions of Europe, the plant of weddings. Crowns and sprigs of myrtle adorned brides, especially in central and northern Europe. In the British royal family there is a well-known custom of including in the bridal bouquet a sprig from a myrtle plant associated with Queen Victoria.
Studio Esoterico Cornelio reads myrtle as a symbol of a peaceful love: not the passion that overwhelms, but the union that reconciles, purifies and lasts.
| Context | Use of myrtle | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| Myth of Venus | Bush hiding the goddess | Modesty and beauty |
| Archaic Rome | Purification of Romans and Sabines | Reconciliation |
| Ovation | General's crown | Mild victory |
| Eleusis | Initiates' crown | Purity before the sacred |
| Sukkot | One of the four species | Renewal, good deeds |
| Weddings | Crown and bouquet | Love that lasts |
In short
- Myrtle was sacred to Aphrodite and Venus, who according to Ovid hid behind it.
- In Rome it was the plant of reconciliation between Romans and Sabines.
- The myrtle crown distinguished the ovation from the laurel-crowned triumph.
- It was worn by the initiates of Eleusis and is one of the four species of Sukkot.
- In European weddings it symbolises a peaceful and lasting love.
